Here we are at the end of another great winter season. After a heated battle for media coverage, the final tallies are in on who dominated the pages of this season’s snow mags advertisements and editorials. After fluctuating through the ranks, Scotty Lago catapulted himself into third in the world famous TransWorld Business Snow Exposure Meter. Check out the May 2008 issue for a complete breakdown of the results and who’s who in the top 50 of snowboarding in US magazines media coverage.

Words by Heather Baker

SAN CLEMENTE, CA – April 19 2008 - The Flow Team continues to up the ante on their list of ace riders with a bumper crop of new talent. Flow amateur’s Petja Piiroinen and Sarka Pancochova struck gold at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Italy winning the big air titles for both the men and women. Petja is quickly taking after his famous brother Peetu who most recently took home the overall Burton Global Series title this season. Sarka who hails from Czech is quietly throwing down backside 720’s for the ladies and is one of the promising up and coming females on the circuit. Flow is “stoked to have not just one, but TWO World Jr. Champs on its team of talented riders”. 

Petja and Sarka at the Flow Team shoot in Lake Tahoe, CA

The accomplishments of Petja and Sarka add to an already incredible season of Flow Team exposure. This pack of A-list riders are killin’ it in magazine cover shots, web coverage, contest circuits and film parts. To name just a few, Antti Autti landed the cover of TransWorld Snowboarding Magazine along with a full-length interview while fellow Finn, Risto Mattila took 3rd overall in the TTR rankings for this season. Also, both Antti and Risto have been filming with the Northern Scrapbook crew. Teammate Scotty Lago has been keeping busy all year filming with 3 major crews including Grenade, Travis Rice’s project and Absinthe films. Scotty also found time for two exclusive interviews, one in TransWorld and the other in Snowboarder Magazine. Flow’s newest pro rider, Tim Humphreys has a long list of success under his belt from this season and just may be Rookie of the Year! The 08/09 Flow pro team’s roster includes Antti Autti, Scotty Lago, Risto Mattila, Timmy Humphreys, Clair Bidez and Mercedes Nicoll. Petja and Sarka join Flow amateurs Jeremy Thompson, Christophe Reynders, Jed Hoffman, Scot Brown, Izumi Amaike, Jake Black, Nial Romanek and Shane Fortier.

While many snowboarding companies have spent a lifetime trying to fit-in, FLOW has spent its time standing out. Born from originality, FLOW is defiant against the norm of tradition. The world has witnessed how this one time “binding” company has progressed into the leader of innovative products featuring a complete line of “speed entry” bindings, performance proven boots and award winning snowboards. The future is here and the future is FLOW.

For More Information Please Contact:
Heather Baker
Flow Snowboarding
(949) 361-5260 x.133
Denne e-postadressen er beskyttet mot programmer som samler e-postadresser, du mĺ slĺ pĺ Javascript for ĺ kunne se den.
 

APRIL 2008, SAN CLEMENTE, CA - FLOW recognizes that the progression of women’s snowboarding has come a long way. For three years in a row, the FLOW Myriad women’s specific snowboard has taken the gold in craftsmanship to the next level. Nothing has been compromised or overlooked, just tweaked a little for the female frame allowing the most aggressive of women riders to go BIG. But now it’s time to give something back to the women who ride it. FLOW is proud to announce the 08/09 women’s Myriad snowboard in partnership with the Boarding For Breast Cancer foundation.

Boarding For Breast Cancer “is a non-profit, youth-focused education, awareness, and fundraising organization”. A Portion of the proceeds from the FLOW Myriad snowboard will gladly be donated to B4BC, whose mission is to increase awareness about breast cancer by educating women about the importance of early detection and leading a healthy lifestyle. In addition to the cash donation, FLOW will also be donating one of the Myriad boards for auction during one of the many B4BC events that take place every year.

While many snowboarding companies have spent a lifetime trying to fit-in, FLOW has spent its time standing out. Born from originality, FLOW is defiant against the norm of tradition. The world has witnessed how this one time “binding” company has progressed into the leader of innovative products featuring a complete line of “speed entry” bindings, performance proven boots and award winning snowboards. The future is here and the future is FLOW.

Congrats to Scotty Lago on his on the May 2008 cover TransWorld Snowboarding Japan! The article features Scotty along side his crew of Frends, a core group of pro-snowboarders and best buds. Guess it’s true what they say…Scotty is big in Japan too!

FRIDAY MARCH 28, 2008 TRUCKEE, CALIFORNIA - The mission was simply this, within three days drive from San Clemente to Lake Tahoe, catch up with the Flow team for two nighttime studio shoots; two daytime action shoots and then return to Southern California. A tough mission to accomplish considering the short period of time to execute.

Dan Watts on Location

Flow creative director Dan Watts and I set out at 4am on Tuesday in the Flow van and drove north up the I-5 through the San Joaquin Valley to Lake Tahoe to meet up with the Flow team and collect valuable images for the new website, advertising and general marketing needs. After a long 8.5 hours of driving we arrive at the Hampton Inn in Truckee where we were quickly notified by Team Manager Andrew Mutty to meet him at Boreal for a twilight night shoot.

SATURDAY MARCH 29, 2008 MAMMOTH, CA – A fresh blanket of powder covered Mammoth mountain, welcoming the 4th annual Roxy Chicken Jam. Shred chicks from all over the globe battled it out in the final stop on the TTR Women’s Snowboard World Tour. Flow Team riders Clair Bidez, Mercedes Nicoll, Sarka Pancochova and Andrea Schuler all came together in hopes to claim victory. Sarku made an impressive effort in the qualifying round, but was just short of making the finals. Nearing the end of the Finals a cloudy, windy sky took over the once blue bird day. Mercedes and Clair both had some impressive runs, but just missed making the podium. The Women’s Swatch TTR Tour Title is still up for grabs and the ladies will be charging for their chance to take it all home including the $50,000 top prize. Stay tuned into www.ttrworldtour.com for the Slopstyle Finals showdown tomorrow and the crowning of this years TTR Queen.

2008 Roxy Chicken Jam Final Halfpipe Results:

Kelly Clark         USA
Torah Bright         AUS
Kjersti Oestgaard Buaas  NOR
Laura Manuela Pesko     SUI
Sarah Conrad         CAN
Mercedes Nicoll         USA

Mercedes Nicoll

Clair Bidez

MONDAY MARCH 24, 2008 WINDHAM, VERMONT - Snowmobiles, mayhem, booze, fireballs, and the infamous Gauntlet: The World Quarter Pipe Championships have returned with a vengeance. With a little help from the Rome SDS, Red Bull, and Snowboarder Magazine, Chris Waker and the Timber Ridge crew pulled off one of the most wicked snowboard events to ever go down in the Stratton area of Vermont. Timber Ridge, a privately owned abandoned ski area became the scene for quite possibly the biggest privately built quarter pipe in Vermont and a riotous answer to the mundane contest circuit of late.

No lame sponsors, no TV timeouts, there wasn’t even really any judging and there certainly wasn’t any pre-planned “poaching”. Poach this quarter pipe and you were seriously taking your life into your hands. Defending Quarterpipe champion Scotty Lago arrived on the scene and blasted some of the biggest airs of the day, and appeared to be the early favorite, but after a misfortunate fight with the flat bottom, Scotty was helped to the side and suddenly it was anyone’s game.

Scotty Lago defends his Quarterpipe Champion title

The final standings were announced and the junior ripper award went to Gabe McGovern, a young gun (TEAM MICRON) who had braved the Blue Hills event back in the day when he was a six-year old grom. For Gabe’s airs he was awarded a new guitar. Second place and a “quarter” of the Green Mountains’ finest export went to Arctic Challenge second place finisher Shayne Pospisil for his smooth airs and spins all day. Rounding out the podium was Greg Bokenkamp taking Third. The title of new World Quarter Pipe Champion, 1,000 dollar in quarters, and a brand new 50cc motorcycle went to Utah shredder Bode Merrill who ended the riding portion of the event with a frontside invert on the log extension while it was lit on fire….

For entire story please visit: 2008 World Quarters

Greg Bokenkamp faces the guantlet of fire

Check out the flog blog, a site dedicated to giving you an inside look into the Flow Family.

SATURDAY MARCH 22nd, 2008 STRATTON, VERMONT Tim Humphreys continued his incredible season and claimed the US Open Big Air Title.

Saturday night marked the triumphant return of the big air at the 2008 US Open Snowboarding Championships. A true test of commitment, riders had to literally be whisked away from the halfpipe awards ceremony and head straight to Stratton’s main base area for warm-ups. The judges scored on overall impression meaning that if you threw the same trick twice, you were more or less sent packing.
Torstein Horgmo had both backside and frontside 1080s on lock for third; while Chas Guldemond stomped the snot out of a backside 1260 melon, earning him $2,500 for the best trick award and second overall. However nobody could keep up with Tim Humphreys who spun like a bat outta hell. Switch backside 7, backside 7, backside rodeo 5, backside 10 and frontside 10—Humphreys made everything look easy.

 

Congrats Timmy on a breakout year... Hey Transworld Rider's Poll Committee......it looks like we have a STRONG canidate for next year's "Rookie of the Year"!

 

 

 

SATURDAY MARCH 22nd, 2008 STRATTON, VERMONT. Scotty Lago finished 7th in his first final' appearence in the US Open Superpipe and Shaun White took home his second win of the weekend. Scotty rode incredible well all day but had trouble on all three of his final runs. He still ended up 7th on the final results sheet though. Scotty also won the best trick in the pipe and $5,000 for landing a huge double cork front 10. Some tough judging left both Antti Autti in 22nd and Risto Mattila in 25th and out of the finals. 

For the ladies, Clair Bidez and Mercedes Nicoll qualified into the finals and ended up in 7th and 8th place respectively…. another major championship final appearence for both Clair and Mercedes!

This pretty much ends the competitive season for most of the Flow Team. It should be noted that Risto ended up 3rd, Scotty 9th, Tim Humphreys 12th, and Antti 15th in the final TTR World Rankings. Congrats to the entire Flow Team on an INCREDIBLE year!

Now the whole team will head to Lake Tahoe and Finland to finish off the season shooting photos and filming for next year’s magazines and movies.

For the wrap up on the US Open go to:

TWS Online

FRIDAY MARCH 21st, 2008. Tim Humphreys led a Flow Team charge into the US Open Slopestyle finals and finished 2nd to wonder boy Shaun White. Risto Mattila was 10th, Scotty Lago was 13th and Antti Autti just missed the finals and ended up 17th.

Check Flow Team Manager Andrew Mutty’s cool inside explanation of Timmy’s incredible performance:

The US Open this year was themed with a "Medieval, Fields of Destiny".  A
perfect setting for Tim to unleash his fantasy world of roll playing.
During this years FLOW Halloween party, Tim dressed up as a wizard and
Brought a sword out to accompany the outfit.  Was funny to see Tim fighting
and lashing at the camera guy before his runs.  His sword reads "The Sword
of 1,000 Truths".  As he extends his sword out into the air he yells,
"Lightning bolt!" to kick off his run.

Tim has been recovering from a rib injury he suffered when he overshot a
park jump at Northstar during the "Vans Tahoe CUP", 3 weeks ago.  He was in
such pain he did not make it through semifinals.  He flew home to New Jersey
and rested for 2 weeks.  He was close to competing in the Grand Prix at
Killington last weekend, but turned down the offer to save himself for the
Open.  Keeping Tim down for three weeks was not easy.  He said, "I built a
whole computer from scratch, with left over pieces I found in my room, and
I filled a 500 GIG hard drive with movies I downloaded."

Tim was pretty confident during practice.  Feeling his rib out for soft
spots and keeping the spinning to  a minimal until he could get into a
rhythm.  He crept through semi finals in 12th place out of 16, and knew if
he was going to podium, he would have to go for it.

His first run in the finals consisted of front lip over the kink rail, nose
slide back side one through the flat bar, switch back side 7, switch back
side 9, front side 5 and cab 9.  This was good enough to post an 83 on the
score board.  A score that would stick through 3 runs of 16 men to leave Tim
in second place overall.

Check out the superpipe action today on:

http://www.go211.com/burton/usopen/live/

WEDNESDAY MARCH 19TH VALMALENCO, ITALY Flow amateur team rider Petja Piiroinen won the FIS World Junior Championships Big Air yesterday. Petja beat out Roger Kleivdal of Norway and a large field that included most of the best junior riders in the world to take the title. Flow Am Christophe Reynders of Belgium was 7th. Congrats guys on a great job!!
Next up is the halfpipe and you can check the FIS website for more news

MARCH 9-16, 2008 East Coast USA -  The Flow Team including Antti Autti and Risto Mattila just finished logging almost 1600 miles traveling throughout New England with Team Manager Andrew Mutty.  The trip included stops at Loon, Cannon, and Waterville mountains in New Hampshire. When they drove north up to Sugarloaf, Maine they ran into the EasternBoarder crew. Be sure to check out what The Leominster Eastern Boarder blog had to report on the Flow Team visit...

When looking for the best location to shoot new images, you have to think outside of the box a little. For example, Northern California is inside the box, Mammoth Mtn is inside the box. We have seen these shots over and over. This is why the Flow team decided to venture to the great north East kingdom for a trip that would be unforgettable. This leaves the question unanswered till now… when was the last time you saw an East Coast shot published? The old saying goes, “If you build it they will come”, and when they show up they will ride it. This is exactly what FLOW team riders Antti Autii, Risto Mattila, and Scot brown came to do.

Check out the latest interview "Catching Up With Antti Autti" posted on Future Snowboard Magazine.com

SATURDAY MARCH 8, 2008 BAVARIA, GERMANY - It has been a long wait for the sequel to the first GAP session back in 2006 due to the weather being a real pain in the ass. It all came together last weekend when Redbull along with Christoph Weber and Co. got to re-construct their ambitious, gigantic gap-to step-up kicker-designed jump.

The session was split into two heats consisting of 9 riders with 3 runs each, where the top 4 would qualify into the finals. Another first at this years GAP session was the judging system. No point scoring system here. The judges all were wearing traditional Bavarian hunting hats and were asked to raise them up off their head if they thought that one riders trick was better than the other’s.

Making it into the top 4 was Flow Team rider Antti Autti. The crowd roared with excitement as Antti busted a super smooth huge Fs 9 melon and an insanely colossal Fs 10 mute, stomping the trick past the half-way line of the where the rider was supposed to land. The finals saw Chris Sörman, Antti Autti, Arthur Longo and TJ Schneider battling it out for glory and trying to impress the judges. Claiming victory was Sörman who was the only rider of the night who consistently stomped his tricks. He also took home the longest airtime of the event clocking in at 2.81 seconds. David Benedek was honored with the best trick award for pulling a Double Cork 10 in the afternoon before the event.

For the complete story please visit:
http://onboardsnowboarding.com/events/view/soerman-spins-to-victory-at-the-gap-session/

Antti Autti, the flying Finn

Is it a bird? A plane? Nope, it's Antti Autti

FRIDAY APRIL 30TH, 2008 FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN. Izumi Amaike continued her incredible season placing 3rd in the Nippon Open Slopestyle Competition in Japan. Jenny Jones was first and Jamie Anderson finished second.

For the men, Antti Autti ended up 7th moving him into 8th place in the overall TTR World Tour rankings. Mikkel Bang won the men's slopestyle event.

For more info go to:

http://opensnowboarding.com/Home.aspx?openid=NPO

SNOWPRESS PRESENTS THE ANNUAL INNOVATION AWARDS TO FLOW SNOWBOARDING’S NEWEST RENTAL TECHNOLOGY: p

HONORING THE BEST INNOVATIONS IN THE SNOWSPORTS INDUSTRY FOR THE 2008/2009 SEASON.

SIA is a show of discovery. The innovation and inspiration unveiled often becomes news for the entire active world. The products on display at the SIA tradeshow in the Mandalay Bay convention center in Vegas represent a unique coalescence of science, sport and culture. The editors over at SnowPress Daily spend countless hours of trend-spotting, hot-product reporting, retail researching and pre-show interviewing in search of the most innovative products of the year. In the categories of Culture, Sexy, Skill and Smart, Flow has been awarded the SnowPress Innovation Award for our newest technology, the p rental binding system.

Flow’s all-new p technology will revolutionize the mountain resort, indoor slope and shop rental programs. This patented technology will be first featured in the new high performance Revolve rental binding with p Technology. You may remember the term “Pi” from your high school math class as the mathematical formula for the ratio of the circumference of a circle compared to its diameter. This coined math equation has finally been put to good use in p Technology, which allows the true symmetrical Flow rental binding to rotate freely around the fixed combo-disk using a mechanical baseplate while the rider’s stance can also be re-positioned along the central axis of the board and adjusted to the toe to heel ratio. This tool-free simple set-up is the quickest, most user/shop friendly rental binding system and allows for easier storage in shops since the binding can be removed just as fast as it was put on. Combined with the New Revolve binding’s core technology and speed entry system that features Flow’s Reclining Hiback, 3D-Powerstrap and PowerTriangle, the rental business will never be the same.
 

Oslo, Norway – February 23, 2008: It was a dramatic finale to one of the most significant competitions on the Tour. The Swatch TTR SIX(6)STAR Oakley Arctic Challenge, greeted with sunny skies and an enthusiastic crowd, wrapped up today with US rider Kevin Pearce taking home the title along with 24.500,- US Dollar and moving into the TTR World No. 1 position. Shayne Pospisil, also from the United States, took second place while Peetu Piiroinen of Finland once again proved he’s one of the best by rounding out the Top three and maintaining his grasp on TTR World No. 3.

Pearce was stoked with his Title win but is still looking to the future: “We just finished up the 2008 Arctic Challenge and it’s another SIX(6)STAR win for me. It feels good! It was good to see everybody stepping up… and it was good to see Terje pushing it…I’ve done a lot of TTR events this year and now I’m finally on top. It’s been a long journey. I feel pretty good about it. Seems like just yesterday it was the start of the season. But it’s coming down to the last couple events… and now it all depends on the US Open. I’m psyched. It’s going to be a good ending.”

Pearce also took home the trophy for Best Trick of the day with his crowd and judge pleasing Inverted BS 540 with a Double Grab at 7.1 m. All eyes may have been looking for a new World Record, but the highest air of the day, stomped by Peetu Piiroinen, was 7.5 m, just over 2 m shy of the 9.8 world record set last year by Arctic Challenge founder and TTR patron Terje Haakonsen.

In the same fashion as the semi finals, riders were judged on their best runs, but things were stepped up for the finals. Each rider was given five attempts to stomp three of their best tricks. Added to those three scores was a variation score that judged riders on their ability to mix things up with each hit.

Pearce’s attempts included a McTwist with a Tweaked Japan, his best-trick-winning Inverted BS 5 Double Grab, a massive BS Air Method, a Chuckflip 7, and another solid BS Air. Pospisil kept things a little simpler, starting off with a FS Air and then landing a stylish BS Air. On his third hit he busted out the BS 3 Alley-Oop, then went for a BS 5 and finished the afternoon off with a FS 3. Piiroinen returned with his signature Finnish style, opting for a BS 5 Tail on the first hit, unfortunately washing out the landing. He stomped a BS 5 Tail Grab on his second attempt, holding the grab until the last possible second. His third hit gave him the highest air, floating a clean BS Air Tail Grab at 7.5m. After a failed initial attempt, Peetu finally landed a Chuckflip on his last hit.

Some big changes in the TTR Rankings were set after a great afternoon of friendly snowboard competition. Risto Mattila who was previously the Tour Leader is now TTR World No. 2 after his 7th place finish in Oslo. Risto will definitely be looking to get back on top in the coming weeks. Andy Finch who was throwing down epic airs all day long keeps his place of TTR World No. 4 as Nicolas Mueller, who brought along his legendary Swiss style, now sits in the top ten at TTR World No. 8. Scotty Lago who didn’t fair too well in Norway still managed to improve his ranking with a SIX(6)STAR result and now sits at TTR World No. 9.

Check out www.ttrworldtour.com for fully updated Swatch TTR Rankings along with blogs, news, and videos that document all the action from The Oakley Arctic Challenge. In case you missed the competition, you can still catch every detail over on www.freecaster.tv. Be sure to stay tuned to TTR as the Tour moves to Japan for the FIVE(5)STAR Nissan X-Trail Nippon Open where we could see some more big changes in the rankings, setting things up for the final SIX(6)STAR event, the Burton US Open, where riders have one more chance to claim a share of the overall $250 000 USD Swatch TTR Tour prize purse.

The Oakley Arctic Challenge Final Results:

1. Kevin Pearce         USA
2. Shayne Pospisil        USA
3. Peetu Piiroinen        FIN
4. Terje Haakonsen        NOR
5. Nicolas Mueller        SUI
6. Andy Finch            USA
7. Risto Mattila        FIN
8. Colin Frei            SUI
9. Ulrik Badertscher        NOR
10. Dustin Craven        CAN
11. Daniel Josefsen        NOR
12. Fumiyuki Murakami    JPN
13. Takaharu Nakai        JPN
14. Jake Koia            NZE
15. Chad Otterstrom        USA
16. Kim Rune Hansen        NOR
17. Fredrik Scuderi        NOR
18. Arthur Longo        FRA
19. Stale Sandbech        NOR
20. Takato Taniguchi        JPN
21. Scott Lago            USA
22. Jody Koenders        NED

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21ST, 2008, HOLMENKOLLEN, NORWAY. Risto Mattila played a steady game with the three different judged contests of spin, invert and amplitude and placed 4th after the first day of riding at the Arctic Challenge. The final 16 riders get ready for Saturdays final jam in the famous Holmenkollen ski jump. Scotty Lago was riding really well but some untimely falls left him out of the final 16.

 Be sure to check out all the action on Freecaster.tv on Saturday.

Today Terje Håkonsen introduced a new concept in snowboarding, and the ”Evening classics” took off in style!
The first part of today was qualification, where 24 riders fought for the 16 spots in the finals. Two heat with 12 riders in each, went down perfectly with stylish riding and good variation.

After a short dinnerbreak the 16 final riders where ready to earn some money! Flat spins, upside downs and straight airs were at the menu tonight, and I think the audience enjoyed their meal.

Awesome riding, feelgood music and the best arena ever made everybody look even more forward to Saturday, and the rest of the competition.
All the riders did their best, and we saw some kick ass riding. The tricks, the amplitude and the slams were absolutely first class, so everbody should get their butts up to Holmenkollen Saturday, to see the worlds best riders make history!!

Results the Evening Classics - Total

Nr.    BIB    FIRST NAME    SURNAME    MONEY
1        9        Peetu                Piiroinen          43474
2        6        Kevin                 Pearce            19048
3        4        Andy                  Finch                3532
4        24      Risto                  Mattila              3188
5        11      Terje                Haakonsen       3182
6        1        Jacob                Koia                  3116
7        7        Nicolas             Mueller              3086
8        16      Chad                Otterstrom         2592
9        20      Daniel               Josefsen          2384
10      13      Ulrik                   Badertscher    2266
11      23      Dustin                Craven            2116
12     15       Takaharu          Nakai               1952
13      5        Fumiyuki            Murakami       1844
14      2        Kim Rune          Hansen           1542
15     17        Colin                  Frei                   1370
16     18        Shayne             Pospisil           1308