Nine Knights Freeski Contest, Oberstdorf - 26th of April
Unique session at the Nine Knights freeski event in Oberstdorf! Finally the sun came out at the Nine Knights freeski session at the Nebelhorn in Oberstdorf!
Nico Zacek, one of Germany’s finest freeskiers, Suzuki team rider and head organizer of the event, had a big smile in his face. 30.000 cubic metres of snow got moved to build the monster over the last weeks, at the end theobstacle looked like an ancient castle. Nico had invited riders from six different countries in Europe to session this unique obstacle - and of course some well known filmers and photographers to capture this event.
There were two different obstacles built into the castle, a kicker and a quarter pipe. In terms of the kicker there was no doubt about the winner: Henrik Harlaut, a 17 year old Swedish kid convinced everyone with massive style and his big bag of high standard tricks like cab 9s and cab 10s with various grabs, Cork 5 true tail and nose mute. Also the title in the quarter pipe was no discussion at all. Event organizer Nico Zacek showed the young groms how to ride a quarter properly. He had highest air, did some stylish quarter transfers and showed loads of different tricks all day long.
The quarter was divided by the big kicker, so basically there were two identical quarters next to each other, which lead to idea of having a team challenge as well. So now there were two riders in the in run at the same time, howling towards the quarter with almost 100 km/h. Both hit the quarter doing the exact same trick. Garmisch local Thomas Hlawitschka and English ripper Paddy Graham were doing best in the team challenge.
But the session was not over yet! When the lifts were closed, a helicopter turned up to shoot a sunset session. The light turned out to be epic and Mattias Fredriksson sent his Swedish posse up to do the jump again and again and again. At night there was a big party at the Hörbar in Oberstdorf, where also the price giving took place. Henrik won a trip to the X Fighters in Wuppertal, Nico got a trip to the Suzuki Offroad Camp in Spain.
So Nine Knights really worked out fine at the end, make sure you get to see the pix and footage of it, all Nine Knights were ripping hard during the sessions. For more pics, videoblog and stories check
www.nineknights.com
Winners:
Kicker: Henrik Harlaut (SWE)
Quarter: Nico Zacek (GER)
Team: Thomas Hlawitschka (GER) & Paddy Graham (UK)
Final list of riders:
Nico Zacek
Oscar Scherlin
Thomas Hlawitschka
Fabio Studer
Mickael Deschenaux
Henrik Harlaut
Paddy Graham
Martin Misof
Bene Mayer (Jester)
Lukas Brucic (Jester)
Thade Joas (Jester)
