Whistler is getting dumped on, we had about 60cm in the last few days and a bunch more in the forecast for the next few days. I just picked up a old snowmobile so will be hitting the backcountry pretty hard in the near future. Had my first day out on the new sled yesterday.

Tomorrow I’m off to Korea for 2 weeks to coach a freestyle camp. Check out www.SnowboardAddiction.com to see some of the freestyle techniques we’ll be using. I’ve never been to Asia before so it should be a rad experience. I’ll let you know how it goes.

It’s time to leave Japan and the snow is amazing . . . typical. Our last night ride sesh was amazing and I was stoked to get one last hit of good pow before we bailed. It had been dumping for two days so it was on. Mark, Rob, Ferret, Ben, Animal and I woke up pumped to go ride. We got ready in pretty good time, loaded the boards, cleared the windscreen and we’re off….well not at all…the dunga battery had gone flat after 5 mins of running the fan and windscreen wipers! No biggie…Ben and Mark make the 5 minute hike to the gas station to ask for jumper leads. Haha that would be simple if you spoke Japanese.

New Zealand’s top Freeskier Jossi Wells has reinforced his status as one of the world’s top freeskiers, taking bronze in slopestyle at the last stop of the U.S. Winter Dew Tour in Tahoe, California.

Wells, 18, Wanaka, went into the slopestyle event to win and came out with what was described as the best competition run in his career. Unfortunately Wells was edged into third position with higher scoring runs from winner Tom Wallisch, USA, and silver medallist Alex Godbout, Canada.

Scoring 90.50 out of a possible 100, Wells’ progressive run featured a sequence of tricks off urban rails and enormous jumps including a switch double cork 1080 nose mute, an exceptionally technical trick, where the skier takes off backwards, spinning 3 rotations whilst dropping the shoulder so the feet are higher. After 1.5 rotations the skier drops the shoulder again to gain further momentum to finish the spin. simultaneously, the skier grabs the tip of the left ski with the right hand.

“I was really happy with my performance,” said Wells. “It was the first double cork I have attempted in competition.”

Above: Jossi Wells – Image www.allsports.com

Wells’ younger brother Byron, 16, Wanaka, and teammate Lyndon Sheehan, 19, Wanaka, only just missed out on a spot in the halfpipe finals, securing 14th and 15th respectively in the prelims.

Although pulling out of the second tour stop due to injury, Wells finished the tour overall with a joint third position on the final score ladder for the Dew Tour Cup.

The Winter Dew Tour is in its inaugural season after three successful years as a summer-only tour. The winter tour is regarded as perhaps the most competitive series in winter action sports.

Similar to the Dew Tour’s summer competition structure, the Winter Dew Tour is based on a cumulative points system as the top snow athletes battle it out for a piece of the $1.5 million prize purse and the chance to take home the Dew Cup at the conclusion of the season in February.

The four-day competition is the last of three stops of the Winter Dew Tour that features men’s and women’s freeskiing and snowboarding disciplines.

All athletes are members of the New Zealand Freeski Association National Team and train and compete with the New Zealand Winter Performance Programme.

Snow Sports New Zealand (SSNZ) is the official governing body and National sports organisation representing all snow sports in New Zealand. The Freeski Association of New Zealand is a member of SSNZ.

U.S. Winter Dew Tour

The Winter Dew Tour consists of three major, multi-sport events spanning across the country, with a cumulative points system, and a $1.5 million competitive purse. Each event features men and women’s snowboard (superpipe and slopestyle), and men’s freeskiing (superpipe and slopestyle). At season’s end, the overall point’s leaders in the six disciplines are crowned year-end champions and awarded the prestigious Dew Cup. As part of an Alli property, key lifestyle elements compliment the competitions at each Tour event including the Festival village, specialty competitions, and live cutting edge music. The Winter Dew Tour is broadcast live on NBC Sports with additional competition and lifestyle broadcasts on MTV, MTV2 and USA. The Winter Dew Tour is also distributed on Fuel TV, Universal HD, Rush HD, and internationally on Eurosport, Fox Australia, Extreme Channel and Allarco superchannel. Winter Dew Tour partners include Mountain Dew (tour title sponsor); Toyota (event title sponsor). Associate partners include Ball Park, Nike 6.0, PlayStation®, Wendy’s, and Verizon Wireless. More information can be found at www.allisports.com.

Hey here are the pics from the morning of my wedding day out at Titahi Bay . . .

Kirk

Finally home after an awesome 2 and a half week honeymoon in Thailand. We traveled around the small islands of Koh Sumui and Koh Toa and finished the trip off in Bangkok doing a bit of shopping – crazy markets!

Beautiful places, such cool people, hot weather and crystal clear water perfect for snorkelling. At one point of the trip we looked at a map to see where we wanted to go next and I realised just how close we were to perfect waves – all of Indonesia’s islands! Was so tempting to go but that wasn’t the point of the trip haha. Will have to plan another trip to those islands!

Arrived back yesterday arvo and was in the surf within the hour. Tbay was pretty fun with a small 2-3ft swell and strong onshore winds – just how I like it!

I’ve got some photos of me surfing at Lyall Bay the morning of the wedding, small but super fun so I’ll post them soon! Such a good way to relax on your wedding day, I definitely recommend it.

Kirk

Hi guys,

Here is an article from Craig Sisterson published in Wild Tomato magazine. I will also be getting a big article in Dash, which is a Women’s Health and Fitness magazine which comes out in 2 weeks time.

Looking forward to seeing the next article, I’ll let you know when it’s out!

Ange

Hey every one! Just got back from the Rip Curl Pro which was held in Raglan in the weekend ended up getting 9th in the under 20s and to the 4th round in the Open and ended up getting 5th in the expression which I was stoked with! There were some fun waves on the beach the night before a good little ‘A frame’ bank with plenty of throwaway sections!

The next day the comp started which was really hard conditions; howling North West and pouring down with rain the surf was about two foot on the point. They ended up calling the comp off early on Friday so it was an early start on Saturday. There were good waves three to four foot a bit onshore but really smashable! Then the Sunday which was just a bit smaller but really fun!

So a good weekend plenty of surfing now just got to get some swell on the East Coast!!

Braedon!

The final round of the RaboPlus MTB Cups presented by Nature Valley was held at Strachan Peak in Blenheim today with New Zealander and world ranked #5 Justin Leov (Christchurch) taking out the Elite Mens win. In second was last rounds winner Danny Hart (UK), while Sam Blenkinsop (Wanganui) placed third. Leov said ‘my run didn’t feel like a normal race run, I felt really unfit but when I got to the bottom my time was pretty good and I ended up winning’.

In the Elite Women category, two time World Downhill Champion Sabrina Jonnier (France) won with local rider Harriet Harper taking second. Harper enjoyed the weekend of racing and was happy to host the large number of downhill racers on her home track. Harper said ‘it’s great to see everyone enjoying the track, there aren’t many of us who ride in Blenheim so it’s awesome to have lots of people to ride with on home ground’. Harriet Ruecknagel (Germany) placed third.

Race organiser Sam Reed was pleased with the number of riders and especially thankful the weather cleared up after extremely high rainfall the day before practise saying ‘the track was just a mud pit so we are lucky the sun came out or it could have been very messy, everyone was stoked with the track in the end’.

This was the final race in the series of three comprising the South Island Downhill Cup, and the last event of the NZ MTB Cup. Riders will now head to Nelson for the National Mountain Bike Championships from February 26 to March 1 which includes Downhill and Cross Country racing as well as Dual Slalom, Hillclimb, Short Track Cross Country and Fourcross events.

Results – South Island Downhill Cup Round 3 – Blenheim

Elite Men
1 Justin Leov, Christchurch, 3:01.88; 2 Danny Hart, UK, 3:03.18; 3 Sam Blenkinsop, Wanganui.

Elite Women
1 Sabrina Jonnier, France, 3:34.37; 2 Harriet Harper, Blenheim, 3:45.02; 3 Harriet Ruecknagel, Germany, 3:48.58.