The Fabulous Tournament, Avoriaz, February
2004
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_the concept of the fabulous tournament is simple;
take eight of the worlds best riders, and put
them up against eight rookies, and do the whole
thing in the theme of a basketball tournament.
they did it for the first time last season and
the event was a huge success. why? because it's
something different, something new, something
cool.
...so the event came to avoriaz this year, the
absolute european capital of jibbing and freestyle.
avoriaz was the first resort in europe to have
a snowboard park and has since been welcoming
to snowboard events. everyone remembers the
boucherie, and more recently the nixon jib fest.
such events are usually associated with hot
sunny weather, slush, music, and barbeques.
however this was january in the alps and although
this time last season freak weather caused temperatures
of over 20 degrees and conditions typical of
spring time, perfect for one of the biggest
jib comps of the season, this year riders were
welcomed by temperatures well below zero and
a snowstorm which would have put off even the
eskimos from strapping in..
but the show must go on..and indeed it did.
48 out of the 80 invited riders were amped up
to ride what was a pretty gnarly looking course
and battle it out for a place in the rookie
team. the "court" consisted of a double
kinked handrail, a 3 metre wallride, and an
s-rail. an epic session followed, the riders
not put off by almost gale force winds and the
occasional snowfall. considering the conditions
the contest saw some damn good riding throughout
the week, the so-called "rookies"
killing the course with technical rail tricks
and sick style to go with it. part of the judging
criteria was that riders should adopt a skate-style,
and with most of them riding boards no longer
than 150 this wasn't hard to achieve! the introduction
of a qualification round for the rookie team
proved to create a very strong team who at times
seemed to be putting the allstars to shame,
avoriaz local sylvain lami was pulling out some
of the best tricks on the rail while emeric
front was ruling the wallride (aka the slamdunk
backboard).
the novelty of the basketball theme to the contest
kept the interest high all week for both riders
and spectators. there was even a rookies vs.
allstars basketball match played in avoriaz
one morning and live painting from european
artists in the rider lounge - this kind of creativity
on behalf of the organisers definitely dictated
the success of the event and is what sets the
fabulous tournament in a genre of it's own in
the snowboard calender. it is easy to almost
O.D on snowboarding when an event lasts all
week, but the other activities broke up the
boarding sessions nicely and kept the vibe going...as
did the free beer!
rumous of a sunny weekend were floating around
and then finally, as if rewarding the riders
for their performance throughout the week, the
weather cleared up for the final on saturday
and the kickers finally got the sessioning they
deserved in glorious sunshine. again an impressive
yet challenging course was created, involving
a tabletop transfer jump and a 20m jump over
the snowpark hut. having been run for their
money all week on the rails, the allstars did
now seem to have the edge on the kickers and
the final result was rookies 6, allstars 8.
allstars win for the 2nd year, but we had them
worried for a while there!
Editorial : A Winter
    
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