Watch the unbelievable world record hip airs from Suzuki Nine Knights

David Wise – World Record Hip Air (Ski) – 14.2 meters

 

Christian Haller – World Record Hip Air (Snowboard) – 11.3 meters

 

Once you’ve absorbed the insanity of these videos, check out the most ridiculous photos from the world-record hip session.

Freeride World Tour: Men’s Verbier event cancelled

The Freeride World Tour finals in Verbier, Switzerland at the Xtreme Verbier was supposed to be a showdown between the two top-ranked skiers on the tour: Loic Collomb-Patton, 2014 tour champion and the current leader in the 2016 rankings, and Logan Pehota, the tour rookie with a famous father (skiing legend Eric Pehota) who’s been absolutely tearing up the FWT scene this year.

3223m Bec des Rosses – as gnarly a freeride competition venue as you’ll find anywhere.

But alas, the weather simply wasn’t having it. After a lingering cloud over the Bec des Rosses venue and rising winds forced the postponement of the men’s ski event yesterday (the snowboarders and women skiers were able to complete their contests as planned), today, Sunday April 3, was the guys’ last chance to get in their final FWT run of the season.

But the forecasted improving conditions never appeared: persistent clouds and wind, coupled with the venue’s already suboptimal hardpack snow, created a toxic mix of conditions that made skiing the extremely technical, 600-meter face too risky for the competitors. At 12:00pm the decision was made to cancel the contest for good, since the weather for the coming week isn’t looking any better.

On Saturday the competitors clustered around FWT head honcho Nicolas Hale-Woods as they debated whether or not to run the contest.

The cancellation of the Verbier event means that the men’s overall standings will remain as they were before: Loic Collomb-Patton will take home his second overall Freeride World Tour title, followed by Pehota in second place and Fabio Studer in third.

We’ll have a full recap of the Verbier stop and an overview of the 2016 FWT contest season coming later this week; until then, congratulations to the 2016 overall tour champions: Collomb-Patton and Eva Walkner! (You can find a quick recap of yesterday’s women’s event here.)

Chainsaw in one hand, cup of red wine in the other – is there any better way to celebrate victory?

Jackie Paaso wins FWT Verbier; Eva Walkner is 2016 Overall Champion

Taking advantage of a sliver of sunlight during yesterday’s blustery, overcast conditions in Verbier, American  veteran Jackie Paaso skied to victory on the formidable Bec des Rosses face ahead of Eva Walkner and Nadine Wallner of Austria during the final 2016 Freeride World Tour stop: the Xtreme Verbier.

Jackie Paaso on her way to her first Xtreme Verbier win. Photo: Jeremy Bernard/Freeride World Tour

Xtreme Verbier women’s ski Podium: (1) Jaclyn Paaso (2) Eva Walkner (3) Nadine Wallner. Photo: Thomas Bekker/Freeride World Tour

In the overall FWT rankings, Walker’s second-place finish in Verbier was enough to cement her as the 2016 Overall FWT Champion in the women’s ski category, with Jackie Paaso taking second and Italian rookie Arianna Tricomi slipped into third, narrowly edging Wallner off the overall podium.

Eva Walkner skied to a second-place finish in Verbier while clinching the overall 2016 FWT title. Photo: Jeremy Bernard/Freeride World Tour

The 2016 Freeride World Tour women’s overall podium: (1) Eva Walkner (2) Jaclyn Paaso (3) Arianna Tricomi. Photo: Thomas Bekker/Freeride World Tour

After the snowboard and ski women and the snowboard men had their turn on the Bec des Rosses, a long delay set in as the ski men waited for visibility to improve. After a delay of several hours, the decision was made to postpone the men’s final until today, when better conditions are anticipated. The men’s final is currently scheduled to start at 9:15AM CET – check out the livestream over at freerideworldtour.com.

Andri Ragettli Conquers the Grandvalira Total Fight

The powerful Swiss team was at a high level and the youngest of them all, Andri Ragettli (17 years old) took the victory ahead of Sweden’s Jesper Tjäder and Swiss Fabian Bösch.

Press release

After the qualifying session on Friday, Jesper Tjader (group 1) and James Woods (group 2) was postulated as favourites for overall victory with Fabian Bosch, who recently won the X-Games in Aspen in Big Air. On the other hand, the Norwegian Oystein Braaten (winner Grandvalira Total Fight 2015) was injured in the knee in Friday’s free practice and commented: “It was a shame as I like a lot this competition. I confirm that I will come in the next edition.”

In the Final, each of the 12 riders had two opportunities to try to reach the Super Final, reserved for the 4 best freeskiers. After scoring judges, they were elected Swiss Fabian Bosch and Andri Ragettli, English James Woods and Swede Jesper Tjader.

It came the moment of truth and each of the 4 riders of the Super Final have three attempts to win in the twelfth edition of the Grandvalira Total Fight in freeski. In the first round, Andri Ragettli and Jesper Tjader mark the rhythm and would get their best score: Swiss, with a round consists of a nose butter 4, sw F6 cork, sw 2 rodeo 4, sw left D12 mute, right D10 tail, left D10 safety and Swedish with a round with a transfer BS soap 2F, rodeo 4, sw2 pretzel 6, sw left D9 D japan, right D12 mute, sw backflip hand.

In the second round of the Super Final, the Swiss Fabian Bosch would make his best performance after completing a 2/2, sw underflip 4 japan, wall rodeo 6 boro, right D12 tail, sw left D9 japan, left D10 safety. Meanwhile, the English James Woods get personal best score in the third and final round, after realize a sw2 pretzel 2, sw pretzel 4, sw 2/4, sw left D9 safety, right D12 tail, sw 7 tail tap.

After this, Andri Ragettli sentenced the Super Final. The podium would complete this order, Jesper Tjader and Fabian Bosch.

After victory, Ragettli commented: “I’m super happy and exultant with my round today, also delighted that my team mate Fabian accompany me on the podium. I want to stand out that the course was perfect and I had so much fun.”

Second classified of the day, Sweden Jesper Tjader, notes that “I feel good after getting the second place, last year I took the third step of the podium so I have improved my final classification. I am very satisfied with how it has turned out the second round and that allowed me to achieve this result.”

The third step of the podium was completed by Fabian Bosch, the Swiss add: “I loved this competition in Grandvalira. Obviously, the third position is not desired but I’m glad to get the podium. I would’ve had a good time.”

Christof Schenk Wins Suzuki Nine Knights Perfect Hip

The Mission of Suzuki Nine Knights is different in a lot of aspects but the contest day is always providing a great show to the public, full of applause and beers.

The contest day officially starts when Nico Zacek the event owner switches to his second job: speaker. Together with Martin Misof, they get the public hyped for the following show.

Before lunch, Jules Bonnaire takes the virginity of the biggest transfer of the feature. He jumps from the left take off to the real landing of the hip and performs a huge rodeo 10 blunt. A few minutes after he unfortunately crashes and gets his third concussion in a month. Luckily he is fine and will be back on skis soon.

#wtf @julobonnaire @nineknights @watles.mountainfun

Une vidéo publiée par downdays freeski (@downdays_eu) le 2 Avril 2016 à 2h59 PDT

After lunch, Joffrey Pollet-Villard, makes the crowd scream with massive 360s and the judges smile with switch 5 blunts. Felix Usterud goes higher and higher on his dub flat 7 bow and arrow. But the guy who goes the biggest and takes all the prizes today is the “almost” local and crazy Italian, Christof Schenk with Dub cork 10s from the second to right take off, a TRIPLE backflip and a dub misty 10 safety from the right transfer kicker to the hip landing.

Well, way more happened this week but let’s talk later, now it’s time to prepare ourselves for the awesome gala tonight, which sums up this wonderful event perfectly every year.

Don’t believe any of the photos from Suzuki Nine Knights — They’re all Photoshopped

Text: Ethan Stone
Photoshop : David Malacrida

BTW – For the people who didn’t get it, it’s a joke.

The 2016 Suzuki Nine Knights Mission: The Perfect Hip kicked off yesterday in the tiny Italian ski resort of Watles in the beautiful valley called Vinschgau, and you should probably prepare yourself for the flood of breathtaking photos and videos that will start pouring out of this event any minute now.

In fact, some photos from yesterday’s “warm-up session” are already online, but we have to advise caution, because these photos are, quite obviously, all completely Photoshopped.

There is absolutely no way that on the very first day of the event, that Joffrey Pollet-Villard boosted well over the ten-meter mark on the hip; that Christof Schenk double-backflipped the gap jump to the back of the hip; or that Alex Ferreira did a double flatspin on the transfer jump to the hip landing.

“I wasn’t even on the mountain today,” said Joffrey. “But those photographers did a really great job of ‘shopping me into the photos of the hip.”

Suzuki Nine Knights continues today and the keyboard jockeys are already hard at work Photoshopping even more incredible action photos for you to disbelieve. “My next plan is to Photoshop Joffrey tail-tapping the International Space Station,” said photographer David Malacrida. “It’s gonna be so sick.”

Fabian Bosch, X Games winner confirms presence at Grandvalira Total Fight

Each year the Grandvalira Total Fight in Andorra makes firm steps to remain a world leader in freeskiing scene. In its twelfth edition, within calendar of the AFP World Tour circuit, will take place from March 31 to April 2.

The Grandvalira Total Fight is within the Gold category, at the same level like European Freeski Open in Switzerland or US Freeskiing Open.

The best world riders confirms presence in Grandvalira (Andorra) like Fabian Bosch, X-Games winner in Aspen, Oystein Braaten (Grandvalira Total Fight 2015 winner), Jesper Tjäder, Nick Goepper, Jonas Hunziker, Luca Schuler, Matt Walker or Noah Morrisson. In game, 20.000 dollars to split staggered top 6 classified.

This year, the Slopestyle circuit in Grandvalira is new with 6 hits: set rails to Transfer, rail up stairs Gap, combo Wallride Rail flat Gap, kicker 20 meters, kicker 18 meters and knucle Jump with double Canon Box.

Jib Action & Progression by the Girls at Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis

However, in order to support all the up-and-coming female riders, the Girls Shred Session on the 12th of March gathered about 15 motivated girls to practice their skills at the Jib and Progression Circus. All participating freeskiers received helpful tips by Birgit Rofner during a relaxed session and improved their skills.

 

The Queens in the Mountains
Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis offers the perfect conditions for the girls – a creative setup and plenty of time to work on new tricks. At the annual “Nine Queens” in March, the world’s leading female freeskiers shred an incredible and massive castle of snow. The participants of the Girls Shred Session even got an exclusive preview of this castle and paid the Freestyle Circus Serfaus a visit accompanied by the shred queen Birgit Rofner.

Pushing Your Skills, that’s the Motto
For the third year now, Birgit is proving her skills at the “Nine Queens“ and she’s always up for a cool park session among girls. That’s why the 21-year-old is the perfect choice when it comes to supporting the participants of the Girls Shred Session. No matter if it were the first slides on the butter box or the proper way to jump on the rail, Birgit had the perfect tips for everyone and took the girls’ skills to the next level. Their progress wasn’t just applauded but also captured by the QParks media crew. The gallery with the freeski pics of the session can be found on the Feel Free website!

Progression is Rewarded
The girls more than deserved the neatly packed goodie bags they received after the session and as a special bonus, “Nine Queens” project manager Lukas Krista took his time to show the group around the backstage area of the huge castle! A glorious way to celebrate the successful kick-off of the Girls Shred Sessions at Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis. There’s no doubt that the girls will be thinking back to this amazing day for a long time.

The world’s biggest hip session starts today

The 2016 edition of Suzuki Nine Knights starts today in Watles, Italy and Nico Zacek wants you to know one thing: Size matters.

Okay, maybe he wants you to know a bit more than that. He wants you to know that this year’s Suzuki Nine Knights is different than in years past. As you might have noticed, the event has evolved from a single castle-themed feature, with nine invited riders, into a full-fledged ski and snowboard superpark with who-knows-how-many riders (a lot more than nine, that’s for sure). Last year’s extravaganza, for example, included four wildly different terrain features and a grand total of 150,000 cubic meters of snow. (That’s enough snow to fill 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools, in case you were wondering.)

For 2016, Zacek and team decided to strike out in a new direction with the event—aiming for something new in the creativity department, without always striving for “bigger, faster, higher.” (Okay, yes, this is potentially the world’s biggest hip that we’re talking about, but bear with me.) The point, Zacek says, is that nobody has focused this much energy on a hip in a long time, and he thought it was past time for this classic terrain park feature to receive a modern remake.

So without further ado, let’s meet this year’s Suzuki Nine Knights feature: The Perfect Hip. Sixteen meters tall, 25 meters long, around 35,000 cubic meters of snow; the product of three weeks of snow collection and a ten-day build with three snowcats and ten hand shapers. This one hip is serviced by no fewer than five separate takeoffs: a central, standard hip take off flanked by two additional booters offering carve-into-the-wall redirect options; and those two takeoffs flanked in turn by two more takeoffs—one to the back of the hip (aka the mega gap) and one aimed straight at the left hip wall for a 90-degree redirect.

“Over the weeks we added some additional takeoffs, tunnels, battlements, rails, balconies, et cetera,” says Dirk Scheumann of Schneestern, whose team built the hip in collaboration with Italian snowpark company F-TECH. “Otherwise, it would have been boring,” he adds with a wink.

Here’s a Q&A with Nico to get you fully up to speed on the happenings at the 2016 Suzuki Nine Knights. Stay tuned this week for some high-flying shenanigans!

Downdays: Nico, how and why is this Suzuki Nine Knights different than in years before?
Nico Zacek: We’re calling this year’s Suzuki Nine Knights a “Mission: The Perfect Hip.” After doing it for eight years and getting bigger every year, a crazier park involved, more riders involved, adding snowboarding, more people on-site, more snow required every year, we decided to do something different. We’re not a sport where only “bigger, faster, higher” is cool—with a smart idea, you can do something just as cool. You can “scale down” without scaling down. We wanted to build the smartest feature possible, and in that case we wanted to build something that hasn’t been done properly, in our eyes, for many, many, many years.

When I was an athlete, hips were a big story: I remember Hemsedal, June Mountain, Jon Olsson… Ever since then, hips have happened, but none of them have really impacted. There’s been a great hip at Kitzsteinhorn for the past two years, for example. It was good! But it wasn’t as impactful as when Tanner [Hall] and Jon and Jakob [Wester] and Andreas [Hatveit] threw down in slushy Mammoth and June Mountain kind of conditions.

The branding team at work. Photo: Matthias “Vitus” Veit

We built the hip last year and really enjoyed it—it was crazy to see how high the guys went. But we couldn’t go any higher because the jump was in the way. So we said, let’s see what it takes to build the perfect hip. Obviously it’s Suzuki Nine Knights, so it’s going to look like a castle; and it’s not going to have one take-off, it’s going to have five. That’s the way we are. But that’s how we came up with the idea.

Now we’re here, and I feel so relieved and happy that we’ve gotten back to the exclusivity that we had in the beginning. It’s actually just nine skiers and nine snowboarders who will be here. That’s Nine Knights—that’s what we were for the first year, but ever since then it’s been many more. It’s more like an 80-person crew instead of 200. It’s one inrun.

The reaction that I’ve gotten from a lot of people is, “It’s so cool that someone is looking at building a proper hip again.” We want to give the boys some room for progression on that kind of feature. Jump progression has been skyrocketing, but what if I were to ask you who the top nine hip riders on the planet are? I had to research, I had to think so hard about who that would be. We don’t know any more, because people don’t ride hips. Back in the day it would have been Andreas, Jakob, Tanner, Jon. Those are the ones that come to mind. And Grete [Eliassen] on the girls’ side, she killed it. Jakob was supposed to be here, but unfortunately he’s a little injured and he just canceled a few days ago. I was on the phone with him a couple times and he helped us with the theory, but now last minute he had to drop out. Same with Jon, actually. He has a back injury and it’s not healed yet. Now we’ll see—we’ve still got a pretty good field of people.

Looking at this hip, I don’t think anyone could say that you’ve “taken a step back.” Actually I heard that this is the tallest Suzuki Nine Knights feature yet. Is that true?
Yes. It’s a 20-meter landing, which on a hip is ridiculous: a ten-meter bank to a ten-meter transition. Purely a ten-meter bank, I don’t think that’s ever been done on the planet. I think it’s the longest landing that a hip has ever had, which is safe and good. When you walk up there, you’ll probably think, “There’s no way I’m ever going to hit any of those.” But if you take a closer look, you realize it’s not supposed to be the scariest feature of all time—it’s supposed to be very fun and rideable, but also giving you the potential to go crazy high.

You saw the designs before, but were you still surprised when you saw the feature standing?
I drew the designs, so I obviously knew what to expect. I already had them one week after the last year. I had a vision—it popped into my head exactly the way it is right now. But the magnitude has gotten bigger than in my plans. Usually it’s the other way around: you design something and then you have to scale it back. But here we didn’t have to compromise. That’s a really great side note: they had a World Cup skicross here in January, so we recycled the snow, and only had to produce a little more. So we used the snow twice.

Size matters, I would say. You don’t want to build the takeoff too big, that doesn’t make any sense. But you want to give them the best possible landing, and that only works if you have a crazy wall of snow. When you stand there and look up, you’re going to be freaking out. I only skied down the landing, which is the easiest thing, but it was still scary.

What are your expectations for this week?
I like the feeling of the riders here. It’s a mix between pipe guys and slope guys. We’ve never really had that many pipe guys at Suzuki Nine Knights, but this year we’ve got Taylor Seaton, Alex Ferreira, David Wise, Joffrey [Pollet-Villard] — all full-time pipe experts. And then we’ve got the slope guys like Christof Schenk, Felix Usterud, ABM, Nicky Keefer, Bene Mayr and Jules Bonnaire.

And I wonder, who are the better hip riders—is it the pipe guys or the slope guys? That’s my expectation: to find that out. I wouldn’t be disappointed if there’s no world record happening. It’s nice to have a theme, but as always the theme of Suzuki Nine Knights is to have fun for a week and progress the sport, and progression doesn’t always happen with the highest air ever done. With the jumps that are angled toward the landing, any trick that’s going to happen is basically going to be new—they aren’t normal redirects. I don’t know if someone’s going to do a side-way transfer, double cork into a hip landing that comes in at a 45-degree angle… so that’s what I’m wondering, if something like that is going to happen.

So it’s not all about the world record hip air.
Not at all—but we did bring some guys who are interested in doing it. So it’s on the table, but I don’t want to make it the most important topic. The mainstream media can do that, but not Downdays.

Is this the biggest hip that’s ever been built?
I think so. It’s definitely the longest landing. I would love to have people comment on this interview and show us anything that’s bigger. It’s nothing I want to claim, but I think it’s true.

The Camera People of Suzuki Nine Queens

As I mentioned in my article last week about being the Suzuki Nine Queens course starter, there’s a lot more to this unique event than “just” the best women in snowboarding and freeskiing flying over a spectacular castle made of snow. There are also so many individuals working behind the scenes to make this snowsports phenomenon happen.

Or in this case, behind the lens—because for every Queen on the screen, there’s a guy (or a girl) behind her with a camera. Meet a few of the camera people of Suzuki Nine Queens—nine, actually, to stick with the theme.

 

Manuel Rueda
Role: Event filmer
Camera kit: Sony FS700 + 85mm
Favorite focal length: 85mm is my favourite for a lot of reasons. It works in so many situations, creates the perfect closeness for portraits and can give you a beautiful bokeh. And 85mm lenses usually have really big glass, which looks cool.
Favorite video technique: Probably Glidecam. It creates a smooth but organic camera movement and works for almost everything. Always good to bring a Glidecam.
Words of wisdom for filmers: If you don’t go, you won’t know.

 

 

 

 

 

Lukas Tielke
Role: Lead event filmer & co-director / Peoplegrapher
Camera kit: RED Dragon +70-200mm, Steadycam
Favorite focal length: 50mm – You can shoot everything with it. You can go close or you can go wide and you don’t have any distortion on the sides. You just have to choose your framing, closer or farther away.
Favorite video technique: Definitely the Steadycam because I love dynamic shots, I love that you can express something with movement. I think it makes a picture interesting to the viewer, even if the content isn’t that interesting.
Words of wisdom for filmers: Go out and shoot. Don’t talk about the technical stuff, just do your thing and don’t be a nerd. It’s all about being creative, asking people if they want to do a project for free; just getting out there and doing things.

 

Klaus Polzer
Role: Event photographer / Distillery
Camera kit: Nikon D4 + 35mm 1f/.8
Favorite focal length: The one that’s good for the shot.
Favorite photo technique: Getting the shot.
Words of wisdom for photographers: Learn seeing before picking up a camera. It’s the most important thing. The photo is done in your head and in your eye, and not in the camera. Fixed focal lengths are much better than zooms because they force you to look around a little bit more. And avoid putting your camera bag in the frame!

 

 

Thomas Dunzendorfer
Role: Event filmer / Distillery
Camera kit: Sony SF700 with the Oddysey7Q+ recorder + Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8
Favorite focal length: 35mm
Favorite film technique: Handheld. I definitely like it when there’s a little movement in the shot even if you’re aiming for steady footage. Surely it depends on what you’re a about to shoot, but I always try to get natural movement in the shot.

Words of wisdom for filmers: Check white balance. It’s not about the camera. People tend to think that a good, expensive camera brings in good shots. Pay attention on framing, movement of camera and what you want to tell with your shot.

 

Mark von Roy
Role: Video production manager / Distillery
Camera kit: Sony FS700 + Walimex 24mm f/1.4mm on a Glidecam 2000
Favorite focal length: I really dig the 24mm on the FS700 for Steadycam shots. For features like this it kind of does the feature justice. For lifestyle I love the 50mm as well.
Favorite video technique: That’s a tough one. For a couple of weeks you’re thinking, “Oh, those drone shots are sick!” But then it gets oversaturated, and you’re over it. The same happened with Glidecam. Variety, I would say — in any edit, variety is key.
Words of wisdom for filmers: Be a sponge. If you’re around talented people, ask questions, observe, find out what they do and try to absorb as much knowledge as you can. Go shooting for a week or two using just one focal length. It’s all about getting the right angle for the lens, and that helped me think about framing in a whole different way.

 

Dasha Nosova
Role: Invited photographer / Freelancer. I was lucky to get an invitation this year, I was so stoked when the organizers hit me up about this. I always wanted to get here because the setup always looks so crazy in the pictures.
Camera kit: Canon 1DX + Canon 70-200mm w/ 1.4x extender, Elinchrome flashes
Favorite focal length: It depends on what I’m shooting. I really like the fisheye for skateboarding, close-up shots. I also like 50mm for taking portraits, and sometimes it’s really good for action shots. I actually like fixed lenses better, but because I have to shoot a lot of big stuff, like big jumps in the park or backcountry, I always have to be able to use some different zooms.
Favorite photo technique: I love playing with backgrounds and foregrounds. I don’t really like to just take a regular picture of the setup. I like having people in the foreground, or some trees, or other funny stuff going down. I like to catch not just one thing in the picture, but everything that surrounds it as well.
Words of wisdom for photographers: Keep taking photos. Don’t try to copy anyone, you’ve got your own eye for that. Just enjoy and don’t take it too seriously.

 

 

 

 

Sebastian Stücke
Role: Filmer, Rebel TV
Camera kit: Panasonic GH4 + 12-35mm f/2.8 on a DJI Ronin gimbal
Favorite focal length: That’s hard. I think it depends on what you’re shooting, but I think that 35mm is perfect for the gimbal. It’s clear for portraits and works well on the Ronin.
Favorite video technique: Not particularly. When the picture is fine, it’s just a feeling.
Words of wisdom for filmers: Do what you like. If you’re having fun, you’re doing the right thing.

 

 

 

 

 

Sean Balmer
Role: Video asset collector, GoPro
Camera kit: Today I had a lot of headcams to hand out to the girls to make sure they’re wearing cameras. So I brought a lot of ready-to-go headcams, I think I have 15 GoPros in my bag, plus a few special mounts like the “unicorn” that sticks off the front of your head, that’s good for the no-handed selfie. I also have a thing called a Norbert, I attach a big microphone to that that cuts out all the wind noise that we get up here.
Favorite focal length: Anything past 10cm is pretty much what I’m into. 8mm is where I’m at, and I like to keep it there.
Favorite video technique: Let the athletes do it.
Words of wisdom for filmers: Charge your batteries, check the lens cap and make sure it’s in focus.

 

Ilanna Barkusky
Role: Invited photographer/ Freelancer
Camera kit: Canon D1X + 70-2oomm
Favorite focal length: 70mm
Favorite photo technique: Shooting into the sun/flares
Words of wisdom for photographers: Set your goals high and put in the work to chase them, you might surprise yourself!

Last Call for Red Bull Illume Submissions

With its past three editions—2007, 2010, and 2013—the Red Bull Illume has established itself as the premier showcase for action sports photography worldwide. “It has brought sensational pictures to the limelight and also uncovered outstanding new talent”, says Klaus Polzer, photo editor of Downdays Magazine and this year part of the selected crew of judges for the Red Bull Illume.

While you might think that only big name photographers have a shot at the coveted awards, this is not true. Some talented photographers have actually started their professional careers through winning at the Red Bull Illume. “Some categories usually see a selection of the best action sports athletes performing at the most amazing places and it is naturally the big name photographers who get the chance to shoot this. But there are other categories like ‘Close-up’ or ‘Lifestyle’ that offer the same opportunities for everyone”, explains Klaus Polzer. “So it is really important to choose the right category for your best photos.”

In fact, if you add ‘Enhance’ and ‘New Creativity’, two categories based on post-production skills and creative approach, as well as ‘Mobile’, a new category for 2016 exclusively for shots taken with mobile phones or tablets, half of the categories at Red Bull Illume are likely to see some previously unknown photographers among the Top 50 finalists. So you better get in front of your computer screen, browse through your archives and submit your best photographs. It’s easy. Simply go to www.redbullillume.com, create an account and upload your images. But hurry up, submission closes at March 31st 2016!

The Freeski Playoffs are an ode to style

Let me paint the scene for you. A mountain standing over the valley, a perfect jump and a sunset final in front of a huge crowd. The VIP and media are inside the fences, the families and tourists behind, and the alcoholics are hiding in the trees. The riders are the center of attention, launching the jump into the sunset, fighting for the victory ring as the photographers’ flashes pop.

The competition concept here is different than anywhere else. First off, the riders are organized like this:

Conférence FRANCE : Julien Eustache – Jules Bonnaire – David Bonneville – Nathan Gaidet – Hugo Laugier – Quentin Ladame – Cesar Fabre – Ben Buratti

Conférence WORLD : – Fabian Bosch – Till Matti – Kai Malher – James Woods – Matt Walker – John Brown – Aleksi Patja – Noah Wallace

 

After two runs to make the rankings in each conference, the riders battle against each other until the best of each conference is named. In the end, the best from both sides fight for the title—but whatever the format is, the most important thing here is the judging.

During this competition the two international judges, Charly Royer and Lao Chazelas have the pleasure of judging only style, giving the victory to Aleksi Patja with a switch wobble 900 safety. Judging style is easier said than done—so props to the judges and the riders, who played the finals as well as they played in the riders’ hockey game the day before.

Again this event was a real success, blowing away expectations—at least ours. Enjoy the photo portfolio.