Torstein Horgmo (NOR) during his 1080 record over 150 feet.

Photos: Jake McBride / Stylewars

FALLS CREEK AUSTRALIA: SNOWBOARDERS FLY INTO THE HISTORY BOOKS

(August 28, 2007) - Snowboarding history was made today at Falls Creek Resort, Australia during the Stylewars competition, the third stop on the snowboard world tour.

The largest jump in snowboarding contest history was built as a part of the event and today competitors were consistently flying a distance of 50-metres (165 feet) from a 6-metre (18 feet) high jump while performing incredibly technical freestyle manoeuvres.

Nick Gregory (AUS) on the “hip jump”.

The freestyle snowboarders were launching from the jump at speeds well above 80 km/hour.

Risking possible serious injury Torstein Horgmo 19 years old of Norway, who is currently ranked 4th in the world, landed 5 perfect jumps in a row to annihilate all other competitors in the field.

Torstein Horgmo (NOR) flying above everyone.

One of his jumps included a 1080-degree spin (3 rotations) jump, which is one of the hardest tricks a snowboarder can perform and the biggest, longest ever seen in snowboard competition.

“If I know the speed is good for a jump then I’m confident and I’m not afraid anymore. I can then start to concentrate on my tricks, which is the fun part. Jumping first is always the scariest, because you don’t know the speed.”
Torstein explained.

“I have done big 1080’s before, but that is the biggest one I have ever done in a contest, although it didn’t really feel like a contest.” Torstein said describing his record-breaking jump.

Torstein is just coming back from a horrific injury in which he broke his back by jumping too far on a jump in Laax, Switzerland in January that kept him off snow for three (3) months.

“I’ve been super focused to get back on my board but I wasn’t thinking about that accident today because it was totally a different situation, today it didn’t even feel like a contest.”

Never before has the world seen such a large snowboard jump in competition and only a handful of the 30 snowboarders present at the event (some of the world’s best freestyle snowboarders) were brave enough to attempt the record-breaking jump.

Jakob Koia 22 of New Zealand was hot on the heels of Torstein also launching huge airs. Jake attempted a double back flip, which would have possibly put him in the lead but he unfortunately crashed on landing tearing his bicep and bruising his jaw.

Torstein Horgmo at top of run.

“I’ve done plenty of double back flips before in competition and I was confident I could make it. Torstein had landed the ‘1080’ so I felt I needed to do something to improve my score. As I was speeding into the jump I was thinking, ‘I’m about to try the craziest thing in my life’”. Jacob explained.

The snowboard world will be in awe tonight as photos and stories of this incredible snowboard event filters around the globe.

With 2 days of competition completed, there is one more day of snowboarding before the event is wrapped up.

Team Australia (LtoR): Mitch Allan, Nick Gergory, Ryan Tiene, Clint Allan

Current leader board after 2 days of competition:

1. Will Jackways (New Zealand) 140.2
2. Robbie Walker (Australia) 139.8
3. Stef Zestrazen (New Zealand) 138.4
4. Toni-Markus Turunen (Finland) 132.9
5. Wyatt Caldwell (USA) 128.9
6. Torstein Horgmo (Norway) 128.6

Websites:
www.stylewars.com.au
www.ttrworldtour.com

ABOUT STYLEWARS
Stylewars is an annual snowboard event, which started in 2003 and is the favourite contest on tour for the competitors. The weeklong event is run by professional snowboarders and is created to mesh well with the ‘snowboard lifestyle’, which is sometimes overlooked at big events. The courses are always pushing the riders and the sport to new levels, while the format during contest days is like no other contest. There are no bibs and competitors can snowboard all day, nominating freely when they would like a judged run. The laid back format promotes style and progression which are two of the most prominent and respected aspects in snowboarding.