An Avalanche, The Prodigy and some of World's best Skiers/Boarders at London Freeze
Friday the 30th of October saw London's iiconic Battersea Power Station play host to an international Snowboard, Ski and Music festival, the LG Freeze. The dramatic backdrop of the power station created a theatrical atmosphere for this world class event. The competition slope stands in the centre of the event at 110ft high built on a mass of scaffolding with rather scary looking elevators on each side taking the competitors to the summit. This real snow slope is floodlit and features a huge kicker, centre stage, and a grind box at the bottom over a car. This monument stands next to the Battersea Towers, and is surrounded by the ‘Alpine Village', a collection of equipment, souvenir shops, fast food joints and bars.
The event opened with the Battle of Britain Snowboard competition, won by 16 year old Jamie Nicholls. The competition was fierce but this tennager showed his talent pulling off some smooth 9's (2 and a half rotations!) This event ran as a knock out comp style competition, where the riders go head to head in pairs. One goes through to the next round, one is ‘knocked out'!
The Battle of Britain Ski competition was next, and Paddy Graham took the top prize, with James Woods coming in second, both very talented British skiers and both throwing down some epic spins.
The last competition of day one was the Freestyle mix, also a knock out competition, and much anticipated. Sixteen of some of the best skiers and snowboarders from around the world competed in their disciplines to find the finest freestyle skier and snowboarder of the night, both competitions were closely fought. In the skiing, 18 year old American Bobby Brown came in second with a styled out 1080 (three rotations), earning himself a huge 74 points. The title was taken by Phil Casebon, 20, from Canada, for throwing a twelve (three and a half rotations) and landing on his feet. This event was closely fought, with Casebon taking the title by a single point!
In the snowboarding, British future star, Jamie Nicholls, didn't make it to the semi-finals, but long term UK rider Gary Greenshields flipped his way into the semi's, devastatingly crashing out before the final. People say the Finnish breed snowboarders, and that seemed to be the case, with 17 year old Roope Tonteri scoring a massive 85 points to take the top spot, with another Scandinavian rider, Gjermund Braaten, taking second with a respectable sixty-nine.
After the slope emptied attention moved to the main stage, with Prodigy playing to the masses in an electrifying gig. The energy was intense as the lead singer worked the crowd around him to a huge cheer as the band finished their set. Orbital followed to close the night with an equally impressive reception and some awe inspiring lighting. Friday night set high expectations for the weekend.
Saturday began with bluebird conditions, clear skies and sunshine made for a really great day at the festival. The Snowboard FIS World Cup was the main event of the day, with some impressive tricks on show, even a twelve at one point (1260 degrees or three and a half rotations!) Once again the Scandinavian riders flooded the finals, with four Norwegians and two Finnish riders making it through. Slovenian, Bisjak Domen took third with a total score of 49.7, just behind the Swias, Gian-Luca Cavigelli at 50.5. But the clear winner was Stephan Gimple, from Austria with some of the smoothest spins of the night. Stefan Falkeis definitely had the most impressive crash of the night, spinning out into a horrific heel edge catch, being flipped down the slope.
This event was followed by the skiers Grind Rail Jam. The interesting set up features a flat box over a London taxi cab. This was clearly the ‘fun' event of the night, with Joe Hides replacing his poles with pitchforks for Halloween. Matt Walker of the USA ignored the box, back-flipping over the entire taxi cab much to the delight of the crowd. The final was very much an ‘across the pond' affair with one Canadian and five Americans. An all American podium was very probable, and exactly what happened. Corey Vanular in first, Gus Kenworthy in second, and Matt Walker in third. Calvin Harris and the Eagles of Death Metal played on the main stage, with Kissy Sell Out and Audio Bully's in the Relentless tent. Calvin Harris and Audio Bullies played the standout performances of the night with their respective tents being completely packed.
So now we're onto the final day, and guess what? At 5am on Sunday, London had its first Avalanche, proving that there is never no avalanche risk. The top section of the run-in slide away leaving the riders with snow-flex plastic matting to ride on. The heavens have opened and it poured with rain. The International Free Ski competition was postponed by three hours until three o'clock.
The International Freestyle Competition had one of the most exciting finals to date, with Russ Henshaw of Australia taking gold and Bobby Brown from the USA in silver separated by one point. Both riders threw huge corked 12's that were mind blowing to watch. The landing got worse and worse throughout the night, with skiers crashing into barriers due to a lack of space to stop, some broken ribs were sustained after one particularly nasty crash, riders in the final commented that this final had some the highest standards of riding in a FIS World Cup.
The snowboarders grind rail was the last competition of the festival, and turned into more of a fun jib session for anyone with a snowboard. Great fun to watch, but I still have no idea who won it. Jamie Nicholls was definitely up there! And the trick to beat was certainly a backflip on-backflip off the box.
Friendly Fires closed the festival after Chase and Status. The Main Stage was packed for both gig's, and the parties continued well into the night. This year's LG London Freeze Festival was an exhibition of some of the world's most talented skiers and snowboarders. It's the must see event in London for anyone into snow sports so see you there next year!
