14 years and running strong, jam-packed annually with over 46,000 visitors – freestyle.ch has achieved cult status as Europe‘s largest freestyle sports event.
Now it‘s time to work the same magic elsewhere. From Friday October 9 until Sunday October 11, freestyle.ch will expand its successful format beyond Zurich to Berlin. On top of that, an international tour is in the works. freestyle.berlin will deliver the goods, serving up international cutting-edge freestyle snowboarding, freeskiing, FMXing and skateboarding along with the entertainment to match it. The world’s best FMX pilots will also show their spectacular jumps in the SWATCH FMX show.
LIVE Webcast Schedule (CEST)
Friday October 9 from 19:30 until 23:00
Saturday October 10 from 14:00 until 23:00
Sunday October 11 from 13:30 until 18:00
The Swiss had a strong chance for a win as Christian Haller and Iouri Podladtchikov headed into
Sunday’s Snowboarder Superfinal. Failed landings decided otherwise, however, knocking these two
athletes down to 3rd and 4th. A well-deserved victory went to the experienced rider from Helsinki and
2006 champ, Eero Ettala. He earned his «freestyle.champ» title with a Backside 1080 Mute as well as a
Switch Double Cork 1080, which he landed for the first time ever, putting his opponent, 17 year old
talent Sebastien Toutant in 2nd. No one managed to throw tricks as high and as wide as Eero.
Click for a video recap of sunday’s finals, and more pics from our reporter on stage Jerome!
Ipod qualifies for the finals and nails the crossover.champ title!
Of the remaining ten riders to qualify for the finals, Christian «Hitch» Haller from Switzerland was able to snag 1 place with his Frontside 1080 Tailgrab. Coming in 2 with a Backside 1080 Double Cork, it quickly became clear why everyone calls 17 year old Seb Toutant from Canada the Trick Master. Iouri Podladtchikov, also from Switzerland, secured himself 3 with a Double Backside Rodeo that left audiences gasping, followed by Eero Ettala from Finland in 4 . Add to that Nicolas Müller and Markus Keller, who already qualified on Friday evening, and the number of Swiss heading into today’s final is bigger than it’s been in some time!
Elias Elhardt impressed the crowd and the judges with clean Double Cork 10s.
Freestyle.ch Zurich 2009 was already pulsing with fervor Friday as expectant visitors and hot contests ignited the Landiweise. The first portion of the qualification delivered impressive sports action while the evening’s hot rap beats were delivered by none other than top Swiss star, Stress.
A clearly contented Stress had thousands of heads rocking to the beat along the banks of Lake Zurich. Then the moment arrived: the spotlight shifted its focus, lighting up the stage of the Big Air, as snowboarders took to their own stage to bedazzle the crowds. Audience favorite, Gian Simmen charmed the masses as he lit up the freestyle arena with his easy-going chatter. In contrast, Elias Elhardt from Germany delivered a speechless performance that landed him at the top of the qualification ranking list. He impressed the jury with an unbelievable Double Cork 10 and a clean Backside Five Japan, sending the crowds into an uproar. A flawless performance was also delivered by 26 year old Markus Keller from Switzerland with his perfect Bloody Dracula Frontside Five. In the last moment, international style-king, Nicolas Müller was able to qualify for the finals alongside TTR champ Peetu Piiroinen.
Check below for some impressions from our reporter in Zurich, Jérome Haldemann.
Freestyle.ch, Europe’s biggest freestyle sports event, starts today and if you are not in Zurich you can still watch it live on SnowBroader.
The world’s best snowboarders, freeskiers, FMX pilots and skateboarders will show their daredevil tricks, flips and jumps and try to snatch the greatly demanded titles «freestyle.champ» and «crossover.champ». The show starts today from 19:00 till 23:00 and continues Saturday (14:00 - 23:00) and Sunday (13:30 - 18:30).
Yes that’s right the 15th annual freestyle.ch event is going to take place from September 25 – 27, 2009 in Zurich!
20 snowboarders among which Torstein Horgmo, Charles Guldemond, Iouri Podladtchikov, Peetu Piiroinen, and freeskiers, 8 FMXers and 12 skateboarders will go head-to-head in two equally rated qualifications on Friday and Saturday, followed by Sunday’s full program of finals. Let’s see whether snowboarder Stefan Gimpl, freeskier Jacob Wester, FMX pilot Thomas Pagès and skateboarder Sandro Diaz manage to hang on to their 2008 freestyle.champ titles.
The Landiwiese is sure to be cooking Saturday evening as the best in the four freestyle sports disciplines flaunt their tricks in the «Ultimate Crossover Session», ensuring a bombastic display of daredevil feats in a tantalizing fight for the crossover.champ title!
We have a bunch of tickets to give away so if you were thinking about heading to Zurich next week-end, here’s your chance to access the event for free!
Click below to take part in our competition! Read the rest of this entry »
Freestyle.ch is over! And what an event is was! Really good vibes and amazing level of performance. Stefan Gimpl is the winner of this year’s Freestyle.ch snowboard comp! He stumped a perfect 10er in the final to beat Hampus Mosesson, Peetu Piroinen and Scotty Lago. Congrats Stefan!
The Landiwiese in Zurich is a perfect spot for such an event that combines FMX, freeski, snowboard and skate. It’s just great to be able to see such a high level of progression in 4 disciplines at the same location. And the way it is all mixed up by the organisation is just perfect. The action sport spirit is alive in Zurich!
Epic show yesterday evening during freestyle.ch. Freeskiers, snowboarders, FMX riders, and skaters competing in face off finals for the title of ultimate Crossover rider! Stephan Maurer who won his final with solid a solid 7, represented the snowboaders but he was facing tuff competition with freeskier Simon Dumont pulling huge double front flips (with a superman in the middle on his winning run for the super final), swiss FMX rider ruler Mathieu Rebeaud going siiiiiick with massive backflips, and brazilian Sandro Dias simply ruling the skate ramp.
Stephan sadly didn’t land his trick in the super final.
The crowd went wild and screamed their support for Sandro Dias!! Sandro really diserved the win. He simply rules the skate ramp and you can already given him the prize money for today’s final for sure!
What a show and an organisation! Really stocked. Check it out in the slideshow below!
Yau from Zurich! The freestyle.ch is well under way and the atmosphere is really cool. On friday a first round of riders competed to qualify for sunday’s final. The 4 who made the cut were Peetu Piiroinen - he won with a stylish Backside Rodeo 7 and a Cab 9, Stefan Gimpl, German Elias Elhardt and local hero Swiss ripper Reto Kestenholz.
Right now the second round of qualis just finished. It was a tuff group with a hot list of riders: Stefan Maurer, Mat Crepel, Danny Larssen, Hampus Mosseson, Torstein Horgmo, Risto Mattila, Scotty Lago…The riders went for three runs: a style run and 2 tech runs. At that little game it’s Scotty Lago who ended up on top with a smoooth 10ner. Hampus Mosesson, Markus Keller and Risto Mattila also go through to sundays’ final. Ok now it’s party time! Check the slideshow below, before our video coming up later this week with lots of cool stuff!
Freestyle.ch hits the streets with some packed action sports -snowboard, freeski, FMX, sk8 - and crazy partying the whole week-end! SnowBroader is heading there to catch as much as possible from the action!
But for all of you who can’t make it there is always the option to watch live right here! And trust me, you don’t want do miss any bit of it! Big names like Crepel, Horgmo, Ettala, Mosesson, Bang, Benedek, Grilc, Wiig, Gidlung, Sörman, iPod, Longo, Larssen, Keller and defending champ Stefan Maurer will battle it on a gap that streched for 8 m comparing to last year, boasting an impressing 36 m!
The riders have been spilt into two groups for today’s qualis and the big final is planned on sunday from 5 pm on.
