South bank shuffle  – Read the report from the FSO4 Freeze we ran in Document 61

"London’s biggest snowboard show came back last October for another mash up of epic proportions, DCMT was right in the thick of it

The sky-high scaffold that played host to the Freesports on 4 Freeze back in October was a foreboding looking structure. While it may not be on the same level as Battersea’s infamous power station opposite, the construction was nonetheless imposing: towering way above the crowds and perched against the windy London skies. It took some balls to take the drop on that jump, a head for heights was a prerequisite but even some of the UK’s most fearless kicker riders were feeling the draught. Referring to his first run Tom West summed it up succinctly, ‘I was shitting myself’ he told me on Friday afternoon, soon after the Best of British opening event had wound down.

Unknown shredder enjoying a windy view of south London

The annual FSO4 Freeze sponsored by LG is a snowboard festival held in the grounds of Europe’s largest brick building (the English do like to do things the hard way). Scooping together an ambitious project the ‘festival’ saw thousands of snowsports fans head into town to watch over 100 of the world’s best snowboarders and skiers battle it out in a number of competitions to the backdrop of music acts as diverse as Pendulum and the Eagles of Death Metal; and to wash it all down with free sweets, weak beer and crap donuts. 2008’s inaugural event was pretty much off the hook, despite a calamitous Sunday, and clearly paved the way for another year. Last autumn the event lacked the pull of a huge act like Cypress Hill but made up for it by running a generally tighter ship throughout the weekend, which saw the main tent heaving and rammed (pretty much the busiest of the weekend) on Sunday’s closing night.

Ben Kilner rocking out a super steezy back 7

The festivities kicked off with a prompt best of British snowboard battle, where some of the UK’s best riders competed head to head throwing a medley of big spins, frontflips and double backflips to take home the title. The format was knockout with Brits going against each other in two-run jams to proceed to the next stage.

With shaky legs, fresh after a summer off the board, Scott Penman felt he was just getting used to the jump by the time his seventh and final hit was done, relinquishing his heat to Dom Harington’s flawless back 7. ‘It took me six hits just to get used to the jump,’ said Scott, ‘and then I only had one more! The jump itself wasn’t scary but the drop-in was like being on a roller-coaster – the elevator takes you 35m up and you’re dropping in down a fairly narrow and super steep ramp and you can see London all around you!’

Unsurprisingly Jamie Nicholls continued his competition winning form to claim the overall title. He’d already seen off Britain’s two most progressive kicker riders (Tyler Chorlton and Nate Kern) and deservedly took first place with a solid back 9 after riding ‘solid as a rock’ according to Scott Penman, throughout the day.

Gary Greenshields and Dom Harington bowled into second and third respectively, and Gary was carried through to the evening international style comp courtesy of his double backflips. And he did rather well, his back rodeo 7s and backflips only ousted by Gerjmund Braaten’s Cab 9. Jamie, who had also competed in the style comp, actually walked away with the second highest score of the day with a 77 for his back 9, but was pipped to the semis by Roope Tonteri who just edged passed with an 80 for his back 9 tail and then went on to win it.

With the riding done for the day we dipped in to the main tent to see Orbital playing live where the mysterious duo and their glasses kept the crowd moshing to closing time. We lost a few of the team soon after due to a diet of free sweets and clandestine rum and baled north of the river in lieu of another day to come.

Chase and Status

Saturday

Watching from afar, something that was immediately evident for Saturday’s LG Snowboard FIS World Cup was that the slope was running much faster. The riders were popping really high and landing deep in the landing, turning the mid-size jump to a beast that was more than worthy of an international standard.

The world Cup is a much more long-winded affair than the fun comps of Friday and saw two heats of 25 internationally renowned riders take two runs over the jump trying to score enough points to get themselves into the top five that would go through to the finals. We had a tidy UK offering with Ben Kilner, Jamie Nicholls, Jack Shackleton and Nate Kern all in the running. Ben did a textbook back 7 on his first run and was looking really strong but couldn’t get his double cork 10 together and ultimately finished up in 14th place. He still came top of the pile for the Brits with Nate Kern in 20th, Jamie Nicholls in 27th and Jack Shackleton in 47th.

An interesting requirement of the FIS jumps is that forerunners that are not entering the competition test the jump before the competitors – this is where last year I was body-checked to the floor by an AWOL rider – Mike Austin had a go this year and by all accounts it is a pretty awesome opportunity, ‘It was wicked, we were up there with all the finalists, the crowd was immense and I was the first person to drop in. I didn’t want to crash so I just went for a back 1 nose grab and mid-air I could hear the roar of the crowd, what an amazing feeling!’

Stefan Gimpl cab 10 to win it. Happy birthday

The riding in the final was fierce with Norway’s Ulrik Badertcher dropping backside 1260s, and Finland’s Janne Korpi doing them frontside. Still it was the experience and style that Stefan Gimpl laid down (on his 30th birthday no less) with a cab 10 and cab 9 that took him to the podium top spot. In second and third came Gian-Luca Cavigelli with a massive back 1080 double cork and a back rodeo 7. “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. Domen Bizjak rolled into third with a switch backside 9 and front 9. Saturday rounded off with the gruff and core mosh-pit jumping up and down to the Eagles of Death Metal, although Sunday welcomed the more mainstream Friendly Fires and Chase & Status in the arena. The crew did a fantastic job to battle the rain and run the skiing comps with a stubborn two fingers to the inclement weather.

Friendly Fires