BBC Winter Sports Journalist, Anna Thompson highlights the amazing slopestyle athletes the UK currently have, including Jenny Jones and Jamie Nicholls and Ed Leigh thinks the inclusion of both the ski and snowboard slopestyle in the 2014 Winter Olympics is not just a pipe dream!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/annathompson/2010/02/slopestyle_to_make_debut_in_so.html

The UK’s Sam Pilgrim was up to his old tricks again at the recent White Style event in Leogang, Austria… winning!

The young Animal team rider blew away an international field at this extraordinary winter slopestyle event and is due to be hitting the slopes once more come March at the Animal Slopestyle Champs at The BRITS 2010, Laax, Switzerland

Event Press Release:

More than 2,000 spectators made their way to the White Style course designed and built by Kona Clump team rider Grant “Chopper” Fielder. Grant received lots of props from the other riders for the set up consisting of different elements like: An igloo at the start with a small drop, a set of two doubles, followed by two massive fruit bowls combinations (with a 15ft drop) as well as a huge double at the finish (about 40ft. far). Riders jumped the last gap and reached up to 25ft. above the ground.

The most important point to remember: the whole course was built out of snow. So it was definitely a challenging set up. But some of the world’s best riders came to Leogang. They impressed the spectators and sometimes each other by pulling off the biggest tricks that were seen in a mountain bike contest.

The qualifications on Friday evening were dominated by Swedish rider Martin Soederstroem (technical and clean riding including double tailwhips), Yannick Granieri from France (by far the biggest backflips performed on a contest), U.S. American Cam McCaul (great style and big bag of tricks), Canadian Darren “The Claw” Berrecloth (360 look downs at its best). Linus Sjoeholm (SWE), Amir Kabbani (GER), Sam Pilgrim (GBR) and Jamie Goldman (USA) completed the Top 8 of the qualifyings.

The man on the day of the finals was Sam Pilgrim, no question: tailwhip at the start, frontflip at the first double, backflip no hander at the second, 360 x-up out of the fruit bowl, tuck nohander and backflip at the 2nd fruit bowl, as well as a backflip table at the last jump. Sam couldn’t stop joking after his success having 1,800 Euros in his pocket: “I will spend all the money on sweets, for real!” But he also stated pretty serious: “Crashing on snow is not that funny, because it’s much harder than you might think. It took me a bit to cope with it when I competed the first time at the White Style, but man, it was fun this year and Chopper did a really great job, big respect!”

Top 12 riders:
1 Sam Pilgrim Diamondback GBR
2 Linus Sjöholm Scott SWE
3 Yannick Granieri Commencal FRA
4 Amir Kabbani Mongoose GER
5 Darren Berrecloth Specialized CAN
6 Cameron McCaul Trek USA
7 Jamie Goldman Santa Cruz USA
8 Sam Reynolds DMR GBR
9 Grant Fielder Kona GBR
10 Niki Leitner YT Industries AUT
11 Martin Söderström NS Bikes SWE
12 Jakub Vencl AGang CZE

Soulsports has been working with Ben Kilner for many years consulting and managing many of his sponsorships, so we were very proud to hear his latest result in Canada and the best of his career! a 3rd Place on the World Cup at the last event before the Olympics, which is a great boost!

Ben had to say “Well this is it! the last World Cup before the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. I managed to land my first run in semi’s and that put me in to the Finals. This has been the 2nd time i have ever got this far in the World Cups so i was just happy to make it this far. Once i landed my first run i got a score of 40.3 which put me into 2nd. On the second runs i was pushed into 3rd with an amazing run from French man Arthur Longo. My second run kept me in 3rd so i am super happy. This has put me in a very good frame of mind for going in to Vancouver and has been my best result so far in my Snowboarding Career!”

Soulsports have been Jenny’s agent since 1999 and are very proud to announce that she has just won the X Games Slopestyle Gold medal for the second year running!

Video highlight:
MPORA:

More Snowboarding >>

ESPN:

Facebook Quote:
“WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYY!!! i cant believe it. so stoked to have won. This time all the top girls were in it, the weather was great and even my folks came over from the UK to watch. I landed the run i was after, 540, 540 & 720 stoked and grabbed all my spins in a contest for once woohoo!!”

Results:
1st Jenny Jones
2nd Jamie Anderson
3rd Janna Meyen-Weatherby

Slopestyle Women results

Jenny’s Fan page: www.facebook.com/jennyjonessnowboarder

Jenny’s Official Profile: www.soulsports.co.uk/jennyjones

Jenny’s Sponsors:
Relentless Energy Drinks, Oakley Eyewear, Nixon Watches, MetroSnow.co.uk, les ettes Perfume, Giro Helmets, Billabong Clothing, Salomon Snowboards

Garmin the global leader in satellite navigation turns its expertise to snowsports to deliver the new must-have item for the slopes as it announces a series of GPS devices and a range of activities geared toward the snowsports enthusiast.

Demonstrating that it is not solely the performance-driven that benefit from the value Garmin adds to sport, the wrist-worn Foretrex® 401 is set to provide millions of recreational skiers and snowboarders with the fundamental statistics that they have long craved; how high, how far and how fast did we go today? Of course, this sophisticated, waterproof device is packed with extensive capabilities for the more inquisitive, but its simplicity makes it possible for everybody to get more from their time on the slopes.

Foretrex 401

To put the Foretrex 401 onto the wrists of typical enthusiasts, Garmin has joined forces with 10 specialist chalet operators around the Alps to form official Garmin Test Centres, offering guests the opportunity to test-drive the latest GPS technology. At the end of the day, guests simply upload the day’s data, or ‘tracklog’, at Garmin Connect to review their movements and statistics including highest speed, total descent, total ascent, maximum elevation, total distance and much, much more.

To foster the competitive spirit that will no doubt arise, Garmin has created a season’s league table at Garmin Snow Club to champion the persons that travel the fastest, the furthest, and the greatest descent. The victorious not only secure bragging rights for the year, but are then in with a chance of winning a week’s winter holiday at one of the Garmin Test Centres.

In addition, the Garmin Downhill Challenge will be making its presence felt at The BRITS Snow & Music Festival, which hosts the British Snowboard & Freeski Championships in Switzerland from 21st – 28th March. Throughout the week revellers will charge the slopes to register a fastest time to be displayed upon the Garmin Leader board positioned centre stage of the Apres Arena. The Garmin Downhill Challenge is destined to spark post-slope boasting and debate and perfectly complements the en-masse downhill at the end of the week, Red Bull Homerun, which witnesses 300+ competitors racing simultaneously from the top of the mountain to the bottom… organized chaos. The winner of the Garmin Downhill Challenge will naturally win a trip to The BRITS 2011 to defend their crown.

Finally, spearheading the snowsports campaign are two guys that uphold Garmin’s pursuit of innovation and adventure in BBC Ski Sunday presenters and Garmin ambassadors Ed Leigh and Graham Bell. Regular Ski Sunday viewers will have noticed a recent product review of the Foretrex 401 on the show. Follow Ed’s and Graham’s travels around the world at Garmin Snow Club including fly-through visuals of Graham’s World Cup Downhill runs and both of their exploits at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“Snow sports offered up an exciting proposition for Garmin, which required a shift in our approach for a sport that’s mass focus is recreational,” said Chris Merrell, Garmin’s Marketing Communications Manager. “And we are strong in the belief that Garmin can, and will, add value to every snow enthusiast, both in their on-piste activities and off-piste discussions. GPS adds fun as well as safety to your snow activities.”

Both Garmin devices are available at all Snow + Rock and Ellis Brigham stores nationwide, where a purchase in-store or online holds the added benefit of entry into the prize draw for an all expenses paid trip for 2 to The BRITS 2010 Festival and the opportunity to take on the Garmin Downhill Challenge.

Foretrex® 401 – SRP £199.99
DakotaTM 20 – SRP £279.99

www.garminsnowclub.co.uk

Jamie Nicholls continued his top form yesterday during the Burton European Opens Slopestyle Semi-Finals, finishing in an impressive 10th place overall and making it through to the finals.

Good work Jamie!

The mens finals will be taking place on Friday 15th January.

Soulsports athlete Jenny Jones has had a superb month in the media with several interviews across UK & International core magazines plus an interview in the mainstream:

10 Page - Whitelines Snowboard Magazine (UK)
8 Page - Onboard Snowboard Magazine (European)
9 Page - Pleasure Snowboard Magazine (German)
4 Page - Zest Magazine (UK)
Front Cover & 7 pages - Cooler Magazine (UK & European)

Cooler December Front Cover

First event of the winter kicked off last weekend on the Dew Tour in the USA where she finished 3rd place in the slopestyle (video shows the highlights of the slopestyle).

If all of this isn’t enough then checkout a competition to win all her kit @
whitelines.com/competitions

Garmin the world leader in GPS devices have appointed Soulsports to consult and deliver a strategy for Garmin to enter the Snowsports market.

See the developments at www.garminsnowclub.co.uk

Soulsports are managing the snow production and slope management at the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup event here in Battersea, London. We had a great contest that was broadcast live on Eurosport at 5pm, unfortunately none of the Brits made the final 10 but Soulsports athlete Ben Kilner representing LG produced the best result with a 14th place overall.

London Freeze Slope

[Official Event Release]
Birthday child Stefan Gimpl victorious in season’s first big air competition / 15,000 spectators in London

What a day for Stefan Gimpl: The Austrian snowboard veteran not only celebrated his career’s seventh World Cup triumph by taking Gold with 52.7 points at the season’s first big air competition of the LG Snowboard FIS World Cup. The rider from the Salzburg countryside also made himself a fantastic birthday present. Aged 30 now and in front of 15,000 spectators at Battersea Power Station in London, the World Cup title defender relegated Switzerland’s Gian-Luca Cavigelli (50.5) and Domen Bizjak from Slovenia (49.7) to the second and third rank respectively. Matevz Pristavec (SLO, 49.7) had to settle for fourth finishing also with 49.7 points.

Jamie Nicholls © FIS-Oliver Kraus

That this day turned out like written in a storybook was due to the great experience of several years being on tour as a snowboard pro. Not the young guns with their “Backside 1260’s” (Ulrik Badertscher, NOR) or “Frontside 1260’s” (Janne Korpi, FIN) took all the credit but Gimpl with his matchless style of making the tricks look so easy and stick them smoothly on the landing hill – although the 30-years-old had to struggle with his shaky legs right before the final attempt. “I was very nervous up there although actually nothing could have gone wrong as I was lucky over the last years living on the sunny side of life. It seems that someone is meaning well for me.”

Namely that good, that the World Cup leader was able to stomp a “Frontside 1080” at first, his “so far best in my whole life” and later on a “Cab 900” after the spectator crowd had serenaded him “Happy birthday”. “This was an amazing experience. Although I still can’t believe the result as I wasn’t expecting to win today.”

Stefan Gimpl © FIS-Oliver Kraus

With this statement Gimpl was driving at the fact that the whole starter field answered expectations with a high level riding including some of the more than 50 riders from 12 countries showcasing even more difficult tricks than the later on winner – however, not as smooth and stylish like Gimpl did. One of them was Gian-Luca Cavigelli. The Swiss talent who never had finished a World Cup in the top-10 before jumped on the podium for the first time ever after he had thrown in a massive “Backside 1080 Double Cork” and a “Backside Rodeo 720”. “I’m pretty stoked with the result as I have been on the snowboard for only two months so far” the 21-years-old who tore his left ACL a year ago said after his comeback.

And also third-ranked Domen Bizjak was more than happy after his “Switch Backside 900” and “Frontside 900” earned him his career’s first podium finish. The 24-years-old who had have three fourth ranks so far stated: “I never expected this. But today, everything went fine.”

Ben Kilner © FIS-Oliver Kraus

The British Snowboard Team produced some great results with LG Freeze ambassador Ben Kilner finishing 14th, Nate Kern 20th, Jamie Nicholls 27th, and Jack Shackelton in 47th position.

Soulsports have secured British Snowboard Halfpipe Champion and future Olympian Ben Kilner to head up LG’s activity at the “Freesports on 4 FREEZE sponsored by LG” event held at Battersea Power Station in London.

Below is the Official Press Release givign you an insight into what Ben will be upto.

FREEZE Connects Snowsports and Music Fans

Ben Kilner - LG Athlete for London Freeze

Snowsports and Music festival, London FREEZE has launched an innovative online communications hub at www.londonfreeze.com/lg/. FREEZE Connect, the brainchild of official event sponsor LG Electronics, is the place for all the latest official and backstage news, coupled with an array of interactive and exclusive ‘Life’s Good’ competitions for followers of this iconic event.

Live today, FREEZE Connect (www.londonfreeze.com/lg/) links directly to the event’s popular Facebook and Twitter pages where exclusive messages will be created by the FREEZE Connect team consisting of UK Olympic snowboard hopeful Ben Kilner and the widely downloaded Snowfix Podcast presenters Tim & Jools via their LG social networking handsets (GW520).

Aside from keeping followers abreast of the latest news and backstage commentary from the event, FREEZE Connect brings Life’s Good moments to fans through money can’t buy prizes that will be offered to winners of interactive ‘Alternate Reality Games’ – a series of online, real-life treasure hunts and a number of other challenges issued through the official Facebook and Twitter feeds. Prizes include VIP event tickets and one-off prizes such as LG messaging mobile phones, signed snowboards, skis and CDs from athletes and bands taking part at the event as well as Dare2b clothing and Relentless Energy drinks.

“FREEZE Connect is about creating communities that become the heartbeat of the action. Whether it’s connecting to like-minded people, latest event news, competitions, or sharing your Life’s Good moments instantaneously at the London FREEZE via social networking handsets - your friends and family will be able to experience the buzz of the event, as though they were right there beside you!” comments Jeremy Newing, head of marketing, LG Mobile UK & Ireland.

FREEZE Connect activities will operate up to and throughout the Freesports on 4 FREEZE sponsored by LG, taking place from 30th October to 1st November 2009, where London’s Battersea Power Station will once again be transformed into an international competition standard snowboarding and freeski venue, featuring a 32m high ski jump and over 500 tonnes of snow against a backdrop of world-class music acts.

FREEZE Connect launches with a film introducing Ben, Tim and Jools and what’s in store for the online community over the coming weeks. Watch it here: