El Tony Crew Clash Vol. II: Throwdown in Adelboden-Lenk

Unlike last year’s inaugural Crew Clash, which served up a week full of sun in Davos, this year’s forecast was more wintry, with healthy dumps of snow both before and during the event. Although the new snowfall made work hard for the park shapers, it also allowed the competing teams to diversify their edits with powder riding and even some street shots.

El Tony mixed things up this year, inviting a new group of captains to field teams for the video contest. Among them: Rosina Friedel, the mastermind behind the Bucket Clips project; style god Isaac “EZ Panda” Simhon; and French big air powerhouse Mat Roche, fresh off an Olympic finals appearance.

Of course, it’s no easy feat to film and edit a 5-minute video in just four days. The teams had their work cut out for them. Rosina’s team lost its filmer at the last minute, subbed in Dane Kirk to fill the spot, and ended up simply filming each other. EZ Panda got sick and wasn’t able to ride for much of the event, and Mat Roche was nursing a concussion and taking it easy. Even so, their teammates stepped up to help carry the workload, and each team brought a healthy serving of shred in their final video.

When the dust settled, the wildcard team around Penken Park shaper Gustaf Lundstrom picked up the Public’s Favorite award, while snowboarders Lena Jo Müller and Tom Venderotte nabbed the honors for male and female MVP.

With a fun intro concept, a playful pow segment, solid street shots and some serious hammers in the park, the overall win—and the 10,000-franc grand prize—went to Matt Roche and his team of Paul Vieuxtemps, Matteo Socquet, Elsa Sjöstedt, Tom Venderotte and filmer Tristan Steen.

There’s still one more prize to be given out—the Online Favorite, with a voting page up and running now on the El Tony website. Head on over to cast a vote for your favorite team and help them take a shot at the last 1,500 francs up for grabs.

Thanks to all the riders for throwing down hard all week and the filmers for blessing us with these edits, and to El Tony for making such a cool concept come to life! Skiing needs more of this.