Absolut Park’s Spring Battle has evolved into much more than a slopestyle contest. It’s a week-long video contest, where riders are tasked with capturing their best run on their choice of recording devices.
This creates an action-packed atmosphere throughout the whole week, where riders are working their hardest to lay it all on the line in Absolut’s pristine park.
Check out the awards show in full above, and read on for more from Spring Battle!
For five days, international and national snowboard and freeski pros cruised through Absolut Park Flachauwinkl, tried different tricks and combos on the challenging setup and filmed each other – all with the goal of filming the best run in their category at the Spring Battle. Snowboarders Lyon Farrell and Yuka Fujimori and freeskiers Colin Wili and Johanne Killi performed their tricks with style, skill and precision, and secured much of the $130,000 prize purse.
THE SETUP
The slopestyle course this year consisted of three rail setups, a turbo knuckle and two jumps. The setup was equally challenging and innovative: While the two kickers offered enough airtime for massive corks and spins, the riders could get creative at the knuckle and on the rails.
THE MEN’S PODIUM
Snowboarder Lyon Farrell from the USA impressed with a 50-50 Frontside 180 Noseslide to Pretzel and a Frontboard 270 out on the rails, a Tailslide 270 on the Waterfall Rail, a Front 180 Butter Switch Backside 540 Tailgrab on the Turbo Knuckle, as well as a Frontside Double Cork 1080 Frontside Grab and a Backside 1620 Melon on the kickers. The Japanese Kaito Hamada won silver and Mikey Ciccarelli from Canada won bronze.
THE WOMEN’S RESULTS
In the snowboarders’ category, the Japanese rocked this year’s Spring Battle and secured the first four places: Yuka Fujimori showed an impressive run with a Frontside 180 in Cab 180 out and a Lipslide 270 out on the rails, a 50-50 Frontside 180 out on the Elephant Rail, a Butter 180 Backside 360 out on the Turbo Knuckle and a Frontside 720 Mute Grab as well as a Backside 900 Mute Grab on the kickers. Asanuma Hinari took second place, Rina Yoshika third and Mao Aizawa fourth.
Scope the top runs in the awards show above.
MORE PROS AT THE SPRING BATTLE 2019
Stale Sandbech, Torgeir Bergrem, Seppe Smits, and Roope Tonteri were also present and raised the bar at the Spring Battle, even though they didn’t make it into the top four with their runs.
HERE TO STAY: THE FOLLOW CAM FORMAT
Like the three years before, the Spring Battle 2019 was held in the Follow Cam Jam Session format popular with the riders: The runs are not judged directly on site, but the riders get together in teams, film themselves as often as they want in sessions lasting several days and submit a video of their best run to the judges.
This gives riders a better chance at putting down their best possible line, while giving everyone involved a week full of action-packed fast laps on Absolut Park’s awesome spring terrain.
Stay tuned for individual winning runs and more from Absolute Spring Battle 2019.
Photos: Courtesy of Absolut Park
