KEEP ME WANTING MORE

laura austin, online editor of snowboarder magazine, captures vastness and let us feel so close at the same time.

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THE WATER DANCER

stephanie gilmore finds inspiration through the art of dance. there are three great and intense videos you need to see if you are into surfing or dancing or into both like we are.

stephanie gilmore &
casandra defy rivera 
noemie lafrance
tiler peck

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ENDLESS ROADS PART III. LAND OF CASTLES

Endless Roads 3 - Land of Castles from Juan Rayos on Vimeo.

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NECTAR AND PULSE. WE LIKE THAT. WHAT IS IT?

we are all explorers and we think it's way more fun to discover new and hidden places along with our soulmates. so thought carina and tanja from nectar and pulse and created something vibrant and individual.

we make …
personal cityguides based on insider tips of selected, vibrant locals.

we do it because ...
we love traveling, inspiring people and authentic spots.

as we do most people love to travel, love to explore new places and love to meet new people. what was the point to make traveling to your profession?
we noticed there is a gap for well-designed, personal written and design-focused cityguides. traveling is a great topic to build your brand on. the possibilities are endless and people will always want to discover new places, countries, people and cities.

please tell us more about you and the personal travelguide. 

we both grew up on the austrian countryside and met in 2004 while studying design and productmanagement in salzburg. Since we met we traveled together and have lived in salzburg, vienna, hamburg, london, new york, stockholm and now munich.
we founded our company nectar & pulse – your local soulmates in 2010. our guides are based on the personal hotspots of selected locals. On nectarandpulse.com you can choose the local soulmates who fit your interests and lifestyle best and customize them to your own personal guide.

 

 anna malmberg, local soulmate, paris

who is the perfect local soulmate for you?

our perfect local soulmates are bon vivants who make the most of now. they are hungry for life and play in a world of complex music, intense flavors, exciting places and epic experiences. they love their city and know it very well. they are curious, open-minded and travelgeeks. 

do most trips bring you to cities or do you also enjoy to have adventures in the wild?
we love contrasts! drinking "buttermilch" on a little alm or skiing in the mountains on one day and dancing the night away in a buzzing underground club on the next day. we are big city girls with a "heidi-heart". Beside our cityguides we will also produce special wilderness/countryside guides in 2012. 

carina, if tanja were a city which city would she be and why?
tanja would be a mix of stockholm and paris. the swedishness (tanja is half swedish half austrian), design- and fashionorientation of stockholm. the contrasts: pure, bright light of swedish summers and dark coldness of swedish winters. the mix of water and land, the different islands with various characteristics combined with the elegance and feminity of paris.

and which city would be carina?

she would be a mix of zell am see and new york. the beauty, nature, quietness, bluebird-sky and mountains of zell am see mixed with the speed, vibrant energy, culture, contrasts, art, entrepreneurial spirit and non-sleeping / everything is possible attitude of new york.

imagine you are planning a journey around the world and you can stop in just five places. which places would that be?
costa rica – south africa – maui – papua neuginea – tokyo

on your website we´ve seen posters and jewellery by nectar and pulse. what are you planning? what´s next?
on the one hand we are going to create many more cityguides and regionguides. on the other hand we will extend with accessories and more products inspired by traveling.

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THE DARKNESS IS SHINING

after three days in göteborg we went to visit a friend down by the seashore. oh, how we wanted to stay.

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MANY TRAINS AND MANY MILES

I'm yours until I come from Daniela Bily on Vimeo.

magic driving snow on our way back home from davos.

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O'NEILL EVOLUTION 2012 PT. III

talking to virginie faivre

this is our first interview featuring a free skier – and what a free skier! let's say hi to virginie faivre from switzerland. we are more than happy to have used the o'neill evolution big air event as opportunity to talk to the multiple halfpipe world champion.

virginie, do you remember the moment when you decided to get a professional free skier?
I took a year off from school and spent a winter season in whistler, canada to learn english and enjoy the powder. I felt in love with freeskiing. I was riding off piste on the big powder days and started to hit the snowpark / halfpipe the rest of the time. That winter was a dream, I had so much fun and became addicted to that adrenaline rush from freeskiing. as soon as I got back home in europe, I knew that was all I wanted to do and made everything possible to be able to live out of my passion.
 

how would you describe your style? 

that's a tough question. it's already hard to describe someone else's style, so mine? I would just say that I try to be as smooth as possible in the air. the style is the most important aspect for me in skiing! I am not a gymnast or a big spinner, so I just try to make everything look good.
 

are there many contests for girls in free skiing? 

not too many, compared to snowboarding! if you are invited to all the big events like x games (only 8-10 spots for the freeski girls), dew tour or doing the world cups, there are six events only. 

it's even harder to qualify for those as there are almost none open events. in europe, switzerland and france there is a freestyle tour (swiss freeski tour & the sfr tour) which is what was needed for the younger generation. unfortunately, those events are only on a national level and don't gain enough respect in the international scene yet. but they have a really good level as the youngs are pushing hard behind. in switzerland, there is also a great contest called the "ladies first challenge" for girls only.

 

and what about videos? do you have any favorite video at the moment you would like to recommend to our readers? 

filming is the thing I have been trying to do for the last few years, but it's definitely one of the hardest challenges I have been going through. my dream has always been to film a good video part in the backcountry. the problem is that if you want to have a real video segment, you need to dedicate all your time for that. as I still compete, the winters are too short and I never find enough time to film. but I am still working on it, hope it will work one day!
I would recommend you to check out the new video edit of kelly sildaru, just fresh from two days ago.

how do you experience the development in free skiing?
I have seen a lot of changes since I started freeskiing. one big step has been the progression of women skiing, with a big increasement in the number of girls doing our sport. it is so good to see the girls invade the snowparks and the contests now. I know it will just keep being better and better, as our sport became olympic and I am so excited about it!

now that we are going to the olympics, we are starting to see the national structures grow with a massive professionalism from all the athletes. I have been skiing with my friends and training by myself for the last years, and since this year, I am now part of the swiss freeski team and it is a big change. I am just really looking forward to 2014 because it's a new challenge and the olympics have always been a dream. I am just glad to be part of the history of our sport.
 

photo by klaus polzer

we really like your website. please tell us a bit about your artistic streak. 

thank you, I am glad that you like it! I learned how to do websites a few years ago ... I just love to do that kind of things, especially to play on photoshop and dreamweaver. I just started now to study graphic design in a school by correspondance, I am really excited about it! I also love photography.
 

on your website we saw the link to gorilla.ch. in which way are you involved in this project? 

that's a project that really matters to me! the kids and teenagers' lifestyle changed a lot in the past few years with the TV, video games, cell phones, and especially internet and their social medias. they spend too much time on them and it's not healthy. the schtifti fondation was concerned and that's why they developed the gorilla project. they aim is to push young people to move by the means of extreme sports. they visit the kids in the schools, so they can discover those different fun sports and realise that they are accessibles to anyone. gorilla is a website where you can learn by playing how to eat healthy and win lots of prices as well. my ski sponsor völkl got involved in that project last year, since then, we have been working together with gorilla.ch. I visited some kids in their school and also went skiing with some girls for a "meet & greet" prize. this winter we are filming to develop a freeski application for next year.
 

that sounds great. you are very active besides your free ski career. you also hosted the nine queens event.
I am really proud to be hosting such a unique event which has been part of the progression of women freeskiing. we needed an event designed only for girls with the same attention that men get. nico zacek brought us the best concept we could have been dreaming off: a progressive feature, with the best international athletes, during a week with no pressure. the objective was to give the opportunity and time to the ladies to finally have an event where they could push their limits further and also shoot to show the world the great style and level that women freesking has finally reached. I am also really happy and thankful that my main sponsor O'Neill is now fully involved with the nine queens!
The 2nd edition will be held in austria, in fiss, from march 19th to 24th 2012. so keep those dates in mind and book your agenda to come watch the ladies go big! if you are a skier girl, there is still a chance to be part of the event if you send a video edit of yourself before the end of february. check out the "wanna be a queen?" trailer here for more infos.

a big thanks to "smile at your sister" for this interview and to my sponsors, family and friends. have a nice winter! #BelieveInSarah

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O'NEILL EVOLUTION 2012 PT. II

talking to celia miller

due to heavy snowfall the semifinals of the girls were put off one day. in this way celia miller found enough time to chat with us laid-back about her idols, her own shop and her plans for this season before she went for the next treerun.

hi celia, where did you grew up?

I kind of grew up all over the east coast. I was born in maryland and i did high school in connecticut. five years ago I moved to breckenridge, colorado.

where there any girls you looked up to?

I love mary-france roy and annie boulanger. they are the backcountry girls that always inspired me.

we suppose you are more into back country riding than to park riding.

in the past I have been doing a lot of filming and shooting. this year I'm gonna do a lot more contests. and this is kind of to see wheter I wanna make an attempt to the olympics. I would really like to do it and take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

did you had any dangerous situations in the backcountry?

nothing too dangerous. we always start with the crew and we are very careful. we bring our gear and try to test things before as much as we can. I've been lucky I have not been in the avalanches yet. let's knock on wood, hopefully it doesn't happen.

you are in the o'neill team for more than a year now. how is it?

I love it. I'm so glad to be part of o'neill. it's such kind of a family feel. we travel around a lot and they opened a lot of opportunities for me. I've seen a lot of places and I can do a lot of cool things through them.

 

you also represent the new phillips / o'neill headphones. what kind of music do you like to listen to when you snowboard?
let's see, I love to listen to edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros. they are awesome. but i also have a mix of r'n'b and rap and i got some rock'n'roll. i just like music in general.

we enjoyed watching your part in peep show's "let's make better mistakes tomorrow". please tell us a bit more about that video.
I love the girls of peep show. I've been filming with them the past couple of years. I shared a part with my friend silvia and got some backcountry shots in it. I think they did a real good job. it's a good portrait of women snowboarding. the stuff that's going on in the movie is progressive and exciting to watch.

would you say there are any differences between european and american snowboarding?
I have not seen any major differences. we all travel together. it feels like we are all a lot of in the same places. we are not as separated as people think.

is it important for you to have girls around you when you snowboard or do you enjoy it more to hang out with your boys?

I like the combination. I think definitely riding with men, especially in the back country, was so important for me. I've learnt everything from then. but then there is nothing like riding with girls since they are more equal. i go in the back country with guys and they wanna build huge jumps which are a little intimidating but it really pushes me. when i can go out with a girl we can build something that we feel comfortable with and we can try our tricks on. I would say both are good.

we heard you run your own store. how came that?

yes, I opened my own business last year in june. I just have really small boutique brands. it's completely seperated from snowboarding. I don't carry any snowboard or skateboard companies. it's my life outside of snowboarding. snowboarding doesn't last forever. I wanted to start something that I can carry on with me regardless of what I'm doing with my snowboard career. I am the store owner and I have five or six people working for me which allows me to travel and not be there. that's amazing.

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O'NEILL EVOLUTION 2012 PT. I

  

we just love winter. we love to stamp through knee-deep snow and watch snow flakes dancing wild in the wind. we enjoy to make snowball fights and drink glühwein with our friends. but what we dearly love and can't be without is snowboarding. 

davos turned out as the fulfilled winter dream last week. it snowed like crazy four days long. amidst the thick snow flurry we watched the best boys and girls in freestyle snowboarding at the first major event on the 2012 ttr world snowboard tour.

tons of snow proved to get one man's meat and another man's poison at o'neill evolution 2012. as snowboard addicted crowds were stoked by masses of powder at the jakobshorn the shapers got all hands full to prepare the big air for the finals in time.

in the end the semifinals of the girls were postponed one day. therefore they were blessed with the best riding conditions all week and impressed with striking air time.

anna gasser (aut)

isabel derungs (sui)

sina candrian (sui)

spencer o'brien (can)

enni rukajärvi (fin)

results

1 spencer o’brien (can)
2 sina candrian (sui)
3 anna gasser (aut)
4 klaudia melova (svk)

5 cheryl maas (ned)

6 cilka sadar (slo)j

7 jordie karlinski (usa)

8 isabel derungs (sui)

here you can watch the highlights of the finals men and women.

a mega thank you to anita fuchs for the photos of the riders.

watch out for interviews with celia miller and virginie faivre in the next days.

whoop!

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SURREAL SNOWSCAPE

Surreal Snowscape at O'Neill Evolution 2012 from O'Neill on Vimeo.

this is so back to winter 1994. a never ending snow wow. cars dissappear, can´t even move without snow chains and there´s snow deeper than me.

davos just seems to stand still during the day to blast with the semifinals of o´neill evolution 2012 tonight.

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POINT 6 – 8

point 6 get naked.
point 7 say i love you.
point 8 take a risk, sweetheart.

photography by ryan mcginley

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SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW

photography by samuel pritzker

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SOFT LIGHT SERENADE

we go to the ends of the world and back for the good people. this time we went for the best girl in town, copenhagen.

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POINT 5

point 5 start wondering again.

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EMA. WE LIKE THAT. WHAT IS IT?

we believe in the small things and in inperfection. they are perfect because they are not. as from now we will introduce small labels which are outstanding because they are made with love. where it's not about masses and money but good vibes and freedom. maria ferres is the perfect girl to begin with. with her label ema - protect your smile she combines all mentioned attributes and brings a mix of urban savyness and mountain innocence at once.

i make

neckwear to protect people's smiles

i do it because

destiny brought me the opportunity and I love it 

there´s something captivating about you and your label. how did you become such a bright and positive person?

I grew up in barcelona in a big, big family surrounded by happiness and considering love, respect and effort as core values. I'm so lucky my family loves nature, sports and of course the snow. I think the combination of my family's strict education and my wild soul made me who I am today. being happy every instant is my life's goal.

when did you got in touch with the snowboard scene for the first time? maybe not an easy thing for a spanish girl?

it was maybe 12 years ago when I started spending my winters in andorra. I can proudly say I've been part of the snowboard evolution in spain. nowadays it's really popular and snowboarding is understood as a lifestyle and passion but when I started to discover the snowboard scene it wasn't that easy and even more so for a spanish girl.

was your label planned or did it just happened like many good things do?

EMA just happened. I never planned something like this. I started creating my own designs and people started asking about it. meeting riders like marc swoboda or dominik wagner, who were really stoked about my neckwarmers and wanted to wear it also helped to start spreading the word around. finally a really bad injury in my arm made me change my life plans and gave me time to think and decide to start it for real. I guess that's what I love about EMA, every day and every step is a surprise :)

EMA - Protect your smile from Ema Protect your smile on Vimeo.

please tell us a bit more about the production process.

starting a new collection means improving the last one. I like to ask my riders and customers how they feel wearing the products and then I start thinking about the best way to improve it, but it's all about style, function, design and comfort. choosing styles and designs is amazing. I really love it. I just try to get inspiration everywhere (street, art, nature, fashion, people …) and try to find original and unique designs. I love textures and colors, that's why I say you can feel the difference wearing, touching or looking at EMA. EMA is a really young company. I take care of everything but I get some help for the production. everything is handmade in barcelona.

when we think about ema we see many bright shining faces. how do you choose your family members? 

all the riders in EMA's family must have this special spark inside. it's just happy people in love with snowboarding. I think above all I need stylish riders spreading good vibes and smiles around the world.

it seems you travel a lot. what´s the most beautiful thing about it for you?

I love traveling because it makes me feel free. I love getting lost finding my way around, discover places and cultures and meeting amazing people on the road. but I really hate saying bye when I have to leave, I'm so bad with that …

what do you believe in?

I believe in destiny.

destiny decided you might be the happy owner of one of ema's handmade bandanas soon. all you have to do is to visit our facebook page and tell us what makes you smile.

all pictures by crista leonard

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ONCE UPON A TIME ...

"EDEN" THE STORY OF ELEMENT EDEN from ELEMENT SKATEBOARDS on Vimeo.

... there was a boy named johnny and a girl named kori. they shared everything and wanted to make a difference to the world around them. it's the beginning of a wonderful story.

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CASTLES IN THE SKY

at surf maroc we discovered two beautiful surf movies.
they´ll keep your winter hearts warm.

castles in the sky
a broke down melody

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MOROCCO. ANY WAY WE GO.

from taghazout to essaouira to marrakech. with salty hair, a bright smile and love of adventure. there and inbetween we met people who enriched our way and we collected memories which will last forever.

there is this beautiful series "i surf because ..." by billabong. well, i don't surf because i can. not.

the rough streets of marrakech let my nut get lost. but this boy saved my day.

look out for dreams that keep returning. says devendra. good man.

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ENDLESS ROADS 2. THE ISLANDS

Endless Roads 2 - The Island from Juan Rayos on Vimeo.

we are just back from morroco and wait eagerly for our taken analogue pictures. we pass our time with the second part of endless roads. girls, you made our day.

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WE ARE GOING TO READ THE OCEAN

while others philosophize about surfing we just do it. have an awesome time and see you in two weeks!

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SETTING FORTH

at the first sight of the new vans chukka boots we imagined to stamp through nordic woods in search of the perfect place to build our own igloo.

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POINT 1 – 4

today we start our list. a list of awesomeness. this time inspired by wu lyf.

point 1  run as fast as you can.
point 2  climb over railings.
point 3  build a raft at least once in your life.
point 4  leave the goddamn city behind you.

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THERE´S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

this is for all the analog lovers beneath you. get your films and cameras ready and capture what home means to you. the most inspiring picture will be turned into a limited edition photoprint tee.

here you´ll find more infos about the competition and this is the way to get to know the true passion of matt georges. billabong teamed up with him for the winter collection 11 and released a small collection by using his soulful analogue pictures.

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GALAXY PLATEAU

photography by laurence tarquin von thomas

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