The Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam took place on Dachstein glaicer for the seventh time. This year again the contest was a Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour 4 Star Event. The audience got their money’s worth, everything from heavy fog to bluebird sky and more than enough wind to mess up anybody’s day. But weather conditions didn’t stop 70 men and 20 women from showing some awesome runs. Huge airs, big spins and double “everything” combinations. And not to mention the parties in the evening where it all went completely crazy.
The day started with heavy fog and a long delay of qualifications in the morning, which started after eleven o’clock in the morning. Because of bad weather conditions, the organizers already decided to unite two runs into one single run, but the sun ruined their plans.
QParks Parkdesigner Bernd Mandlberger did a great job and provided an amazing set-up. The contest line was made of a kinked-Butterbox, two big 12m and 18m kickers, a 13m funbox and a wallride. At the first two take-offs there were also two smaller kickers of 10 and 13 m, but no one ended up using them.
The 87 riders took qualis very seriously, because only 12 spots for the dudes and 5 spots for the ladies were open in Saturday’s finals. We saw some truly remarkable runs and outstanding tricks, like a stylish BS 1080 by Slovenian ripper Matevz Pristavec, a double front flip by QParks shaper Jonel Fricke, Max Weickl with a huge BS Rodeo 7, Simon Gruper impressed viewers with a SW BS 5, a BS 720 and a FS 720 and Norvegian Braaten Gjermund with breathing run a BS 900, Cab 900 and FS 360. No less impresive were the lady’s qualis. Serena Shaw (USA), Aimee Fuller (GBR), Basa Stevulova (SVK) and Cilka Sadar (SLO) showed outstanding moves. Unfortunately due to the bad weather delay in the morning, the second run for ladies had to be postponed to Saturday morning.
The evening began with a Gala Dinner at the Hohenhaus Tenne and later continued with the Blue Tomato Party under the slogan „Peace and Love“ and the Loveolution movie premiere while DJs B.Visible and Stylestab provided great vibes until the next morning.
Saturday morning was just perfect. Bluebird sky, no wind and second run for ladies was on! Unfortunately riders like Stefan Gimpl and Eero Ettala couldn’t come. Despite missing riders finals were breathtaking!!! Marko Grilc destroyed all the rivals with an amazing run (CAB 9, double back flip and FS 9) and assured his appearance in superfinals. There he needed to prove his superiority over Elias Elhardt (GER) and his outstanding attack (FS 7, BS 1080 Doublecork and a Backflip).
Elias also convinced the judges for the Best-Trick-Contest with his special BS 1080 Doublecork and won a trip to Balicamp at Surfers Paradise! He could hardly describe his satisfaction with the final result: “this was my first TTR World Tour Contest and I would never had counted with taking the first place! Of course, I’m even more happy about it and literally in heaven now!”
The ladies super finals were all about Enni Rukajaervi (FIN) who came out with a mindblowing performance. Strong CAB 5, huge BS 3 and FS 3 got her the first place. She was full of excitement: “the contest was awesome and the set-up was just perfect. My style could have been better in my opinion. I’m totally satisfied with my performance and the result!” Young Czech super star Sarka Pancochova had the opportunity to take the lead of the TTR World-Ranking and she did so with a great 4th place on the Dachstein glacier.
A day full of awesome runs, breathtaking tricks and happiness ended with the legendary Pickings Fam Party at the Hofbauer Stollen. Die Vamummtn, Moz and DJs Drunken Masters concluded a splendid and successful event and rocked the tunnel till the sun came out.
We were also delivering LIVE streaming over the whole weekend, but don’t worry if you missed any. You can still watch our videos at the site. Check out what was going throughout the weekend and join our SnowBroader community. And don’t forget to come back, because a short movie is also coming by the end of this week with all the stuff I can’t explain here…so stay tuned!!!
