One of the driving forces behind snowboarding as a culture, sport, whatever you call it has always been competitions, but the excuse to get together and shred was as much of the draw of the event as it was to see who was the ‘best’.
With snowboarding’s entry into the Olympics in 1996, things changed – and not necessarily for the better. While it meant that competition became better organised, with increased prize money and a more professional approach, it also took much of the community aspect away, with riders actively trying to outdo each other and win the thing. As snowboarding grew and mind-numbing amounts of prize money became involved, there was definitely a move towards the arena of ‘comp riders’ who followed the circuit for fame and wealth, which led to a kind of ‘fuck comps’ attitude from a lot of riders who would film video parts instead.
Last season we decided to visit some of the best comps out there, not only to check out the riding but also to get a feel for the community. We decided to only visit those that welcome spectators or are open to anybody to attend. If you want to visit for yourself, all you have to do is check out the website, book a flight and head over. The comps we went to run from small UK-based gatherings like Scotland’s Upbattle to the Laax Open, probably Europe’s biggest competition and a vital stop on the FIS world Tour. They included street snowboard events like DIYX and national championships like The Brits. A full spectrum of snowboarding, if you will.
The question we asked ourselves was: do comps suck?
PC: James North
Name: DIYX
Date: 16-20 November 2022
Location: Innsbruck, Austria
DIYX is a cultural snowboard gathering like no other and the soiree we’ve been lacking within our precious little world. Luckily the eclectic brain of event founder Ethan Morgan has saved our souls, as the community gathered together for a weekend of absolute carnage and celebration of street snowboarding in its purest form – and naturally, all the lifestyle aspects that surround it i.e. partying / getting shit-faced.
Last winter, DIYX held two separate stops. The first in its in its spiritual home of Innsbruck, Austria and a later stop in the global street mecca of Helsinki, Finland.
DIYX is an invite-only competition event supported by Monster Energy, which cherry-picks snowboarding’s most prolific worldwide names. Even though the riding might be exclusive, the overall event is very much inclusive and anyone is welcome to immerse themselves in it over the weekend’s frivolities.
The format is in essence a jam session, just homies riding together and getting creative with what’s in front of them, which moves throughout the city, hitting up a new street spot every day. With the city of Innsbruck fully onboard, they support by shifting masses of snow to the locations for the dedicated volunteer shaper crew to get busy with. As the sessions get going, riders are constantly finding new ways to hit the spot and are encouraged to grab shovels, move features and adapt things to open up new lines.
Like the event itself, Ethan’s mind is chaos (in the most brilliant way) and with that he produces some wild ideas, one of which came to light was his ring of fire! Ethan and the crew attached a large ring to the roof of his beloved Gaper69 van (also known and adored by the snowboard community), as one final salute to the van’s years of service before it entered retirement. A ceremonial burning in the most brilliant fashion. Doused in gasoline, the ring lit up the city as riders shotgunned through this thing while the large crowds lost their mind. The energy was astronomical. Innsbruck erupted. It was a special moment.
It’s impossible not to love this event.
PC: James North
Spot to Spot
Date: 10-11 December 2022
Location: Avoriaz, France
The early season is a great time to ride. Quiet slopes, low prices before the Christmas rush, new snow and the stoke of getting a head start on the months-long winter stretching out in front of you. Of course, you’ll need to get high up to get the snow and you’re unlikely to get pow, but early December is a shred time that is often overlooked.
A few years ago, Volcom and team rider Arthur Longo got together to launch Spot to Spot, a fun jam/competition that takes place in Avoriaz, France (if you’ve never seen Arthur Longo ride, stop reading this and immediately watch Side Hits Euphoria on YouTube. We’ll wait). The premise behind Spot to Spot is solidly one of community and taking place over a weekend, it’s open to all levels of rider, from fresh beginners to seasoned pros, and takes place around the resort, with the crew getting together and riding between the spots where the comp takes place – Spot to Spot.
Entrants use the mountain as they ride and then jam on enhanced natural features and in the park, hitting everything they can on the way. The vibe is fun, the features are great and the stoke is real. Spot to Spot manages to capture the way that snowboarders actually ride – adapting to the conditions and locations on the go – and turns it into a competition that doesn’t feel like a competition, it’s just a group of like-minded people getting together to have a blast!
There’s no more suitable place to hold an event like Spot to Spot than Avoriaz. The legendary French resort was built on a plateau in the 1960s and features a unique design and wooden-clad buildings, but the way the architects used the mountain topography gives rise to dozens of places for side hits and street spots. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see Longo ride this year as he was injured, but he was still there, getting stoked on the event that he conceived and the community that came together for it.
PC: Christian Stadler
Name: Laax Open
Date: 18-22 January 2023
Location: Laax, Switzerland
Given its status as the biggest European comp of the season, the Laax Open is serious business – it’s the most important European stop of the World Cup Tour and offers all-important Olympic Qualification points, yet it retains the vibe of a local’s comp thanks to unbelievable organisation, the best freestyle facilities on the planet and riders who actually want to be there. The Crap Sogn Gion mountain already scores a 10 as one of the absolute best parks in Europe, yet every January they turn it up to 11 with Olympic-level kickers, rails and innovative features that have riders scratching their heads on how to approach their runs. Most pros have ‘comp’ runs that they hone throughout the season, yet the Laax Open throws enough of a curveball each year to demand a creative approach and some out-of-the-box thinking at the event.
Laax also offers one of the world’s best halfpipes which is built and maintained throughout the winter, complete with 21-foot walls and a pitch that ensures an insane level of riding. The qualifications continue through the week and culminate in a night final where thousands of people line the pipe to watch the absolute cream of the world’s halfpipe riders throw down.
Despite the insane level of riding, the love of snowboarding for its own sake is clearly visible. Early January often sees plenty of snowfall in this part of Switzerland and the vibe is represented well. The Laax Open has earned the nickname ‘The Pow Open’ by many riders since it always seems to dump at some point in the week and you’ll undoubtedly see them taking laps between qualification rounds. You’ll also see them in the ‘Crap Bar’ at the bottom of the hill for acres and the evening, but that’s another book of stories…
PC: Brodie Hood
Name: Upbattle
Date: 18-19th March 2023
Location: Aviemore, Scotland
With an increasing number of people heading to ski resorts, things are getting crowded out there and a small but growing number of riders are ditching lift tickets altogether and instead opting to use human power to explore the outdoors. While split boarding has a high entry price due to the cost of the gear, once you’ve made the purchase, then you’re good to go for years. Spliboarding will never be as popular as its downhill equivalent, but there’s room for everybody at snowboarding’s stoke table.
Snowboarding is an individual sport, but communities are built by individuals. Jonny Barr has been well known in UK snowboarding since the very early days and has moved through the ranks from shop kid to seasonaire, sponsored rider to pro. Jonny’s early snowboard days were sent in Aviemore before he took off for Chamonix and around the world, so when he hung up his pro boots and settled down in Aviemore, Scotland to raise a family, he soon fitted back in with the community he helped to build 20 years before.
Jonny has always been the kind of person to look for new avenues to explore and got involved in Splitboarding long before many people even knew what it was. True to form and with his snowboarding history, Jonny soon decided he wanted to promote this slice of snowboarding and ten years ago he established UpBattle, a test weekender and community gathering where like-minded uphill snowboarders get together, ride and even compete for fun.
For the 2023 season, UpBattle expanded beyond the main event and now includes another stop hosted by Olympian Leslie McKenna at Glencoe as the main event at Aviemore. UpBattle 2023 was another successful event to add to the records, including the famous UpBattle Derby where entrants skin up the mountain in touring mode, then reassemble their boards to race back down the hill. The event also featured full demos of split gear so that you can try before you buy as well as on and off-hill seminars to give you additional mountain knowledge and a ludicrously generous raffle in aid of the local Mountain Rescue team that raised over a grand. If you’ve ever even contemplated split boarding, UpBattle is where you need to go next season and the event itself is totally free to attend!
Name: The Brits
Date: 1-2nd April 2023
Location: Cairngorm. Scotland
British Snowboarding was pretty much born at Cairngorm Mountain, with a few die-hards establishing the scene and helping to host the first-ever British Championships over 30 years ago. The Brits – to give the event its proper name – has continued in various locations including France, Austria and Switzerland, with only Covid interrupting three decades of shred. When it came time to relaunch the event once travel restrictions were relaxed, there was only one place that the event could go, back to where it all began – Scotland.
In the run-up to the event, Cairngorm built the best park the mountain had seen in years, with great snow conditions and sunny weather. When zero hour came, the park crews had built Slopestyle, Banked Slalom and Rail Jam courses
With this year’s event being run so close to home, a lot of the faces who made up the cream of the crop over the years made the trip North, which resulted in some of the best riding those creaking knees had put in for years. From OGs like Simon Smith, Mark Rothwell and Jeremy Sladen, to Tim Warwood, Elliot Neave, Si Brass and Scott McMorris from the mid-00s, the all-new Dad’s Banked Slalom event was hotly contested and hard fought over. The Slopestyle event showed that the future of UK riders remains bright with Jamie Trinder, Andy Nudds and Liam Tynan taking the 1-2-3 in the Men’s with Liz Osbourne, Jasmin Furber and Lisa Gibson doing the same for the women.
And of course, The Brits wouldn’t be The Brits without a pretty comprehensive off-the-hill schedule and Aviemore, scene to many, many nights of debauchery over the years, was the focal point. We’ll keep schtum on exactly what happened, but as the organisers said pre-event 'In the history of snowsports, no contest held in Aviemore has ever disappointed and we ain’t gonna be the first’.
Over 150 competitors attended The Brits 2023, showing that despite the disruption over the last few years, the passion for a UK-focused competition remains strong. Following an insanely successful event in Scotland, The Brits returns to Tamworth Snowdome on 11th May 2024.
PC: James North
Name: Vans Hi Standard
Date: 1-2nd April 2023
Location: Laax, Switzerland
Vans is a brand that has always shown up for snowboarding, supporting the culture at a grassroots level ever since the very early days. One of their big contributions in recent years is their Hi-Standard series of events, which has been hot property on the comp/event scene for a hot minute. Hi-Standard offers an avenue for all levels of rider to get involved. With the insane level of difficulty being displayed these days at snowboard competitions by some of the best athletes on the planet, Vans decided that they wanted to host a series of fun competitions that anyone across all ages could attend, enter and just have a damn good time.
They also wanted to reward style over tricks so they imposed a ‘nothing over 720’ rule. Triple cork? You score nothing. Perfect switch BS 9? Zero. Swaggy back 1? Ding ding! You can even go home with a full wallet as the judges dish out cash for tricks on the spot. The Hi-Standard series travels the world, with a final each year and this year’s was in Laax Switzerland where the Vans crew took over one of the best parks on the planet (also home to their Vans plaza) to bring the vibes to the mountain, pull the community together off the hill and show why they are one of the best brands out there.
This year they laid on a special set up right down at the bottom gondola next to all the iconic Laax apres hangs. The beers flowed like wine as the full crew gathered for a mini park sesh that went well into the evening. It’s sessions like these that always make you realise how strong our community truly is.
Strengthening that pillar even more was local hero Yung Doli’s beer pong tournament which played out knockout style in the riders club. I’m not sure if the cheers of support were stronger here than on the hill. Riders go big, tweak hard and keep things simple as the sessions play out in jam format from feature to feature around the park. This series has toured the globe supporting all local scenes even as far flung as Russia. The energy is always electric. Come to the next Hi-Standard and judge for yourself
Epilogue
We went into this project asking ourselves what the future holds and whether snowboarding is in a healthy place, both competitively and culturally. We’re stoked to report that things are looking great. The level of competition is insane and there is a healthy level of stoke throughout the community. Whether you’re competing yourself or are just there to drink in the atmosphere, any one of these events is worthy of your time.