LP Sansfacon and Vincent Gagnier Win Coors Saint-Sauveur Challenge

Le Coors Light Challenge est une compétition video de 3 jours en équipe contenant un filmeur + un team de skieur. Félicitation a LP Sansfacon and Vincent Gagnier pour leur victoire de feu !!!

LP Sansfacon and Vincent Gagnier

Dale Talkington and Connor Scofield



Watch all the entries from the Coors Light Saint-Sauveur Challenge at snow-show.ca

X Games Tignes Superpipe Practice

Orage athletes Xavier Bertoni, Kaya Turski, Banks Gilberti, Anais Caradeux, Matt Margetts, Taylor Seaton and newcomer Benoit Valentin all arrived last night in Tignes, France for the first ever ESPN Winter X Games Europe.

Ben Valentin - the newest addition to the Orage team

Anais Caradeux

After the unfortunate weather at the European Open in Laax last week nobody was too excited when this mornings forcast called for temps around -17C, but as soon as the sun came out things changed by about 20 degrees and the first day of practice got underway under bluebird skys and perfect early spring conditions.

Xavier Bertoni or Banks Gilberti

Banks Gilberti or Xavier Bertoni

For no reason what-so-ever Xavier and Banks decided to show up at pipe practice both wearing white boots, black helmets, and the exact same outerwear.  Despite the similiar apparenance, their skiing is anything but. Banks was changing up his "normal" superpipe comp run from what we saw at X Games in Aspen a few weeks ago and is planning to start it out with a switch drop in.  Xavier lapped the pipe looking more and more comfortable as he caught perfect tranny on nearly every hit.

The village at Tignes Val Claret. The mountains here are breathtaking, as long as you don't miss the trees.

Kevin Rolland and Simon Dumont were looking the strongest in the Tignes pipe so far; Simon going huge and Kevin stomping doubles.  With only one day of practice before tomorrows superpipe qualifier it may pay off for those that were stepping it up during this mornings session.


Here's some raw footage from practice.... more to come!

Skiing Superpipe Practice - Winter X Games Europe from Orage on Vimeo.

Photos: Felix Rioux

European Open

Photos: Stadler

As any skier knows, weather in March is predictably unpredictable, as was the case this past weekend at the European Open in Laax, Switzerland.  Although some competitors had flown in from halfway across the globe, the weather conditions were unwelcoming to say the least.  Violent winds, heavy snow, and white-out conditions rendered the weekend a total bust.

Gearing up for the Arctic exploration superpipe qualifiers

Saturday's slopestyle event was canceled due to the whole "not being able to see the jumps" situation.  In lieu of the slopestyle comp, a rail jam was held on Saturday.  A stacked list of pros who are normally throwing down on perfectly manicured parks and pipes were forced to get creative on a small stair set jib.   Kaya Bamba Turski rounded out the womens’ podium with a solid array of switch ups and 270’s.  Katie Summerhayes from England took second and Ashley Battersby walked away with first place after stomping a rock-solid 270 on 270 off .  On the men’s side of things, it was JF Houle who stole the show with a nosebutter 450 on to 270 off on the down bar.  Tom Wallisch and Samuel Favret joined JF on the men’s podium.

Kaya Bamba preparing to switchup the down box.  Photo: John Vandervalk // newschoolers.com

Meanwhile, Matt Margetts was busy learning about the inner-workings of his knee after casually slicing it open during a botched tails-first switch 270 on attempt in the public park.

Marge’s knee smiles for the camera.  After 28 stitches and a couple weeks of rest, Matt will be back on snow.

 

 

Anais Caradeux sneaks a quick practice run between gale force wind gusts.

Lousy weather couldn't keep Kevin Rolland from busting this huge flair during practice.

On Sunday, the high winds and poor visibility left the competition organizers with no choice but to nix the superpipe event as well.  It looks like everybody’s going to have to wait for this week's European X-Games to find out who’s got the gusto to take the top spot in the slopestyle and superpipe.  The event kicks off on Wednesday with the men's superpipe qualifiers and finals.  Don't miss it!

Antoine Choquette Jibbing Night!

Avec un sourire jacker, Antoine Choquette agresse un rail secret dans un endroit secret en filmant
avec ESK.

Blurred Chronicles pt. 1

Our sales and marketing rep from the Rockies was kind enough to share with us this instructional and educational video.  Even though this has been on the web for a couple months, we can't get enough of it, and decided it's probably worth a Thursday blog post.  In the Blurred Chronicles Episode One, you'll learn loads of relevant and enriching things like:

+Adolf Hitler can't ski park
+Road sodas are legal, as long as you don't get caught
+Canadian tuxedos are always cool
+Skiing on grass (not that kind of grass, Kevin) is a good idea
+Dogs love to wear sunglasses
+Skiing behind cars is a good idea
+Hucking 60'+ front flips is also a good idea

This short edit is arguably one of the most wholesome things I've seen since the Guatemalan Persuader.

Win Orage Gear in the VholdR Top5!

Not up for an Oscar this year? No problem. We've teamed up with CountourHD and Libtech to outfit the Top5 POV cinematographers who upload clips tagged with 'skiing' on VholdR.com.

The first place winner will receive a head to toe outerwear setup from Orage and a pair of Libtech Narrow Ass Snowboards. Runners up with receive Orage lifestyle gear from our upcoming Spring 2010 collection that's about to drop in stores and online next week.

For entry details visit http://vholdr.com/video/top5-skiing-challenge. Submission deadline is April 29th.

Go Canada Go!