Meet XGames Gold Medalist - Mark McMorris

Mark McMorris may only be 19 years old, but that has not stopped him from becoming one of the biggest names in Snowboarding in a very short time. The Red Bull athlete won the Slopestyle Gold at this year's Winter XGames in amazing style and also just got pipped for the Gold in the Big Air, putting him on top of the leader board in my books!
Born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, McMorris reflects on how his unique upbringing paved the way to a successful career as a professional snowboarder.

Winter XGames 2013 Aspen, Starts Today

Its that time already folks! Aspen is full to the hilt with the best winter X athletes on the planet ready to kick it up and take down the Winter XGames Gold. Here in SA we can watch on ESPN, so make sure you don't miss out starting tonight at 22:00.

Big calls for this year are seeing a Triple Cork in the snowboard comps and a double backflip in the Snowmobile jumps! I am frothing!

Schedule:

Backside 1440 Triple Cork with Maxence Parrot

There are tricks and then there are tricks. Maxence lands his first ever Triple Cork and joins a pretty elite crew of guys...

Check The Course with Maxence Parrot - Backside 1440 Triple Cork at O'Neill Evolution 2013 from WorldSnowboardTour on Vimeo.

29 Epic 2012 Snowboard Fails

Tis the season to be Boarding, tralala la ouch! We all love boarding, but to stick the best lines and tricks you got to pay the price! Here are 29 big wipes...

DC Presents Captain Kai's Movie Night - Surf and Snowboard

Its time for another Movie Night in Cape Town with DC Shoes this time around! Pull into Aces n Spades on Thursday, 29 November 2012 and join me for some fun short films and trailers.

Facebook Event Page HERE

The surfing short, Free for All, with surfers Craig Anderson, Mitch Coleborn Dillon Perillo and Ry Craike. This short film was shot over a one week period in Indonesia during this year's team trip.

The main feature is DC's all new Snowboarding Film, Must be Nice, with a stellar cast. Must Be Nice features footage of the guys from the past year shredding around the world. A true team movie, this film is what snowboarding is to DC.
Featuring: Devun Walsh, Torstein Horgmo, Iikka Backstrom, Lauri Heiskari, Aaron Biittner, Ryan Tiene and Anto Chamberland.

Best Product Video ever... The new GoPro Hero3 Black Edition

I have been patiently waiting to see what the new Gopro was going to be like. The launch video is pretty amazing, as are the functions and stats for the new cameras. You can check those out at GoPro.
In the meantime watch the Hero3 launch video and be amazed... (Oh and I recommend watching in HD and full screen.)

Snow Dreams in Africa

The snow season in South Africa has been a good one this year. The Afriski park has never looked better and the level of riding has been blowing up accordingly. After the show at Quiksnow, the park crew and some mates got to ride some weekends and Lebo was there to capture and edit the action for us. I really like this edit!

snow dreams from lebogang rasethaba on Vimeo.

Quiksnow 2012 Final Day Action - Afriski Lesotho

JoJo Krivec on his way to Quiksnow Boss! (Photo: Quiksilver/Patto)

Another awesome day of snowboarding went down at Quiksnow 2012. The Afriski Park was the perfect playground for the Pro Mens Final. Defending Champion, JoJo Krivec was in amazing form, considering he has just come off 5 months of injury, to win the competition. Marcin Jekot fought off the youngsters to once again be the SA Slopestyle Champion. His sister, Marta, once again won the ladies and new kid on the block, Jan Linze Veenstra took down the Freeski title. Enjoy the video and get to Afriski!

Results Quiksnow 2012 
Snowboarding Amateurs
1) Davo Philips 2) Michael Rassmann 3) Alessio Lacovig
Snowboarding Women
1) Marta Jekot 2) Brigitte Heeb 3) Vanessa Jackson
Freeski Men
1) Jan Linze Veenstra 2) James Barret 3) Dale Andrews
Snowboarding Pro Men
1) JoJo Krivec (Slovenia) 2) Marcin Jekot (Gold SA) 3) Luke Dutton (Silver SA)
4) Dean van Greunen (Bronze SA)

Quiksnow 2012 Day 1 Highlights

Ryde Jones Backflip (Photo: Quiksilver/Patto)

Check out all the action from the Park at 3600m above Sea Level. Welcome to Afriski and the 2012 Quiksnow SA Snowboarding Champs. Day 1 saw some great riding in the newly extended Park. The foreign contingent were raving about the condition of the Park, so check out all the action from Day 1...

Quiksnow Preview 2012

That's right kiddies, the most mayhem filled weekend of the year is upon us! Snow, altitude sickness, boarding, airs, rails, booze and crazy antics are on the way for Quiksnow 2012. Since 2005 this event has ruled the roost as the most fun Action Sports event of the year. judging by the pictures i have been seeing of the Park at Afriski, this is going to be a stellar year, with all of the top SA riders attending, some crazy new junior riders and of course the usual mix of international chargers that make the trip out to the Southern Tip of Africa. I will be there to bring you all the mayhem first hand!

In the meantime enjoy the teaser for this year, which I just made!

Paying the Price - Cooking with Gas Slam Section

Check out some horrendous wipeouts from the new Snowboard film, Cooking with Gas. These guys deserve a medal! The slam in the concrete skate park really made my toes curl in pity...

Red Bull Supernatural - The full TV Special

It's been a few months now since the Red Bull Supernatural event and I have been patiently waiting for this moment - the full Tv show from the States is now online for you to watch! The most unique and ground breaking Snowboarding event of all time, Supernatural was the brain child of backcountry and Big Air king, Travis Rice. Sit down, grab some Popcorn and prepare to have your mind blown...

The Friday Mix - Surfing in Rio, Jeremy Jones Snowboard, Road to XFighters & Freeride MTB

Julian Wilson caning Rio (Photo: ASP)

Welcome to the Friday Mix where I give you the pick of the week's action sports video online. This week we look at "Life Behind Bars" the new movie on the way from Red Bull and Freeride Mountain Bike star, Brandon Semenuk. Then we head down to Rio, for Day 1 of the Billabong Pro surf event. Next up, the Road to Xfighters with Ronnie Renner and the gnarliest Dunes this side of the Mississippi. Last but not least, we join Jeremy Jones behind the scenes of his new snowboard film, "Further", as he takes back country snowboarding to the next level. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

Fore more of the Friday Mix, check out the archive...

Isenseven "Fools Gold" - Bring on the Winter & Boarding!

The crew at Isenseven are back with a new Film, "Fools Gold". These guys have been responsible for some of my favorite snowboard films through the years and judging by the trailer here, "Fools Gold" is going to be great! With the snow season fast approaching in South Africa, this will be a great video to get your amp on for a trip to Afriski and Lesotho!



Fool's Gold. Yup, that's the name of our 2012 feature length blockbuster film.
A few of our boys have left us, a few guys re-joined and a few new faces will appear this year. But never the less, it's a great mix of the bestest team ever and we hope you love each rider the way we do. Although, they sometimes can be annoying.
Watch our crew hit jumps, hit rails, hit faces and hit hits all over the world, captured on our crispy HD cameras for your viewing pleasure (or pain...)

Fool's Gold will be available September 2012 at your local boardshop and iTunes worldwide. Boom!

ISENSEVEN presents "FOOL'S GOLD"
A film by Alex Schiller, Tom Elliott and Vincent Urban

Edit: Vincent Urban
Motion Graphics: Alex Schiller

Principal Cinematography: Tom Elliott, Alex Schiller, Maxi Seefried

Additional Footage: Julian Pintarelli, Martin Venier, Dominik Fellmann, Karsten Boysen, Elmar Bossard, Priit Paluma, Michel Schmidhalter

Production Assistant: Flo Schöftenhuber

MUSIC:
Wildlife
"Stand In The Water"
From the album "Strike Hard, Young Diamond"
wildlifemusic.ca/
Get their album on iTunes here:
itunes.apple.com/ca/album/strike-hard-young-diamond/id405923301

Featuring Alex Tank, Benny Urban, Tobi Strauss, Fips Strauss, Peter König, Tom Klocker, Luka Jeromel, Marco Smolla, Colin Frei, David Bertschinger Karg, Kevin Bäckström, Ludwig Lejkner, Wojtek Pawlusiak, Dani Rajcsanyi, Christophe Schmidt and some other friendly faces.

This film is supported by Pleasure Snowboard Magazin, Head Snowboards, Burton, Forum, Nitro, Nike, Oakley, Airblaster, Zimtstern, Ride, Vans, Planet-Sports.com, DC, Volcom, Bataleon and Snowstyle.

www.isenseven.tv

Southern Tip Snowboarding - Winter is almost here...

Yes happy snow fans of the deep south of Africa, summer draws to a close and the winter approaches. Judging by the last few winters and the insanely hot summer, I am calling a winter of dumps and Pow! So to get you into the mood, here is a great little edit from last year's Quiksnow SA Champs, by our man, Lebo. I cannot recommend enough, how good Afriski has become and what a great time can be had at the Quiksnow weekend. Book soon, places are minimal.

Red Bull Supernatural - Full Web Video

Travis Rice went big to win his own Competition.

The coolest event in Snowboarding finally made it onto American Television over the weekend and we can only hope, that somehow the show makes it to SA Screens. In the meantime here is the full web video to salivate over. Supernatural is the brain child of Red Bull and Travis Rice and takes the free riding from their films, such "the Art of Flight" into a terrain area for competition. Enjoy the video...

 

The Friday Mix - RIP Michael Peterson, Perfect Powder Run & Monster Girls at the F1

MP the legend in action!

The surfing world lost one of it's biggest stars this week, with the death of Michael Peterson. He was a true originator in the first days of professional surfing, an absolute hooligan and an eccentric visionary in the water. No one understood him, but everyone loved to watch him surf.

Also in the mix today, a picture perfect on board run in Jackson Hole. With the Northern Winter Season coming to an end, we can only hope this winter in SA has some proper dumps so we can go pow pow riding in Lesotho. Then to end off, check out the life of the Monster Energy Girls at the first F1 of the season. They have it so rough, haha, not...

 

 

 

XGames Real Snow 2012 - Mental Snowboarding

Every winter the good people at X Games run the "Real Snow" Snowboarding competition. Some of the world's best Free riders submit their video sections for the competition and we mere mortals get to vote for the best. The winner takes all and the X games Gold. This is some of the most gnarly urban snowboarding I have seen in a long time!



Skull Candy team rider, Dan Brisse, took the Gold. Check out his section...

The Best of Winter X Games 2012

WOW - that's my first response at this year's Winter X Games. There were so many firsts from Shaun White's perfect 100 score in the Men's Superpipe leading to his 5 Peat, also a first. Then there was the first ever Snowmobile Frontflip for Gold and let's not forget that horrible double backflip attempt that ended in tragedy. Here is the "Best of' video for 2012...



All of these amazing rides, runs and wins were not enough to take my number 1 highlight, which in 2012 went to one man, Mark McMorris. He became the first person to win double Gold at Winter X, by taking out both the Slopestyle and Big Air events. First up was the Big Air where he pulled the first ever Triple Cork in competition...



After the highs of this win, Mark decided it was not enough and he had to ride one of the biggest and cleanest Slopestyle runs of all time. Check out the incredible scale of the giant rail transfer, followed by huge airs over the kickers. All of this added up to the Gold for Mark...



An amazing event and I cannot wait for the Summer Games of 2012!

Red Bull Supernatural - Travis Rice changes Snowboarding forever...

Travis Rice has made a career out of pushing the limits of Snowboarding. (Photo: Red Bull)

No snowboarding event has made me this excited ever! My only dissapointment is that we will not be getting the live broadcast here in South Africa. (You Seppos are a lucky bunch!) Travis Rice, tired of the politics and slow progression of modern competitive snowboarding, has created a giant backcountry snow park, which Red Bull have invited the World's best to come compete on. It is going to be outrageous...

Snowboarding legend Travis Rice spent most of his past winters traveling around the globe in the search of the best natural features to perform his breathtaking snowboarding stunts, as one can witness in his latest movie The Art of Flight. For Red Bull Supernatural it was time to switch the strategy and all the preparation and work for this unique snowboarding competition was done during the summer time. The outcome is an ultimate backcountry snowboarding course with more than 100 man-made features located at the Baldface Lodge, Nelson, BC. From February 3-8, 18 of the world’s best snowboarders will be able to ride this dream come true during Red Bull Supernatural…

Find out more at www.redbull.com