TEXT&PICS BY (c)Alberto Della Beffa – find him on flickr.com/albertodellabeffa

Il giorno martedì 17 aprile 2013 ha fatto la sua prima tappa italiana a Torino il “Nike Chomp Ollie Tour”, che ,in giro per l’europa, festeggia il lancio delle nuove Koston2, emulando la storica foto dello storico skater che si olla un divano mangiandosi una pizza. Così la sera di martedì è arrivato anche qua in piazza valdo fusi ,nel bellissimo skatespot che ora è centro della scena dello skateboarding torinese, il furgoncino nike, pieno di pizze calde e gadget vari per gli skater presenti.

Così, tra una pizza e l’altra si è svolto il contest dove i vari rider tra cui Roberto Stamerra, Jacopo Tirelli, Raphael Theotonio ,Giorgio Dazzi, Raffaele Pola e molti altri si son divertiti a sfoderare i loro migliori trick sopra il divano con o senza kicker ,il tutto giudicato dai rider del team Nike Italia tra cui Jacopo Carozzi che hanno skaetato il fantomatico divano prima del contest.

The White Style 2013 in Leogang is over. Despite some weather problems it was a great event. Check out the official highlight clip and read the recap of all the action that went down in the beautiful resort of Leogang.

Rain, fog, mild temperatures – the weather conditions were pretty tough for this year’s White Style event in the Austrian ski and bike resort Leogang. But the best Freeride mountain bikers in the world braved the weather and showed the 2,000 excited spectators an unforgettable show with the best ending for the Russian Pavel Alekhin Vishneviy.

A long day at Leogang’s Schanteilift concluded with a fascinating trick spectacle that put a lot of smiles on the faces of the spectators. Because this White Style was more than unique: Due to the changing and unpredictable weather conditions the event organizers from Bikepark Leogang had to cancel the first run of the finals after the first four riders had already completed their runs. Dense fog made it impossible for the judges to oversee the whole course and the organizers couldn’t guarantee anymore the safety for the athletes on the upper part of the course. But this wasn’t the end of the show – actually this was the beginning of a remarkable show of the some of the world’s best slopestylers. Event organizers, riders and judges decided to go for a Best Trick session at the massive final jump of the course. And the riders showed all their skills over the 35+feet gap.

The Russian Pavel Alekhin Vishneviy was the most active rider in the 30-minutes jam session and stepped up his game with every try showing a massive backflip double-tailwhip on his last jump for the win of the White Style and 2,500 € prize purse. Adrian Tell from Norway came close with a smooth Frontflip No-Hander but crashed hard on his last Cashroll-attempt. Last year’s winner Sam Reynolds (UK) showed a super-stylish Nothing to No-Foot Can and finished 3rd place. Teo Gustavson from Sweden impressed with a Double-Tailwhip for 4th place while the youngest rider in the field, 18-years old Anton Thelander (SWE) finished 5th.

Due to the critical weather conditions White Style failed the FMB World Tour requirements but nevertheless spectators and visitors enjoyed a great show in Leogang. During the training session riders as Thomas Genon (BEL), Mehdi Gani (FRA) or Szymon Godziek (POL) showed the extreme high technical level of Slopestyle riding 2013. After White Style is clear: Freeride mountain bike fans can expect a great season!

So despite the trouble with the weather event organizer and Head of Bikepark Leogang Kornel Grundner was totally satisfied with this year’s competition: “Of course we wanted to show the spectators White Style in its regular format, but this wasn’t possible today. Nevertheless this event was a success for us and I think also for the riders and the visitors. It was really a great show and I’m already looking forward to White Style 2014!

La prima cosa che ho fatto questa mattina è stata rimanere sbalordita davanti a queste splendide foto di Alberto della Beffa. Poi ho letto il pezzo qui sotto tutto di un fiato, e ho apprezzato ancora di più il livello di riding di questi ragazzi. Foto spettacolari, neve fresca, riding e divertimento. Un mix a dir poco imbattibile! Enjoy!

Text & Pics by Alberto Della Beffa (Check out his Flickr page)

2 giorni in compagnia di 117 snowboarding - E’ il 7 dicembre ,da ormai una settimana nevica ininterrottamente ovunque, e io, pur non potendo snowboardare a causa della mia spalla che attende di essere operata, ho bisogno di andare in montagna ,anche solo in veste di fotografo. Pubblico così un post su fb chiedendo di unirmi a qualche gruppo di boarder per il weekend. Dopo nemmeno mezz’ora mi contatta il mio amico Lorenzo Gennero proponendomi 2 giorni di powder e tricckoni in compagnia dei suoi compagni ,che insieme a lui compongono il team della 117 snowboarding.

Il team :Valentina Barengo, Jacopo Selvo, Lorenzo Gennero, Alberto Planchon, Matteo Falcone, Davide Zanini, Eric Demartini, Enrico Bertolini, Pietro Cicolin, Matteo Falcone .
Ed eccoci a Bardonecchia! Una volta fatta la conoscenza dei vari componenti del gruppo ,partiamo tutti assieme la mattina presto e ci dirigiamo subito verso la location scelta per la giornata. È una gobba naturale ,utilizzabile come step-up ,posta in una posizione perfetta! La in-run è pendente il giusto, c’è lo spazio necessario per costruire un bel kicker e il landing è libero, spazioso e morbido ,grazie al metro e 30 di neve fresca appena caduta.
Dopo circa 1 ora di lavoro il kicker è pronto, lo lasciamo ghiacciare mentre mangiamo e dopo pranzo ,i ragazzi, più carichi che mai ,iniziano subito alla grande! Dopo i primi salti di prova (fs360, bs540, backflip,..), valutati la velocità e l’air ottenuti (8-15 metri di volo) iniziano subito con gli scapottoni ,approfittando del landing meraviglioso.

Matteo Falcone ci mostra subito un bel bs720 melon e un frontflip nosegrab che però atterra over rotation con la faccia nella powder. Alberto Planchon ,in pochissimi tentativi, ci sbalordisce tutti atterrando discretamente bene double backflip ,fs double back 900, e bs double rodeo. Così lo seguono poi Lorenzo Gennero e Eric Demartini che provano ,back to back, i loro primi double backflip ,con risultati niente male! Finita così la saga dei double ,si torna su trick più normali, ma sempre molto stilosi, quali il bs rodeo di Lollo e il bs rodeo japan di Eric. Anche l’unica ragazza del gruppo, Vale Barengo , si fa sentire chiudendo un fs 540 indy e un bel backflip.

Sono ormai le 15.30 ,il landing è distrutto e le forze si vanno esaurendo ,decidiamo così di metter fine a questa prima giornata di snow.

La domenica inizia con 3 ore di fantastiche discese in powder a vallon cros, che ha aperto proprio in mattinata per regalarci un’intera vallata di fuoripista vergini. Il pomeriggio prosegue poi con un paio cliff sui 5 metri e con 2 run nell’ormai-da-tempo-abbandonato wood park di melezet.

Nonostante la fatica di 2 intense giornate si stia facendo sentire ,i ragazzi buttano ancora gli ultimi tricckoni sul wall di legno, che ,usato come quarter, si vede chiudere su di sé un da parte di Alby e 2 bellissimi mctwist da parte di Eric e Lollo.

Insomma ,come prima uscita della stagione ,non è stata niente male!! Tempo splendido, buona compagnia e grandi tricks :un weekend di snowboarding ideale!

Pictures: ©Yanis Ourabah. Visit his website here -> www.yanisourabah.com

This last weekend took place the 2012 edition of Enjoy the Glacier, the super cool and much awaited event that replaced le Mondial du Snowboard in Les 2 Alpes. Unfortunately the event couldn’t take place on Sunday due to bad weather and strong winds. But saturday was super sweet, both on the glacier and on the station – plus some fresh parties during the night.

Saturday took place one of the planned contests, a Jam session – you do a good trick , you get a gift immediately => good atmosphere, and a lot of gifts for every one attending the game! Celine, from the Santa Cruz team, won the best girl prize – a board! – with a 360 fs in to 50/50 grind to fakie – amazing! And Sully Monod won a board thanks to a combo backflip / frontflip.

As said, the event didn’t continue on Sunday, so there was a “little” party saturday night (Beer Pong + Avalanche!!). Nothing bad for a season opening, isn’t it?
Nothing less than our well known and damn fine photographer Yanis Ourabah was out there to capture the best moments of the weekend. Enjoy the atmosphere!

Pictures: ©Yanis Ourabah. Visit his website here -> www.yanisourabah.com

Austria’s Felix Baumgartner earned his place in the history books on Sunday after overcoming concerns with the power for his visor heater that impaired his vision and nearly jeopardized the mission. Baumgartner reached an estimated speed of 1,342.8 km/h (Mach 1.24) jumping from the stratosphere, which when certified will make him the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall and set several other records while delivering valuable data for future space exploration.

After flying to an altitude of 39,045 meters (128,100 feet) in a helium-filled balloon, Felix Baumgartner completed Sunday morning a record breaking jump for the ages from the edge of space, exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket-powered airplane. The 43-year-old Austrian skydiving expert also broke two other world records (highest freefall, highest manned balloon flight), leaving the one for the longest freefall to project mentor Col. Joe Kittinger.

Baumgartner landed safely with his parachute in the desert of New Mexico after jumping out of his space capsule at 39,045 meters and plunging back towards earth, hitting a maximum of speed of 1,342.8 km/h through the near vacuum of the stratosphere before being slowed by the atmosphere later during his 4:20 minute long freefall. Countless millions of people around the world watched his ascent and jump live on television broadcasts and live stream on the Internet. At one point during his freefall Baumgartner appeared to spin rapidly, but he quickly re-gained control and moments later opened his parachute as members of the ground crew cheered and viewers around the world heaved a sigh of relief.

“It was an incredible up and down today, just like it’s been with the whole project,” a relieved Baumgartner said. “First we got off with a beautiful launch and then we had a bit of drama with a power supply issue to my visor. The exit was perfect but then I started spinning slowly. I thought I’d just spin a few times and that would be that, but then I started to speed up. It was really brutal at times. I thought for a few seconds that I’d lose consciousness. I didn’t feel a sonic boom because I was so busy just trying to stabilize myself. We’ll have to wait and see if we really broke the sound barrier. It was really a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.”

Baumgartner and his team spent five years training and preparing for the mission that is designed to improve our scientific understanding of how the body copes with the extreme conditions at the edge of space.

Baumgartner had endured several weather-related delays before finally lifting off under bright blue skies and calm winds on Sunday morning. The Red Bull Stratos crew watching from Mission Control broke out into spontaneous applause when the balloon lifted off.

Pictures: (c)RedBull

Freeride mountain biking crowned a new king as Canadian Kurt Sorge took the top spot in Red Bull Rampage. France’s Antoine Bizet took second and Utah local Logan Binggeli came in third in a thrilling contest that saw huge jumps and flips all over the steep cliffs of Virgin, Utah.

Pictures: (c)John Gibson, Christian Pondella, Ian Hylands/Red Bull Content Pool

You know – there is plenty of cool spots to be skated everywhere – huge skateparks, worldwide famous street locations, indoor parks, and so on. but NOTHIN can beats the feeling of skating the streets of YOUR city, grinding that bench you used to sit after school with your friends, or flippin the stairset you walked everyday back from the office.

So we took a pair of skaters (yep, thanks to the WildBordmida crew), a filmer, and we cruised the streets of Savona. This is how we do it – 17100 crew. XD

Skaters: Samuele Puddu / Massimo “Steink” Angeletti

Filming\Video Editing: Gabriele “Disorder” Mazzotta

Mind the video men!

The city of Turin goes in the street again for the third, terrific, episode of the “Torino Street Style” – a mixture of different freestyle sports such as flying disc, bike polo, fixed bikes, mtb, free-climbing, street acrobats, and of course BMX and skateboarding (I had the chance to shoot a bit also in the wonderful Skate Plaza Valdo Fusi, what an incredible place! A sport report will be published in next days).

Travelling 3 hrs by train (Italian trains, if you know what I mean) in a hot a sunny Sunday could have been discouraging but to be honest I was hyped foreseeing the event!

Main location for the event was the beautiful Piazza Castello in the city center, where the 365bmx crew built an amazing park featuring two quarterpipes, a pyramid box, a funbox, and a wallride!

Riders compete for the final on Saturday, and after elimination rounds, only fifteen of them gained a place for Sunday finals. We had there the most talentuos Italian bmx riders: Simone Barraco, Stefan Lantschner,Davide Altobelli,Alessandro Froio,Emanuel Bettassa,Dario Loconte,Mirko Andreani,Stefano Giusiano,Stefano Nicastro,Leonardo Longato,Jan Balugani,Mattia Rocchi,Ludovico Watson,Edoardo Botti, Federico Tralongo (in qualification order).

Competition format was 20 min run and then 10 minutes for the “best trick” for each battery. Riders were already hot (well, maybe also cause the temperature was near 30°C ), but in my opinion they were more focused to perform a good riding than to “win the competition”, and that’s an amazing, less stressing, feeling!

I’ve been impressed by the variation of tricks, each rider rided the park in his own way drawing new lines in each run. I’ve been stoked especially by Mirko Andreani’s 360 out of bound off the kicker, landing in the street…

…Stefan Lantschner’s HUGE kicker to kicker transfer, gapping the quarter…

…Davide “Dadda” Altobelli’s sick 540 over the box, he won the best trick competition with this one…

…and almost any trics by Simone Barraco

After the finals, here’s the result:

- Best Trick: 540 Over the funbox Davide Altobelli

- 1st Simone Barraco
– 2nd Stefan Lantschner
– 3rd Davide Altobelli
– 4th Alessandro Froio
– 5th/6th ex aequo Stefano Nicastro and Stefano Giusiani
– 7th Mirko Andreani
– 8th Jan Balugani
– 9th Emanuel Bettassa
– 10 Ludovico Watson

After some random occurrence (like losing my train ticket and finding it half an hour of desperate research), I had a nice, warm, trip back home with Federico “The Engineer” Tralongo and Simone “The Creative Guy” Barraco. Too bad I haven’t kept the beautiful piece of art the guys created during the travel

Torino Street Style 2012 – 365BMX Contest powered by: 365BMX – Frontocean – Monster Energy – 45Strada.
Thanks to Umbo, Cocis, Fede and Kid,il Butta, Ale and all the guys that made my day there. Pros kids!

More pictures to be published later on Facebook page

All the pictures © belong to their respective authors.

Hi Baro! Welcome on Candiesmag! How old are you, where are you from and how long have you been skating?

Hi!! First of all thank you for this itw! I come from Albinia and I’m 22. I’ve been skating for 8-9 years..more or less..

Sponsors ed hook-ups:

I ride for Fallen,Murder and the Planet Riders Shop in Grosseto…I can’t thank them enough. Without their help I couldn’t skate as I’m doing now.

You always give your 200% while skating but it also seems you enjoy your riding a lot, even on the scariest structures. Is it true that skateboarding makes you happy?

Sure, skateboarding has a positive influence on me in many ways… and skateboarding means also having fun for me.. I think it couldn’t be otherwise. Scariest structures and crashes are part of the fun.

How’s skateboarding in your area? Are there any public structures? Does municipality help you is some way or there’s the rule “D.i.Y. or Die” ?

Skateboarding doesn’t exist in my area.. the classic scene of the old woman who chase you from the spot is very common here.. we have a public skatepark, which has been recently enlarged. But it’s worst than before and I try to never skate there.

You’ve been in Barcelona. I think it’s an amazing place, and not only for skateboarding. What do you think of the city?

Barcelona rules, there’s no doubt. You can find both the European and the International scene there… But the economic situation impressed me a lot. Old people that rummage through the trash, it’s terrible.

You’ve been skating for many years now and surely you have a clear idea in mind of the Italian scene. Do you think it’s going in the right direction?

I think it’s going nowhere… There are always a lot of projects…which turns into fails. Badly designed skateparks and poorly organized contests…that’s what I see.

I often admire your powerful airwalks, but what’s the trick that hypes you the most? And the one that’s giving you more problems?

At the moment I’m devoting to bowl riding.. One of the few ‘sectors’ where it seems there’s always the right attitude… so I’m trying to learn airs and long grinds… the tricks that give me problems are those on the walls ahahha I learn a trick and I forget the other

Which is the Italian contest you prefer the most ?

I think the Spring Classic in Varazze is not bad at all…sun, sea, skateboarding… ice creams.. Yes I like it. Maybe the one I love the most.

What’s now in : a) your mp3 b) your dvd player c) your bookcase!!

My mp3 is full of strange things… from Spice Girls to Black Sabbath and from stoner to drum & bass ….strange stuff…really… I don’t have a dvd player… I watch the movies I find around and I like to follow other people’s advice…and..bookcase? …mmmm…jodorowsky…palahniuk…eeee..I like to receive advices and books from the people I meet.

A provoking question: behind a good skater there’s a good filmer/photographer. Do you think all this media visibility helps the skaters or it focuses too much on the appearance instead of on the real skills?

It’s a hard job which requires skills and patience..but I think that filmers and photographers live skateboarding just like skaters. One is one the board and the other behind the lenses, but they both work to catch the best moment and the best trick and to represent the skater as it is. Usually they get along well together and they’re happy with the results

What do you do in your life when not skateboarding? Do you think it is possible to build a career in this sport?

Besides skateboarding…mmm…. it’s difficult to say… I think everything I do deals with skateboarding in some ways… I can say I like reading and playing…. It’s hard to build a career in skateboarding.. I don’t recommend this ahahah ….I hope I’ll succeed into building a bowl in a wood and living on farming or something like that..XD

Thank you Baro for this nice talk! Just end as you prefer:

I thank Giulio..he makes me really proud to be part of the Murder team..I thank Gabriele of Planet Riders.. he always amazes me with his endless willingness… I also thank the Fallen team…and everybody behind it… and I thank … Er Secco, Leo, KSC, Wurstel Aerodinamici, Karma, Skeeeet, Massi, Cate and her lasagne, Ile who ‘s with me now that I’m writing and reminds me a lot of things, my work colleagues in London, Vale, Juliano, Mario, Romanello, Jagermaister, Mr Biondani, Jersey Shore, everyone who hosts me in his house and most of all I thank you for this space! And I don’t thank: the vegetarian restaurant in Padua, all the children with a kick scooter around the world, Trenitalia, my cat, the zingheri, mosquitoes, the warmth, the sketchy clips of mtv, rotten bananas, the fat rollerskater girls in Marsiglia bowl, soccer and handball.. rest in peace…

After a successful first edition (sestri contest) it was obvious that everybody wanted the return of the Massacre Skate Contest, which is going to become a tradition for the Ligurian skaters.

Divided into two categories – bowl and street – the contest allowed the skaters to express themselves on every structure of Sestri Skatepark. Everyone showed his best tricks to impress the jury and take home glory and prizes.

If you know some of the locals of the park, you can easily imagine a respectful line up:

- Angel Perez

- David Ball

- Alessandro Fruttero

- Andrea Rosa

- Emanuele Prella

- Kevin Duman

- Simone Arena

- Icaro Nardi

- Matteo Quaglia

- Francesco Traverso

- Daddi

- Stefano Cifra Ognibene

- Stefano Lillo

- Julian Ramirez

- Guillame Caraccioli

- Alex Cageggi

- Ence Montano

Plus Carlo Cassan and others.

In the first runs the jury decided who deserved to skate in the finals. The competition was on fire, but with a nice and relaxed mood.

Here are the results of the two categories. But it’s worth to mention that every single skater did his best and it was great!

Street Contest:

1. Stefano Cifra Ognibene

2. Guillame Caraccioli

3. Alex Cageggi

4. Daddi

5. Angel Perez

6. Matteo Quaglia

Bowl Contest:

- Longest Grind: Emanuele Manuela

- Highest Air: Alex Cageggi

- Best Overall: Guillame Caraccioli

- Special Mention to the youngest: Icaro Nardi

Enjoy the pictures… and be prepared for the next!!

Sestri Massacre Contest was powered by: Vans Off The Wall – Blast!Distribution – Comune di Genova – SkateHouse Skateshop – UISP – SeStreet – Circolo Merlino – Kraft Foods Fundation – Save the Children – Peace Games