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The 2006 season, started on a strong note over the weekend.
With 30cm falling a week prior to the weekend, followed by a cold week of snowmaking, Things were looking good for the queens birthday weekend.
4pm Saturday the 10th and the clouds rolled in, Yeh hah another 30cm fell in Thredbo over night and into the Sunday morning. Snow levels were down to 1400m , things were looking just like winter.

Come Monday, I was lined up for first lifts on a crispy cold blue day in Thredbo's Village. 5mins later I was pointing some chicken and carving up a storm on the mid season like conditions. Nick G, Saph Farrell, Gus Stleon, Woodie were there with bells on. High noon, leg burners and Merrits with a lot more to come.

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Saturday the 3rd of June, 2006. Balmoral Boards Courtyard.
This is where the industry , riders, retailers and friends got a sneak preview of what is to come in this years Digital Snowboard Magazine.



The dress code was retro ski gear, which made for some great viewing. Damon Hayler and Ryan Tiene were definatley highlights in that department.

8pm saw the feature film debut in front of an impressive turnout. If crowd reactions are to gauge by , then you to will love the 25min feature film. Stand out parts included Ryan Tiene opening section, Max Cookes, the young Jake Mcarthy and the closing section of Robbie Walker.



All in all a great night , free booze, good tunes and great snow flick.

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This was set to be round to the Melbourne event that had taken place 3 weeks prior. The weather loomed to be a shocka, but the rain came and went only during the the setup phase.
Most of Australia's best jibbers were there, except Melbournes winner Robbie Walker who was still in Mammoth spending his prize money and having great old time.

The setup was wack, high impact into a firm packed landing. This combined with a crew of 30 local wankers , booing, throwing lemons,pears and telling riders that they sucked. Had the vibe between riders a liitle over the whole affair.

After about one hour of some pretty average performances, the riders were twindled down to a top 10. This is where things got stepped up. Nathan Perry rode well, as did Chris Boadle, Dan Besetti, Ryan Tiene, Gus StLeon and Charles Beckinsale. But in the end Max Cookes had the moves to win over the judges and was granted $2500 for his efforts.

All in all not a good event for Australian Snowboarding, organizers of these event need to work with the riders, so that setups work and the crowd get the best possible performance out of the riders.

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Channel V and Milo got together to put on this event under the roof at Victoria Market. The in run was high in the pigeon filled rafters, bird flu galore. If you got past the pigeons you found a the standard ledge rail ledge setup. The crowd was large, due to the fact that the Veronicas were blasting out their hits and shaking their booty for the live tv thing that the whole shabang was put on for.

Robbie Walker, Chris Boadle, Max Cookes, Mikey Williams, Marcy Baker, Dan Beset, Marcus Boadle, Saph Farrell and Laura Williams all put on a great show for the local groupies. Highlights would include Saph Farrell's fronstide lips to nosepress and frontside lips to back tails. Robbie Walker fakie nollie backlip tail same way out. Max cookes with switch backside 270 , same way out.

In the end it was the crew was twindled down to a top three. Mikey Williams, Max Cookes and Chris Boadle. All three stepping it up a notch , vowing for the $2500 winner takes all cheque.



"and the winner is.......Robbie Walker" , confused , dazed , shocked was the general feeling. As Robbie had not even made the top three, but yet some how had taken out the event. Judging who knows how it works.. but I'm sure Robbie Walker doesn't care.. he took the $2500 and went back to Mammoth for a few weeks.

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"corona and Red Bull Vodka induced hangovers, The presets, no snow but a perfect park, casual rock stars and low key legends. keeping it real" those are the words of event master mind Rich Hegarty.

Stylewars 05 was the first stop on the world snowboard tour. ( TTR ).
Who would of guessed that an Australian Resort was capable of holding such an event. But Falls Creek Vic, have made a huge commitment to Australian Snowboarding over the last few years and even with the dismal amount of snow to work with, they pulled off yet another successful week.

Here what some of riders had to say about the event.

. ".......that the weather in victoria would be crap, that it was the biggest comp ever in oz, Good times, $2 Corona's, hangovers, Big names, even Bigger jumps a 85 and a 75 footer brilliantly built by the Falls Creek Park crew.
Bring on 06! " Gus St leon , Oz team Stylewars 05

"...... that I could chill out from work and comps for the season...spose it was a comp but it didn't feel like it . Just hanging out, few drinks, movie premiers, some cards and some riding in between."
Shay Paxton, 9th Place.

"....... the Big Dogs!!!!! When one contest can get Humpy, Jacob, and Koski from Quiksilver, JJ Thomos and Zach Leach from Oakley and NZ's finest, it's obviously doing something right. Stylewars is the best contest I have ever attended, it raises the bar so high it makes other contests look pathetic. Its in its own league."
Max Cookes-10th place

"....I had to travel all the way to Falls Creek. Really good park, riding and drinking. Good times..." Nick Gregory, oz team stylewars 05.




After three days of competition and 5 days of partying the final top ten looked a little like this...

1st Cheyne Southwell (AUS)
2nd Jakob Wilhelmson (SWE)
3rd Jacob Koia (NZ)
=4th Chris Kroll (AU)
=4th JJ Thomas (US)
6th Robbie Walker (AUS)
7th Jaakko Ruha (FIN)
8th Ryan Tiene (AUS)
9th Shay Paxton (AUS)
10th Max Cookes (AUS)

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After 3-years of preparing Australia sent 9 snowboarders to Torino, which was the biggest team of the aussie camp. They consisted of Mitch Allan, Torah Bright, Andrew Burton, Holly Crawford, Ben Mates, Emily Thomas, Damon Hayler, Emanuel Oppliger and Johanna Shaw.



They all represented strongly in each of their disciplines, but Damon and Torah showed us that they are at the top level, finishing 7th and 5th respectively.
For the full lowdown on what went down, checkout out the bonus 56 page mag with this years issue of DSM. It features interviews with the athletes and a whole lot more. (the mag will soon be available online)


Here are some highlights of what the "athletes" had to say....

”.... I'm not just a snowboard bum, I'm an olympic snowboard
bum.” DAMON HAYLER.

“”.....my run is the most technical and the most progressive run in female snowboarding, and it can only get better.”
TORAH BRIGHT

“...all I'm thinking about, sun surf and getting driven into the reef by a heaving lip, should be a load of fun.” ANDREW BURTON

“.....it was off its tits, I was pushing people out of the way to walk out in the front row, it was insane hearing everyone screaming.”
MITCH ALLAN

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Jindabyne, the home of the bush pigs... not anymore. Jindabyne is now home to the rail event that has set the bench mark for years to come. The set up consisted of a 3 story in run , plenty of set up to a flat down ledge ( with side grinders ) , a down rail and down flat down ledge. All this was set up behind Old town centre in the carpark.

The format was open, so with 101 riders to get through, plenty of jibbing went down. 4 open mens heats , a women's division , and junior mens section were contested during the day. All providing some great thrills for the local crowd. With judging , comes controversy. Clint Allan was robbed not to make the finals, as was Happy Dave. Who went from being Happy to not so Happy Dave in a matter of 30 secs as they read out the eight finalist.



As the sun set the finals kicked off, Cheyne Southwell rode well considering the state of his pants ( will somebody please give this man some pants ) , Mikey the lady killer Williams entertained the crowd with an array of trickery. Lucas McGra was smooth , Greg Reed and Dylan Champion both utilized all the features. Shay Paxton was ever so calculated, Robbie Walker was Killing it.
But in the end it was the Mt Buller kid , Max Cookes who impressed the judges to take home the money , and one huge concrete trophy. Ah yeah there were also some two plankers there, but I don't remember anything about them. Hopefully one of them nutted them selves for crowd value.

THE RED BULL RAILS 05 RESULTS

Mens Open
1st- Max Cookes
2nd- Robbie Walker
3rd- Shay Paxton

Women's Open
1st- Abbi Bright
2nd- Amanda Beckinsale
3rd- Laura Williams

Junior Men
1st- Jake Mcarthy
2nd- Sammy Griffiths
3rd- Zac Lloyd

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The greatest wonder of action sports meets one of the seven greatest wonders of the world in an historic, record-breaking initiative, DC Shoe’s multiple-world-recording holding skater, Danny Way has received the blessing from the Chinese Government to jump over the most iconic of world landmarks.

Last month in front of a 50 strong press gallery, eight television stations and delegates from the US and China, Danny Way confirmed his team will be building the world’s largest skate structure, the Mega Ramp and that he will indeed launch over the only man made structure visible from space. This feat will be out of this world.

 The nearly 40m tall vertical ramp (over half the height of the Sydney Opera House) will eclipse his previous world-record-titles and gold-medal-winning performance from this year’s X Games X. Danny stands to set new records for distance, height and speed off a ramp and out of a quarter pipe at the Mega X Event. This is a world first and has left the international skating community amazed at the sheer audacity and magnitude of the proposal. Danny is wholly respected within the community, although he is in an elite class of his own, a pioneer, and a consummate sportsman.

The Mega X Event will combine two days of music, fashion and actions sports competitions, culminating in Way’s jump over the Great Wall.

“This jump continues the progression of the sport and highlights skateboarding as a growing international sport to the world’s biggest nation.”

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Issue 1 2005 is due in stores by the 23rd of May.
Some of the great featured articles you can expect to see are:
World Superpipe Championship// World Juniors// Max Cookes// Rhys Haag//
BBQ Ollie Jam// COWMAN// Freeway Tour........
Featured resort Guides - SNOWPARK NZ// BRIGHTON UTAH//PORTES DU SOLIEL
Checkouts on Abi Bright and Andrew Burton.
Issue 1 also includes a mini mag with photos, interviews and a 2005 product guide.

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Saturday the 16th of April,
The sun was shining , the crowd was smiling and the ice was melting.
The set up consisted of a flat, down, flat up box thing then into a another flat
box. The riders took awhile to get there legs back, but once they did, the game
was on. Standouts included Andrew Fawcett, Jye West, Saph Farrell .
Ryan Tiene had the moves that impressed the judges and ended up with an easy
$400 for the day of play.
You can see all the action in Issue 2 of DigitalSnowboard Magazine due in
stores mid July.

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Kier Dillon takes out the World Super Pipe
With 55 degree temps on the hill, you could of be mistaken that you were in OZ, except for the perfect pipe and surrounding park.
Dillon also won last year's World Superpipe Championships, With a huge Mctwist Nose grab to back to back sevens, and back to back nines in his first run. Dillon pulled in a 88.7 which was enough to hold !st place. Tommy Czeschin, Andy Finch, Ross Powers, and Mason Aguirre were all hot on his heels but did have the moves.
The Aussie Flag was flown with Andrew Burton who finished a respectable 10th, along with Torah Bright who finished 4th.

Mens Results
1. Keir Dillon--$15,000
2. Tommy Czeschin--$8,000
3. Mason Aguirre--$4,000
4. Andy Finch--$2,000
5. Ross Powers--$1,000

Women's Results
1. Hannah Teter--$15,000
2. Gretchen Bleiler--$8,000
3. Elena Hight--$4,000
4. Torah Bright--$2,000
5. Junko Asazuma--$1,000

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Utah home of the worlds first KFC.Not only is it the worlds first but it's ALL YOU CAN EAT.
Thats right for only $6.49 you can chow all the Kurnells finest until your heart cant handle no more.
Look out for A How to " shorten your life by ten years in one sitting" in our upcoming issues. More grease than you can handle.

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DSM were fortunate enough to be invited to the DC Lab. What we saw is enough to make any snowboarder cream their pants. Boxes, Rails, Walls, Gaps, Log jibs, Stair cases, table tennis, motor bikes, crossbows, shot guns, beer, remote control sleds, bullets, clay targets, spa, the list is endless.
Ryan Tiene impressed us all with his fine display of sliding sideways, Todd Hagg snuck in long enough to slide a 20ft missile and Richard Heggarty looked way to comfortable with a loaded shotgun in his hands.
Some great footage and shots were nabbed whilst we were there, look out for it in our upcoming issues. Also DC will be releaseing a team video come Septemeber, it will be good.

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One summers night the temperature overnight dropped from mid 30's to 10 in good ol' jindytown.


Charlottes pass Australia had atleast 30cm fall on the 3-4feb. so our dedecated senior filmer and full time Jindabyne resident Wayne Holman ventured up to see what was blowin' in.
Loaded with boards and shovels and utter stokeness. The crew were treated to a ripe old day laying down some mid summer turns. Pretty good for summer !!

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The first of what will be plenty of snowboarding video clips is up on our site now. First cab off the rank is a preview of issue 1 for 2005 due out in May. At the moment we only have a Windows Media version here but will have Quicktime versions up soon.