The biggest "Super" thing happening this weekend

...and it's not the Superbowl! Bits and pieces have been flying around about the Red Bull Supernatural comp for a few months now, but this weekend it will all come to fruition. The Supernatural kicked off it's inaugural year at Baldface in British Columbia yesterday. Travis Rice began putting plans in motion after the Natural Selection comp held in Jackson four years back. The idea was to bring all the riders focused on backcountry filming and the young contest jibbers for a competition that brought both elements together.

 

After scouting locations from some time,  Rice and his crew chose the "Scary Cherry" face at Baldface knowing the elevation and northeastern facing aspect of the slope would allow the course to survive some warm spells or a week or two with no snow. The course was hand cut by Rice and a group of lumberjacks over the summer to have nearly 100 custom features from pillow lines and transfers to log ladders hung 30 feet in the trees. The slope starts at a steep 45 degree pitch slowly leveling out to 30 degrees further down with a massive kicker to powder midway. The whole run is almost a mile long.

Riders were not allowed any practice runs on the course and the starting order was determined by the ultimate woodsman contest Friday: made up of an ax throw, timed nail pound, and timed beacon search. The winner was allowed to call his drop-in position followed by the other riders in order with Lucas Debari taking that honor.

Saturday’s start order list is: 1. Scotty Lago 2. DCP 3. John Jackson 4. Lucas Debari 5. Terje 6. Mark Sollors 7. Nicolas Müller 8. Mark McMorris 9. Eero Niemala 10. Gigi Rüf 11. Mark Carter 12. Mark Landvik 13. Travis Rice 14. Sage Kotsenburg 15. Eric Jackson 16. Devun Walsh 17. Jake Blauvelt 18. Kazu Kokubo

Unsurprisingly, Travis took first place followed by backcountry big-hitters Gigi Ruf and Nicolas Muller. You can read all about their ridiculous runs here or you can wait to till March 31st to watch the whole thing go down on NBC.

Colorado

I am currently in Colorado enjoying the Sun and Snow (even if there is less than last year) so far it has been awesome and completely enjoyable. Hopefully conditions back east aren't deteriorating too much. I heard we even got a bit of snow, which is much needed after Tuesday was exceptionally warm again- 50+ degrees in mid January is just not cool... However while I'm having an awesome time here I will not be posting as much, there's just too much for me to do here!I hope you will understand:

In the meantime, I suggest everyone watch the X-Games which are taking place in Aspen this year and started today. Tomorrow will be the men and women's slopestyle, the snowboard Big Air Final and the women's SuperPipe Final- definitely all worth checking out. The events are viewable on ESPN or Espn.com A lot of awesome athletes like: Scotty Lago, Louie Vito, Kazuhiro Kokubo, IPod, Danny Davis, the Mitranis, Kelly Clark, Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter, Torah Bright, Torstein Horgmo, Mikkel Bang, Seb Touts, Halldor Helgason and many many more.


ps. Two more days to vote in Real Snow!

Dew Tour Day 3

Saturday, January 21, 2012
Festival Village open from 9:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m.
Womens Ski Slopestyle Practice	8:00-9:00 a.m.
Womens Ski Slopestyle Semi-final	9:00-10:30 a.m.
Mens Snowboard Slopestyle Practice	10:30-11:45 a.m.
Mens Snowboard Slopestyle Final	12:00-1:00 p.m.
Mens & Womens Ski Superpipe Practice	12:30-2:15 p.m.
Mens & Womens Ski Slopestyle Practice	1:00-4:00 p.m.
Womens Ski Superpipe Practice	2:15-2:45 p.m.
Womens Ski Superpipe Final	3:00-3:40 p.m.
Mens Ski Superpipe Practice	3:40-4:15 p.m.
Mens Ski Superpipe Final	4:30-6:00 p.m.

Yesterday provided us viewers with some truly sick runs to watch in both slopestyle and superpipe. These athletes are really stepping up the game and the Dew Tour is bringing out a lot of lesser know young guns looking for their chance to really break in and grab their place in the sun. Check out a few of the highlights from day 2:



Day 3 is all about the Snowboard Slopestyle finals. The riders have been pulling out all the stops to throw down some really gnarly tricks on this massive course and it's all leading up to today. The current top 5 on tour are: Gjermund Braaten, Sebastien Toutant, Charles Reid, Chas Guldemond, and Mikkel Bang. Only 9 out of 32 riders will advance from yesterday's semi-finals to today's finals with Eric Willett taking that top spot.

DEW TOUR IS HERE!

Today marks the start of the second of three Dew Tour stops and it's being hosted from the 19th-22nd by Killington. The four day long event showcases some of the top athletes in the sport throwing down everything they've got in a massive 22-foot superpipe as well as a truly intimidating  slopestyle course. If you've never been to the Dew Tour it is one of the largest events in the East and is worth going just to experience the booths, parties and raucous crowds. There are lots of freebies given out by sponsors in the "Festival Village" and the weather the next few days could make for some fun riding in between viewing events.

Here is the schedule for today:

Thursday, January 19, 2012 Festival Village open from 9:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m.
Womens Ski Slopestyle Practice 8:00-8:45 a.m. Womens Ski Slopestyle Qualifier 8:45-9:50 a.m. Mens Ski Superpipe Practice 9:00-10:15 a.m. Mens Snowboard Slopestyle Practice 9:50-10:50 a.m. Mens Ski Superpipe Last Chance Qualifier 10:30-11:30 a.m. Mens Snowboard Slopestyle Last Chance Qualifier 11:05 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Mens Snowboard Superpipe Practice 11:30 a.m.-1:15 p.m. Mens Ski Slopestyle Practice 12:45-1:45 p.m. Mens Snowboard Superpipe Last Chance Qualifier 1:30-2:15 p.m. Mens Ski Slopestyle Last Chance Qualifier 2:00-4:00 p.m. Womens Ski Superpipe Practice 2:15-4:15 p.m. Womens Ski Superpipe Qualifier 4:30-5:30 p.m.

pics from Dew Tour on Facebook

STE will be following up with coverage on these events as well as spotlights on some of the key riders to watch. Check back for updates soon. 

Contest season begins! Transworld TransAM Comp

Stop 1 of the Transworld TransAM comp is tomorrow, Saturday January 7th, at Waterville Valley. Last year brought out some sick amateur riders so it's worth checking out just to watch what crazy moves they might throw down. Plus when they get famous you can brag to all your friends about how you saw them compete "back in the day" before they became the next Shaun White. Peep this video of last years comp:



Kids will flip over anything! The top 3 boys and girls will go on to the finals at Bear Mountain and qualifiers there will then be entered in the Ride Shakedown finals at Snoqualmie.