Competitions

SIA, WWSRA, 48STRAIGHT, Red Bull PlayStreets & the North American Open

By Flip ⋅ February 19, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

SIA

I attended my very first SIA trade show in Las Vegas a few weeks ago to check out next years gear and party… the gear looks sick and the partys were a blur.

My top two highlights of the show would have to be the new Orage Ltd Collection mens and womens outfits that will have only 500 of each produced, and Skullcandy’s dope new goggle headphone combinations coming out in conjunction with Dragon and VonZipper.

Skullcandy also made a record donation to Boarding For Breast Cancer in the amount of $36,723, that is B4BC’s largest donation yet.

SIA went by so fast that it would take a whole team to cover the event, luckily NewSchoolers and Freeskier have some great coverage and teams of great people bringing you tons of photos and video.

WWSRA

I don’t know what WWSRA stands for, but it is basically a private demo for shop buyers to test out next years equipment. Keystone hosted it this year and since my real job is working for Keystone I got credentials to demo. I spent my demo time trying out powder skis and I found my personal favorite to be the K2 Obsethed, it is 105 underfoot with a slight rocker on the tip and tail and has a sick graphic as always. I didn’t get the chance to demo the new Hellbent but I can say it has a killer graphic as you can see.

My second pick would be the VCT by 4frnt, it is a little stiffer than last years ski and plows through anything, a vary stable ski with a trippy graphic.

48Straight

I think 48Straight is the reincarnation of the Honda Ski Tour with womens halfpipe added, anyway it happened on February 11 at Squaw Valley, CA and will air on CBS Sports on Feb. 23 and 24. Spoilers below, the results;

Mens Halfpipe Results
1) Jossi Wells - 94
2) Xavier Bertoni - 85
3) Colby James West - 78

Womens Halfpipe results
1) Sarah Burke - 87
2) Jen Hudak - 82
3) Rosalind Groenewoud - 64

Red Bull PlayStreets

Red Bull is amazing for putting on some mind blowing events in action sports, for the PlayStreets competition they covered the streets of Bad Gastein, Austria with snow and built a slopestyle course and let loose some skiers to compete. The coverage of this event is minimal but here are the results;

Red Bull Playstreets Finalists
1) Oscar Sherlin
2) Russ Henshaw
3) Oskari Raitanen
4) Sammy Carlson

North American Open

Breckenridge will be hosting the North American Open this week February 21-24, 2008. The event is hosted by Jon Olsson and Simon Dumont so everything from the format, jumps and judging should be on point. This event is looking like the next biggest thing to the X Games. Keep your eyes peeled for coverage of the event.