This Saturday part of the lama crew gathered in Brussels for the Red Bull soap box race (zeepkistenrace).
The concept: build your own car, make it look funny or cool and try to get down the mountain as fast as you can !
The result: A lot of people, good atmosphere, crazy and funny car designs and some insane crashes !
We got there around 1.30pm and went to the VIP to get some good brunch and watch the first teams make their way down the track. Perfect view on the jump and the last corner which caused the most crashes, so much fun !
Later on we went up to the start to cheer on the crews that were in the contest and watch the action from closer by. Despite the bad weather a lot of people turned up to watch the action, which made it a lot of fun to watch in the middle of the crowd !
Seeing how much fun this was the lama's started brainstorming, why wouldn't we try and compete next year?? getting some crazy ideas but we're motivated to try it ! be ready for some more news on this in the coming season. If we can do it, it'll be sick !
If you didn't have the chance to see it live this year, make sure you can be there next year ! It's totally worth the trip, for sure a lama favorite !
Thanks to the guys from red bull for all the hospitality !
For most
guys the season is over ! Seppe is still doing some photoshoots in the States
for next year’s Burton movie.. make sure you’re ready for some insane shots
again !
For the rest of the lama crew the season ender was the Belgian championships
like usual.. Les 2 Alpes in France again but the whole event (beside the
contests) was going on in the city center ! great change and great locations
for the parties and the concerts.
First up was the boardercross competition. The course had more jumps and small
rollers which made it a lot more interesting to ride ! Seppe and Anthony both
made it into finals together with Rob Cornelissen and Lars Peirtsegaele. It was
a super fun final run with everyone battling for first place ! Seppe crashed
just before the finish and broke his board putting Anthony in 3rd
place, Lars 2nd and Robke wont it this year ! Congrats !
The rest of the week was filled with bad weather, Tuesday they closed down the
whole mountain so no slopestyle, Wednesday big air was cancelled because of the
fog.
Thursday the organization decided to try and run slopestyle again. The weather
was OK to ride and the contest was on ! in harsh conditions the riders managed
to put down some good runs in the end, only the top 3 managed to land their runs..
Seppe took first place, 2nd was for David van den Boer and Philippe
Declerq took 3rd. Anthony went down on his BS 7 twice on the last
jump so no podium this time.
The last day we tried Big air again, the weather was supposed to roll in again
in the afternoon so the format was changed to just 3 runs for everyone and no
finals ! The jumps wasn’t as big as other years and this combined with the bad
weather pushed the riders to try and land safe tricks. 4 riders did a 720 so it
was gonna be close for the podium ! Seppe being the only one putting down a BS
10 took the win again, followed by Robke with a cab 7 and David van den Boer in
3rd with a FS 7 from his toes !
Seppe took the title in the overall ranking thanks to his 2 wins ! big up again
little lama ! 2nd place was for Sebbe de Buck and David van den Boer
took 3rd place.
Once again a sick week with fun snowboarding and good parties (including our
very own lama party which was a great success again, big cheers to all our fans
!). Thanks to the crew for putting this together again !
Yesterday the Quiksilver spring battle 2012 started of in Flachauwinkl ! Seppe and Anthony were once again invited to join this sick season ender contest.
On Wednesday they had the training day to check out the 2 kickers for this 5 star TTR big air event which kicks of the 2012/2013 TTR season. With perfect weather, a good park and no wind they both managed to put down some good tricks and felt confident for Thursday's quali's and semi-finals.
The weather forecast wasn't looking too promising for Thurday, but in the morning everything still looked good. When they got up on the mountain for the training the wind already started picking up which made it hard to get the right speed.. To make it more safe for the riders only the 1st kicker would be judged ! In qualifications Anthony managed to land one of his best cab 9's in a long time, he was super stoked and got rewarded with a place in the semi finals !
Here the 10 invited riders joined the 10 riders from the quali's. 3 runs of which the best one counts ! Since Friday was supposed to be really bad weather the riders were told not to hold back and go for it since this might be the final result ! but it got more and more windy with flags flying away, banners ripping of and more chaos.. So riders had to wait and hope for a good moment to be able to drop in for their run !
Seppe being an invited rider went for cab 12.. meanwhile Eric Willet put
down a FS 10 double, Ville Paumola landing switch BS 12 and Nuutti
Niemela with cab 12 as well ! Insane riding from everyone in scary
conditions ! Anthony managed to land his cab 9 again after having a slam
in training and got 15th place in this years contest ! Sick result for his first big competition in a long time !
The finals on Friday got cancelled because of bad weather, now we are just waiting for the final results to be announced at the video judging at 9pm tonight..
You can watch it livehere from 9pm on ! Don't miss it cause you'll see all the top 10 runs from this sick 5 star TTR event !
Also, check out the small edit Seppe & Anthony made with the GoPro!
For sure all of you heard about the tragedy which found place in Swiss the day before yesterday. Back then we we're too blown away to put the right words on paper. Today we're giving it a try...
6 adults and 22 children, 22!, lost their lives in a Swiss tunnel. All of them had just enjoyed a week of winter-fun in the Alpes. A sudden and unforeseen accident changed the lives of all the children, and their relatives lives, for ever.
We can't imagine the amount of pain the parents and relatives have to deal with right now. Losing and berrying a child is the hardest thing possible to deal with.
Tomorrow Belgium is having a day of national mourning. Let 11 am be the most silenced minute ever... as it is necessary to mourn and think about these children - who's lives we're lost too soon, who loved our sport, who's future was still so bright - remember their laughs, their joys, their playfulness - pay your support to their parents, who just lost the most precious thing they had in this very wicked world...
Let it be the most silenced minute ever...
To all the parents and relatives we express our dearest sympathy
As you read in our previous post we had a blast last week with birthday parties and celebrating Seppe's 3rd spot at the World Champs in Oslo.
This week started of great as well! Tim and Christophe headed over to Snowbase, Terneuzen, on monday to witness the premiere from the new SSX snowboard game. On this Red Bull promoted event they enjoyed the free beers and got their cocktail shaken by a rider.
After some drinks and long talks with the Red Bull ladies they returned home with the new video game in their pocket.
Make sure to watch the clip, some serious shaking by the riders!
Today we all skipped work to see the semi-finals at the Burton European Open in Laax.
The slopestyle course in Laax starts with 2 rail options, continues in a rhythm sections (2 short jumps in a row - with a ton of back to back 5's thrown today), 2 bigger kickers and a jib section from Mini to finnish things of...
Seppe managed to qualify for the finals. He advances from two well filled heats with heavy competition. As the jumps don't allow much variation and amplitude it is a hard one to catch... Riders struggled to get their runs down on the trashed course in really warm and slushy conditions. Every rider in the final has 2 10's on lock and putting down a decent 12 looks really hard on these flat jumps. Our guess!? It's gonna be a close one tomorrow afternoon in the finals. It will all come down to perfection and style... too bad there is no room for advanced tricks and riding on this 6 star TTR slopestyle course!!
Watch all the action tomorrow as from 12h15 on red bull.tv
The week isn't finished yet!
On saturday Christophe is heading to Snowvalley, Peer. He's judging the third edition of our national Freestyle Cup, this time a Big Air competition is going down!
Sure hope to see a lot of stoked young riders out there! Report and photo's will follow later.
To finish things of here's the last text we got from Anthony: "Leaving Leuven right now, heading for Slovenia to shoot with the Quiksilver crew, really looking forward and stoked. Keep me up to date tomorrow during the finals. Cruising on the freeway Lama"
While Seppe was sending it at Air and Style and the world champs the other lama's had some busy times as well !
First up Anthony and Tim went on a snowboarding trip to Val Thorens with ski-line. Anthony was giving the freestyle clinics in the park together with his good friend Tars ! Big up to everyone who joined the clinics, we've seen some sick riding ! such a good experience to teach other people how to ride in the park !
In between the clinics the we went powder riding with our friends and had some fun on the jumps as well. Top all of this off with some good parties, meeting a lot of new people and this was for sure 1 of the best trips we had ! thanks to the whole ski-line crew for making this unforgettable !
Back in Belgium Tim and Anthony both celebrated their 22nd birthday ! Seppe had just gotten back from Oslo and joined us to build a sweet party in Leuven..
Anthony got some great presents from everyone, first a ride in the red bull jeep to the restaurant, some free champagne and a massive sushi dinner with a lot of friends !
The crew even worked together to get him a poster with one of his best snowboarding pics ! one of the best present ever, thanks to everyone for this ! After some more free drinks they went down to a local bar to enjoy some of the best Belgian beers and take pictures that none of us remembered the following morning !
What an insane night to celebrate both our birthdays, the hangover the next day was totally worth it ! thanks to everyone who was there for making it an unforgettable night !
And what is up next? Seppe is in Laax for the Burton european open and Anthony is leaving on Wednesday for a teamtrip to Slovenia with Quiksilver.
But more on this soon on our blog !
for more pictures from the ski-line trip check here
More pics from our birthdayparty on our facebook page soon !
Today the finals from the first TTR world championships slopestyle went down in Oslo. The whole lama crew got together at Anthony's place to watch Seppe ride on the big screen. Yesterday they had a lot of rain which made the course really icy and hard to ride, but nevertheless the riders where throwing down everything they had !
Seppe managed to put down his first run ! A little sketchy on the rails but stomping a perfect cab 12, BS 10 and FS 10 on the jumps.. This put him in first place ! in the 2nd run Seb touts took the lead and Chas Guldemond took 2nd place putting our little lama in 3rd place..
In the last run Seppe went all in and tried his just learned FS double cork 10 on the last kicker but he overrotated it and kept his 3rd place ! Chas went for it as well and with the last run of the contest he bumped Seb Touts from his first place ! Congrats to Seppe for killing it again and taking bronze ! big up for Chas and Seb as well, insane riding again !
if you missed the finals you can watch all the replays here
Seppe's single runs can be foundon this link
Now Seppe is having a small party in Oslo. He will be landing in Brussels tomorrow at 18.15h where the lama's will be waiting for him ! feel free to join us !
More news and shots from the world champs coming soon !
Hell we've been busy since we came back from Innsbruck. For sure you've seen the pictures of Seppe claiming the Big Air title on our facebook, we had a blast.
After Henry Jackson announced Seppe's win we climbed over the fences, ran down the track and the party started!
The day after Christophe returned to Belgium and Seppe went to Livigno to practice on some new tricks.
Next up was Oslo for the World Snowboard Championships. The WSC started a couple of days ago and little lama managed to qualify for the semi's with a BS10, FS7 and a Cab9 on the jumps. Tomorrow the riders have some more practice on the technical slopestyle course and friday semi's are on at 13h10.
In the mean time the riders enjoyed some shows from the Dropkick Murphys and Turbonegro, a Norwegian band.
Here are the riders battling for a spot in the finals on friday:
Niklas Mattson SW 77.7
Aleksander Ostreng NO 72.7
Seppe Smits BE 66.7
Ryan Stassel US 66.4
Benji Farrow US 66.0
Sebastien Toutant CA 73.6
Roope Tonteri FI 70.2
Sage Kotsenburg US 67.4
Halldor Helgason IS 66.6
Chas Guldemond US 66.4
Nuutti Nimela FI 64.4
Sven Thorgren SE 64.1
Matts Kulisek CA 64
Ville Uotila FI 62.2
Tyler Flanagan US 61.9
Eric Beauchemin US 61.6
Ville Paumola FI 61.6
Ethan Morgan DE 61.5
All riders will be divided in 2 heats. Top 3 from both heats and the 4 best scores out of both heats advance to a 10 man final on sunday.
Make sure to check our facebook page for updates and latest news!
Seppe just arrived in Innsbruck for this years Air & Style after his performance at the X-games.
Today the riders had a first training session on the jump. "The jump is so good and a lot of fun to ride, things are looking very promising for Saturday, it's gonna be sick" was the first thing Seppe told us !
Christophe is leaving for Innsbruck tomorrow, he will be giving live updates on our facebook page from the backstage while the contest is going down ! so make sure to check our page regularly !
you can also follow the contest on the live webcast
The TTR big air champion will also be crowned after the competition.
In order to win this title Seppe has 2 options:
1 --> win the air & style and Eric Willett shouldn't get a podium spot
2 --> Get 2nd place and Eric finishes no higher than 6th place and Staale Sandbech cannot win the gold.
Any other scenario than this and the title of Big air champ will go to either Eric or Staale ! Normally Mark McMorris was in the running for this title as well but he got an invite to go to Travis' backcountry contest.
Little lama just got back home and is now enjoying a jetlag after killing it at his first X-games US appearance.
First up was the big air competition, 10 riders, best 5 advanced into the finals. Seppe was in the first heat and made it trough with BS 12 and Cab 12 ! In the finals the level went trough the roof on this years massive gap jump !
The spectators witnessed tripple corks being thrown down by both Torstein and Mark. Seppe himself stepped it up as well landing BS 12 and a Cab 14 which got him 5th place in the end !
Slopestyle was up next, Seppe had already qualified himself for the finals the day before in 6th place. In the first ever night session slopestyle 8th of the worlds best riders were to battle it out again !
In the finals the snow got really fast which made it hard for the riders to link all their tricks together and not overshoot the jumps. The pressure was on after Seppe couldn't land his first 2 runs. But in the last run he landed every trick he wanted ! "for sure the best run of my life" was the first thing he said afterwards ! He was hoping for a top 3 spot after this run, but in the end the judges gave him a 5th place ! All in all a good first X-games experience for Seppe getting two 5th place finishes ! We're allready looking forward to next year !
We still have his runs from both slopestyle and big air for you !
Big air men:
1st place: Mark McMorris
2nd place: Torstein Horgmo
3rd place: Seb Toots
