Relentless Freeze 2010The last weekend of October and Halloween officially launched winter in the UK as the Relentless Freeze festival returned to the dormant environs of Battersea Power Station to put on another show of epic proportions.
The set-up is simple one, although ambitious: organise a jaw-dropping snowboard and ski competition on a whopping 32m high 110m long real snow jump and finely backlight it with a line-up of over 90 music acts.
Our festival started off on Friday afternoon at the O’Neill cinema tent where Jeremy Jones was in town to promote his new film Deeper.
To an extent lacking the cinematographic gloss of recent productions, Deeper makes up for its form with function. Filmed over two years the main narrative is Jones and fellow snowboarders delving as deep into the mountains as they can get using pretty much just the power of their own two feet, and the odd ski-plane. It is an immense journey and well worth seeing.
As the film finished we bustled outside to catch up with the results of the first of the weekend’s competitions: The Battle of Britain.
Battle of Britain
In a closely fought final, and to the chagrin of the judges, it was a double backflip that took first place (Billy Morgan again throwing down and stepping up in equal measure) and a double frontflip (Scott Penman) that took second place.
Jamie Nicholls wasn’t able to stick his infamous double cork back 10 and the other super strong contender was Andy Nudds, who despite dropping some epic style also couldn’t hold it down. Word on the street was that the run-in and jump were in a very sketchy and scary condition and that may well explain in some part why the riders on Saturday were boosting compared to those on Friday.
For those looking to party Jaguar Skills, Krafty Kuts and Roni Size kicked off in the main arena.
LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Big Air
As usual Saturday was the mainstay of the event, the very first of the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Big Air events of the year being the competition of choice and attracting 68 of the world’s best freestyle snowboarders.
There was a bit less of a British offering this year but Jamie Nicholls made up for it by busting out. The Halifax prodigy slammed his runs home, taking just three practice runs before stomping the back 10 double like it was nothing. His efforts saw him through to the final in third place where he did it again before the experience of Seppe Smitts (3rd), Staale Sandbach (2nd) and Marko Grilc (1st) relegated him to an overall 7th place.
It was still an amazing result for a Brit snowboarder and one at their very first World Cup event and Jamie was beaming, “It was really good fun, I really enjoyed it this year – the highlight obviously being the World Cup. It was such a good experience to get to a World Cup final. Even getting to the final 12 out of that many riders and so many good ones, the best in the world. “
And he even had time to nominate trick of the event, which of course was, “Marko Grilic’s switch back 10 double – it was done perfectly and on that jump was insane, so good!”
The World Cup event finished earlier than previous years allowing time for the invited skiers to slay the jump into the night. They put on one hell of a show, creating some serious anticipation for Sunday. Jon Olsson and Colby West were hitting the jump at the same time and they were all stomping tricks deep into the landing.
Back In the main arena I Blame Coco, New Young Pony Club and Saturday’s extrovert party-starters: Mark Ronson & the Business Intl. were supplying the beats. If you’ve not see Mr Ronson perform then put it on the Christmas list – this eclectic act was truly mind-blowing and kitted in full Halloween attire set a benchmark for next year’s main act. Although for party-goers on a mellower tipple the Relentless Energy Stage hosted DJ Yoda and Bedouin Soundclash.
International Freestyle Ski Big Air
Sunday was immense, Brit skiers James Woods, Paddy Graham and Katie Summerhayes holding their own in a super high profile competition and Pendulum and Jett Black catering to the ravers and the rockers in equal measure.
The Freeski Invitational saw double cork 10s being dropped as standard so it was only fitting that in order to win the comp Jacob Wester would need to drop a double cork 12. Jon Olsson took second with a double cork 10 and Henrik Harlaut landed in third place with a switch double cork 10 making it a Swedish whitewash on the podium.
Results
Snowboard Best of Britain
1st – Billy Morgan
2nd – Scott Penman
3rd – Jamie Nicholls
4th – Andy Nudds
5th – Gary Greenshields
6th – Rich Hookes
7th – Nate Kern
8th – Dom Harington
9th – Cody Hierons
10th – Tom Hunt
Ski Best of Britain
1st – James Woods
2nd – Joseph Tomlinson
3rd – James Woods
4th – Andy Bennett
5th – Julian Ball
6th – James Webb
7th – Andy Matthew
8th – Joe Hides
9th – Hector Barbour
10th – Nathan Connolly
LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Finals
1st – Marko Grilc
2nd – Staale Sandbech
3rd – Seppe Smitts
4th – Per Iver Grimsrud
5th – Janne Korpi
6th – Micahel Macho
7th – Jamie Nicholls
8th – Gjermund Braaten
9th – Victor De Le Rue
10th – Clemens Schattschneider
11th – Gian Luca Cavigelli
12th – Sebastien Toutant
International Freestyle Ski Big Air Finals
1st – Jacob Wester
2nd – Jon Olsson
3rd – Henrik Harlaut
4th – Russ Henshaw
Posted by Online Editor - Sun, 07/11/2010 - 6:41pm
The last weekend of October and Halloween officially launched winter in the UK as the Relentless Freeze festival returned to the dormant environs of Battersea Power Station to put on another show of epic proportions.
The set-up is simple one, although ambitious: organise a jaw-dropping snowboard and ski competition on a whopping 32m high 110m long real snow jump and finely backlight it with a line-up of over 90 music acts.
Our festival started off on Friday afternoon at the O’Neill cinema tent where Jeremy Jones was in town to promote his new film Deeper.
To an extent lacking the cinematographic gloss of recent productions, Deeper makes up for its form with function. Filmed over two years the main narrative is Jones and fellow snowboarders delving as deep into the mountains as they can get using pretty much just the power of their own two feet, and the odd ski-plane. It is an immense journey and well worth seeing.
As the film finished we bustled outside to catch up with the results of the first of the weekend’s competitions: The Battle of Britain.
Battle of Britain
In a closely fought final, and to the chagrin of the judges, it was a double backflip that took first place (Billy Morgan again throwing down and stepping up in equal measure) and a double frontflip (Scott Penman) that took second place.
Jamie Nicholls wasn’t able to stick his infamous double cork back 10 and the other super strong contender was Andy Nudds, who despite dropping some epic style also couldn’t hold it down. Word on the street was that the run-in and jump were in a very sketchy and scary condition and that may well explain in some part why the riders on Saturday were boosting compared to those on Friday.
For those looking to party Jaguar Skills, Krafty Kuts and Roni Size kicked off in the main arena.
LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Big Air
As usual Saturday was the mainstay of the event, the very first of the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Big Air events of the year being the competition of choice and attracting 68 of the world’s best freestyle snowboarders.
There was a bit less of a British offering this year but Jamie Nicholls made up for it by busting out. The Halifax prodigy slammed his runs home, taking just three practice runs before stomping the back 10 double like it was nothing. His efforts saw him through to the final in third place where he did it again before the experience of Seppe Smitts (3rd), Staale Sandbach (2nd) and Marko Grilc (1st) relegated him to an overall 7th place.
It was still an amazing result for a Brit snowboarder and one at their very first World Cup event and Jamie was beaming, “It was really good fun, I really enjoyed it this year – the highlight obviously being the World Cup. It was such a good experience to get to a World Cup final. Even getting to the final 12 out of that many riders and so many good ones, the best in the world. “
And he even had time to nominate trick of the event, which of course was, “Marko Grilic’s switch back 10 double – it was done perfectly and on that jump was insane, so good!”
The World Cup event finished earlier than previous years allowing time for the invited skiers to slay the jump into the night. They put on one hell of a show, creating some serious anticipation for Sunday. Jon Olsson and Colby West were hitting the jump at the same time and they were all stomping tricks deep into the landing.
Back In the main arena I Blame Coco, New Young Pony Club and Saturday’s extrovert party-starters: Mark Ronson & the Business Intl. were supplying the beats. If you’ve not see Mr Ronson perform then put it on the Christmas list – this eclectic act was truly mind-blowing and kitted in full Halloween attire set a benchmark for next year’s main act. Although for party-goers on a mellower tipple the Relentless Energy Stage hosted DJ Yoda and Bedouin Soundclash.
International Freestyle Ski Big Air
Sunday was immense, Brit skiers James Woods, Paddy Graham and Katie Summerhayes holding their own in a super high profile competition and Pendulum and Jett Black catering to the ravers and the rockers in equal measure.
The Freeski Invitational saw double cork 10s being dropped as standard so it was only fitting that in order to win the comp Jacob Wester would need to drop a double cork 12. Jon Olsson took second with a double cork 10 and Henrik Harlaut landed in third place with a switch double cork 10 making it a Swedish whitewash on the podium.
Results
Snowboard Best of Britain
1st – Billy Morgan
2nd – Scott Penman
3rd – Jamie Nicholls
4th – Andy Nudds
5th – Gary Greenshields
6th – Rich Hookes
7th – Nate Kern
8th – Dom Harington
9th – Cody Hierons
10th – Tom Hunt
Ski Best of Britain
1st – James Woods
2nd – Joseph Tomlinson
3rd – James Woods
4th – Andy Bennett
5th – Julian Ball
6th – James Webb
7th – Andy Matthew
8th – Joe Hides
9th – Hector Barbour
10th – Nathan Connolly
LG Snowboard FIS World Cup Finals
1st – Marko Grilc
2nd – Staale Sandbech
3rd – Seppe Smitts
4th – Per Iver Grimsrud
5th – Janne Korpi
6th – Micahel Macho
7th – Jamie Nicholls
8th – Gjermund Braaten
9th – Victor De Le Rue
10th – Clemens Schattschneider
11th – Gian Luca Cavigelli
12th – Sebastien Toutant
International Freestyle Ski Big Air Finals
1st – Jacob Wester
2nd – Jon Olsson
3rd – Henrik Harlaut
4th – Russ Henshaw