the big mountain pro (stop number 3 out of 5 of the freeride world tour) is the ultimate freeride event, with only 26 invited riders (14 ski and 12 snowboard) in 2 huge five star buses, ready during 8 days to go to the best locations within the alps to ride the best lines! overall winner was jeremy jones with xavier delerue on second and mitch continuing his upward moevement in the rankings with a third place. nevertheless i scored enough points to stay in the lead overall before the next and last two events in tignes and verbier, coming up on the next 2 weekends. so i am still satisfied even though i know i could have done much better. its time for some riding now after all the traveling at the big mountain pro. and we are all hoping for snow to come.............
then i went to the ENGADINSNOW http://www.engadinsnow.com/ , an independent freeride contest which did not see the stars of the world tour this year since the were already on the way to the next event of the tour. i won here in 2006, but since i had a tweaked ankle i could not ride and defend my title but acted as headjudge. the winners came from austria: max zipser from innsbruck ruled the sowboarders field, while stefan häusl from the arlberg won the skiers division, with matthias haunholder finishing third. unfortunately, max broke his heel 4 days later at the CHECK THE RIPPERhttp://www.nordparksessions.comevent in innsbruck. be well soon, max! after all this action, i was ready for a break and went to relax a few days and heal my ankle before going to chamonix to the big mountain pro the same weekend...more news from there soon!
february 10th to 13th mit der crew vom verein 3 x 6 = 18 gings im feber für einige tage in die silvretta zum hiken und powder suchen. die suche war äußerst erfolgtreich, wir hatten einige traumhafte abfahrten bei super verhältnissen.
just 2 days after coming back from russia i went to the NISSAN ROOKIES QUEST IN SCHRUNS in western austria to have a look at the freeride world champions of tomorrow. this is one of the 3 qualifying events for the freeride world tour 2009, and the peformances in the final were amazing.
more pics from world tour stop number 1: Mammoth, California - January 19th to 29th and tour stop number 2: Sochi, Russia - January 30th to February 6th
after 3 days of waiting for the perfect weather, the 2nd stop of the freeriding world tour was finally happening near sochi, at the black sea in russia. the contest site at krasnaya poliana was sick, with the maritime snowpack allowing us to ride 50° plus in powder!!! i was pretty intimidated first of the steepnes of the first part of the face, but still sticked to my chosen line through a narrow colouir. full speed at the top followed by 4 jumps in the lower part put me ahead of xavier delerue from france and jose carron from switzerland, with 10.000 prize money making my smile very biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig. bibi pekarek made the austrian snowboarders` success complete by winning the women`s competition, while mitch tolderer finished 5th. followig the second place at the nissan mammoth challenge in california, i am now number one in the race for the 2008 freeride world champion...crazy isn`t it?? three more events are waiting, the big mountain pro ( a mobile event) in february, followed by tignes and the final in verbier in march. right now i am in insbruck for a 24 our stopover, before moving on to judge at the freeride quest in schruns tomorrow and then doing a freeridecamp. tight schedule these days....but loving it (-: for all infos and pics from the event, check out freerideworldtour.com . more pictures here when i find the timt to put them oline!
we got a strange winter in austria this year: tons of powder up high, hardly anything down in the valleys. at my home resortnordpark we had great days already. the pics below were taken yesterday by lukas pilz, check out his work on www.ombule.com. on saturday mitch tölderer, bibi pekarek and me are leaving for the first contest of the freeriding world tour in mammoth mountain, california. keep you fringers crossed...
on tuesday the 8 of january 08 the 2nd pro rider avalanche saftey session took place on the nordpark above innsbruck. mountain guide stefan rössler, owner of the guiding office alpinwerkstatt (www.oberhell.at) and me met with pro riders like mitch tölderer and freeriding world tour qualifiers max zipser and mark wopfner. the training included a simulated avalache accident with video analysation. here the boys are just about to dig out one of the "victims" everybody was stoked about the intense and information loaded day. if you wanna do a similar training, contact me on orleyflo@gmx.at or check out www.oberhell.at for more info. ....and never forget: prevention is the best tactic when it comes to avalanches!
yeaaah! what a start into the 2008 freeride world tour!
a second place just 0,1 points behind alex coudray from switzerland at the nissan mammoth challenge in mammoth mountain, first stop of the 2008 world tour. it was a pretty hard time in california: the comp was canceled 2 times, and both times we were already at the start, full of adrenaline and ready to go. but the weather turned bad on both days, with more than half a meter of snow accumulating. finally we had to move to a mountain close to the ski resort to make the event possible. it was a short but challenging face. after a so-so first run i decided to risk more in the second run. with a nice three at the top and a high speed straight out at the bottom i got the highest score of the day and managed to overtake almost everybody in the ranking. all the info about the results are online on www.freerideworldtour.com/mammoth there was only litte time to celebrate though, as we had to pack up the morning after the party following the prizegiving to make our way home. after a stopover at santa monica beach in los angeles we flew back to europe, repacked out bags in insbruck, went to ispo in munich and straight to the airport again.
THE NEXT EVENT while i am writing this, i am already in the ski area of krasnaya poliana near sochi in the kaukasus mountains of russia for the next stop of the tour. check it out on www.freerideworldtour.com/en/nissan_caucasus_classic here are the winners from mammoth, left to right: me, alex coudray (ch), cyril neri (ch) more pics soon.
invented by a snowboarding powder freak from innsbruck who has become a mountain guide by now, the CLIMB is one of the most simple and efficient ascent systems on the market. lightweight, simple and stable it allows you to hike up with your skier friends using existing tracks without problems and ride down on your board with the colapsed skis in your backpack. for details and online orders check outwww.climb.co.at. thanks to stefan / sports spezial for the support!
the freeridecenter in sölden (ötztal) is a new partner in board for freeride camps and guiding. markus (called MÄX) is the boss, a mountain guide and freerider in the heart: check out their full program on www.freeride-center.at!
do you know chicama? well if you are a surfer you probably do. chicama is rated the longest left in the world and for more than 10 years i have been wanting to go and surf this beauty. on september 26ht, martin "mcfly" winkler and me went a month long search for this place of rumours and other perfect long rides on the pacific coast of peru. over there we met xavier jordan, a good friend and big mountain rider from switzerland, who bought a house here last year and with his local buddy nacho is starting a surf camp which will open soon. nacho pretty much the coolest dude you can meet. if you wanna stay at nacho's place, go to www.lobitossurfcamp.com enough said - here are pics from the search...
vertigo swiss riviera ... the most prestigious acrobatic hanggliding competition
in late august this summer, i was invited to the vertigo swiss riviera, the most prestigeous acrobatic competition for hanggliders and paragliders in world. since i only learned to fly a loopinga a few months before, it was a very big challenge for me to compete against the top pilots there. nevertheless, i managed to finish on 4th place! and best of all - looks like i will be able to compete at the acrobatic hangliding world champonships in norway in august 2008! for more info check out www.acrovertigo.ch here are some action-loaded pics for you: --> thanks to andi essig for the pics ( www.essigfoto.de )
after years of hard work, the organizers of the verbier xtreme and the newly founded pro freeriders board proudly announced the start of the first ever freeride world tour for freeriders and freeskiers in the winter of 2007/08! the tour contains 5 events in february and march:
mammoth mountain- usa
sochi-russia
tignes-france
a mobile event in europe and
the final in verbier-switzerland.
the top 14 boarders and skiers of the freeriding world are invited to these events, with qualification possibilities at the world qualifying series. at the end, in late march 2008, we will see the first ever SNOWBOARD FREERIDING WORLD CHAMPION! the new world ranking list has also been released, showing me as the current number 4 of the world! stoked! so........goals for the season? to overtake 3 people! get all the details on www.xtremeverbier.com but before the winter starts, i am off to peru for a month of mental season preparation, surfing the waves of the south pacific, taking on the longest lefts in the world....
dream about flying, too?? then join me! mail to orley@gmx.at and come for a tandemflight around innsbruck. also makes for a great birthday present for you friends and family. see below how it works! have a good summer!
Warning: file_get_contents(http://klubarbeit.eu/ka-facebook/bs3_index.php?userid=748418635172660&action=postHTML&kunde=floboarding&count=4): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 500 Internal Server Error in templates/fb.php on line 2
