Ski Blog

As you may be aware from a news piece posted in the summer the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are considering adding Slopestyle to the 2014 Winter Olympic in Sochi. This has been partly fuelled by the success of the Halfpipe over the past three events but also by the desire of the snowsports community to see snowboard and freestyle skiing's ever popular discipline included.

With this in mind it appears that one of the most influential figures in world snowboarding and co-founder of the TTR World Snowboard Tour, Terje Haakonsen, has written to the IOC to discuss the state of slopestyle and the effective implementation of the spectacle within the next Winter Olympics. One of the reasons this open letter is so newsworthy is due to Terje's past, as he famously boycotted the first ever Winter Olympic Halfpipe event back in 1998 after the IOC handed control of the event from the snowboarder-run ISF to the skier-run FIS.

It now appears the hugely influential character wishes to work with Jacques Rogge, the President of the IOC, to bring Slopestyle to the world famous event as successfully as possible.

Letter to the editor:

As the Olympic slopestyle/snowboarding discussion is peaking, it is time to cast some light on this defining topic for the future of competitive snowboarding. This upcoming weekend, the ski federation FIS introduces slopestyle to their program, on the same weekend as the best slopestyle riders are competing in the Dew Tour. And the IOC is about to decide if they will include slopestyle in the next Olympic program or not. Some remarkable events have taken place in the last year. Let us recap:

After the extraordinary TV rating success of the Vancouver halfpipe contest, top cats from the IOC and NBC saw the potential in expanding the snowboarding program at the next Olympics. Seeing the golden boy Shaun White go double at the next winter Olympics (Sochi 2014) would be a ratings wet dream. In the fall of 2009, USA, Canada and New Zealand had prepared a proposition for the ski federation FIS’s annual congress in Turkey, June 2010. The idea was to prepare slopestyle for the 2018 Olympics by introducing it at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships, as the IOC requires two successful World Championships before considering new sports for future games.

By then, the FIS delegates were euphoric at the hysteria that followed the snowboarding events in Vancouver. They decided to speed up the process, bypassing the existing requirements, by submitting an application to the IOC immediately – before slopestyle had been tried out at a single FIS world championships. It is reasonable to imagine they felt confident that the IOC would react positively to this application.

The only problem was that IOC had a lot on their plate at their next meeting, in Acapulco in October. The most disturbing topic was women ski jumping; a nightmare for the Olympic movement. Women ski jumpers have been fighting for years to enter the Olympics, but have faced serious opposition both within FIS and the IOC. Many believe women ski jumping (including members of the sports media) does not have enough participants, is low on quality and does not have the necessary international reach as a sport to be a credible Olympic event. Women ski jumpers had sued the IOC before the Vancouver Olympics for discrimination, but were ruled against by the Canadian legal system.

Allowing snowboard slopestyle (as well as twintip ski halfpipe and slopestyle) before solving the women ski jumping issue probably made the choice impossible for IOC. Rather than accepting some applications from some sports and denying others, they made one statement for all: We will wait and see the quality of the sports at the upcoming world championships. FIS has several world championships coming up this season, among them the Nordic Ski World Championships in Oslo, the Snowboard World Championships in La Molina, Spain and the Freestyle World Championships in Deer Valley and Park City.

The only problem about this from a snowboarding perspective is that neither Molina nor Deer Valley/Park City had planned for a slopestyle! Even worse, Deer Valley actively bans snowboarding on a general basis and they do not have a terrain park. In Norway, where the snowboard federation is independent of FIS, and are part owners of the TTR/WSF World Snowboarding Championships in 2012, this whole situation culminated in a public debate. IOC executive board member Gerhard Heiberg admitted that IOC wanted to check out more than just FIS events when deciding upon the quality of slopestyle. As FIS did not have slopestyle on their Olympic program, this opened up for a new scenario in the debate: if the IOC could look at non-FIS events, could they also approve these events as qualifiers for the Olympics?

Everyone working with top level snowboarding contest knows how much the date conflicts in Olympic qualifying years is hurting the sport. This has been bad before, but in 2013, when riders are qualifying for both halfpipe and slopestyle, it has the potential to be a nightmare. And this is the fundamental problem of competitive snowboarding: it will never reap its full potential before the Olympic issue is solved. Snowboarding is not a 4 year cycle event. It is a daily operation where progress is happening in all corners of the world – summer, winter, spring and fall. At the moment, the Olympic halfpipe finals is only good for the podium winners, the IOC and the broadcasters. It does not help the sport as a whole.

The potential for date conflict is the most apparent problem. This was cruelly exposed when FIS all of a sudden decided to include slopestyle on the program at the La Molina Snowboarding World Championships – a mere two months before the event! This was obviously a move to impress the IOC before the slopestyle decision was made, but it was not a good move for the sport: the slopestyle contest in Molina happens on exactly the same dates as the Dew Tour stop in Killington. All Dew Tour riders, being the best slopestyle riders in the world, have been already committed to these events, meaning the FIS World Champion in slopestyle (and in halfpipe for that matter) will be crowned without the best riders attending.

Competitive snowboarding has fantastic potential. Right now, judging formats, slope design, prize money, TV production/distribution and rider services are progressing fast in TTR, X Games and Dew Tour events. These are the best events in the world. But they are outside the Olympic family. As the organizers as the biggest winter sports event in the world, we believe that the IOC holds a corporate responsibility for ensuring a workable solution for the sport. This will not only realise the potential of the sport, but also fast-track the quality of snowboarding contests at the Olympics. All of us, including event organizers, FIS, IOC and federations, should find a solution for the better good of the sport. Otherwise, the riders will be the main losers. They will be forced into making impossible choices between conflicting events in 2013 – on any given weekend throughout the season.

We believe a good solution could be a common Olympic ranking, not sanctioned by FIS or TTR, but a joint ranking list based on results from the best events in the world. By embracing this, the IOC would take a credible position for the youth of the world and take charge in the ongoing action sports revolution. We are willing to talk to find a good solution for the sport. But we are also willing to keep fighting for snowboarding like we have done for over a decade. The Olympic system for snowboarding is wrong; preserving the status quo is not an option.

Terje Haakonsen
Henning Andersen
Owner and organiser of The Arctic Challenge

First of all I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone involved in last nights event. Thanks to everyone who turned up, bought raffle tickets and took part. Thank you to everyone who sent us prizes or donations. Thank you to Tim Warwood for a very entertaining evening. Thank you to the Kings Arms for letting us take over their pub and hosting us. Because of all these people we have managed to raise a staggering £1200 for Snow-Camp.

So, for those of you who missed last night, it was a hugely successful night. 15 teams of friends, colleagues and fans of the charity turned up ready for an evening of fun, and helped make for a cracking night.

The quiz kicked off a little later than expected, though this did help us sell a few more raffle tickets and the extra beers drank helped the excitement build. Tim arrived with his usual humour and charm and started with the Brummie banter pretty quickly. There were a couple of hiccups at the start with the mic not working but we quickly found Tim's ability to project his voice added to the entertainment.

We started off with a potato sculpting round, giving everyone a spud, a knife and some cocktails stick, where they had to produce a themed scene by the end of the evening. The quiz questions were maybe a little more difficult then anticipated but this didn't cause too many issues, as easy quizzes can be boring and Tim was selling answers at £1 a go - topping up the night's fundraising.

The music round went down a treat and included some great movie tracks, from Velvet Underground in Juno, to Happy Gilmore. After two hours of questions, music and guess the celebrity faces it was time to judge the potato round. Now the content of this round wouldn't make it past the Iglu firewall, so just imagine what a room full of adults, in good spirits after a drink or two can come up with.

The quiz had been a good laugh and it was time to give away the prizes in the raffle. We started off with the T-shirts from Ski Big Three, some CD's from Virgin Records and some DVD's from Whitelines, building up the anticipation of the main prizes. Next we had the Oakley goggles to give away, the jackets donated by Metrosnow.co.uk and to finish off the skis from Ski Big Three. Having tickets in two colours caused some comedy confusion. We had a few comedy cases of people screaming and shouting in excitement at winning a prize only to find out the ticket was the other colour!

All in all the evening was a hit, we've raised money for Snow-Camp, entertained our crowd and have already had requests for the next one. A few weeks of hard work have paid off and it was more than worth it. Once again than you to everyone.

We will put the evening's photos onto the Igluski Facebook page shortly and if you would like to donate head to our Just Giving page.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been organising a charity pub quiz with fellow iglu-ite Esther Collas, in an attempt to raise money for a London based snowsports charity.

The Charity

Snow-Camp are a youth charity that offer disadvantaged inner city kids life skills programs and the opportunity to ski and snowboard. As keen snowboarders we were keen to give these kids the chance to experience the sports we love.

Esther - "I was lucky enough to put on my first pair of skis at the age of 13 when I went away with school. At 19 I turned to the dark side (snowboarding) and have never looked back. Not everyone has the opportunity to ski and snowboard and are not as fortunate as myself. Snow-Camp are able to offer this opportunity and I wanted to play a small part in helping someone fall in love with the sport as much as I did."

The Quiz

The idea for the quiz came from wanting to offer something in exchange for donations rather than begging people for money. Esther is taking part in the Everest challenge, where she will join Snow-Camp and other fund-raisers in covering 150km of the Portes du Soleil in 48hrs. The challenge will include snowboarding to every corner of the ski area, a night session and finishing off with a 5 km hike.  We are aiming to raise at least £1500 and don't worry the money raised won't be paying for the snowboarding trip, all the participant's pay for that themselves.

The Entertainment - Tim Warwood

You may recognise Tim from the TSA's snowboard films he did with the Lockdown Projects, his MC-ing at the Freeze Festival or the X-Fighters in Battersea.  He also has a Kerrang radio show and presents for Freesports of Four and the Extreme Sports Channel. For those who are not familiar with Mr. Warwood his is very entertaining and big supporter of UK snowsports.

With Tim's enthusiasm, humour and charm the evening will go off with a bang, so far he has requested a round involving potatoes and toothpicks (any ideas what these are for please comment below).

The Prizes

First of all we would like to say a big thank you to everyone mentioned below for their generous prize donations and support, to Tim for his quiz master skills and to Richard Downes, the CEO of Iglu who is going to contribute generously.

• Jason from Ski Big Three (Banff, Lake Louise & Sunshine Village resorts) has given us a set of Head skis to give away and these will make up the main prize for the raffle.
• Thanks to Scott McMorris at Oakley we also have a couple of pairs of goggles to raffle off.
• The guys from Mertosnow.co.uk have also come good with a handful of subscriptions to the Daily Mail Ski & Snowboard magazine and a couple of jackets - one Oakley and one Westbeach.
• Ed from Whitelines snowboard magazine has sent us some beanies, t-shirts and some DVDs.
• Lizzy, from the magazine parent company Factory Media, has given us a Whitelines and Onboard magazine subscription to give away.
• With the wonderful weather around at the moment Gilly Seagrave, founder of EKA and Our Camp, has given us some perfectly timed and very cosy beanies from EKAwear.
• Natives have also been kind enough to help us keep our ears warm with some beanies.

• There is also a rumour that our head of I.T. may have secret prize for us, but when I.T. are involved anything can happen!

Last but by no means least the good chaps at the Kings Arms, where will be hosting the evening, are going to give the winners of the quiz a round of drinks and maybe even some nibbles to get us through the evening.

If you haven't been invited and would like to come give us a shout on the IgluSki Facebook page to find out if there are any tickets left. Wish us well and I'll let you know how it all went next week.

Written by Stephen Adam