Saas-Fee Ride 08

The second event in the 2008 Ride series took place Saturday 19th July in the glacial resort of Saas-Fee, Switzerland. The European Summer Freeskiing Championships, the Saas-Fee Ride 08, offered spectators the chance to see some of Europe's top Big Air freestyle ski action all in view of the famous Allalin mountain peak.

Style was the order of the day, and all the riders were grabbing their skis and tweaking out for maximum points. Volkl team rider JP Furrer (SUI) had some new grabs to show the crowd; double tail grabs, spread double nose grabs (in inverts) and insane superman front flips.  Henrik Harlaut (SWE) was up to his usual mischief, spinning switch 10’s like he could do them in his sleep, and not holding back on the tweaked grabs either. Paddy Graham was putting in a noticeable performance as well, and his flat spin five had all the other competitors cheering. In the women’s, Virginie Faivre (SUI) was also looking strong, throwing stylee 3’s and 5’s to put her at the top of the women’s field, but local Swiss rider Evaline Bhend and Katrien Aerts (BEL) were also looking strong, throwing down 3’s with ease, and going for some technical grabs, like the double japan.

In the end no-one managed to eclipse Henrik’s switch 12, and for the third year running he took the title.  He was closely followed by Benedict Mayr (GER) and Paddy Graham (UK) in third.  In the women’s event former Ride event winner Virginie Faivre (SUI) who was riding strong couldn’t replicate her qualifying form due to a knee injury in the comp, leaving it wide open to the other two girls. Eventually it was Katrien Aerts (BEL) who took the first place with a styled 360 double japan, followed closely by Evaline Bhend (SUI).
All in all it was a great day, and the riders had put on a real show for the spectators.  Winners Henrik Harlaut, Benedict Mayr and Paddy Graham will remain in Saas-Fee with the Ride Freesport film production crew to hopefully produce one of the best Ride TV shows yet. Saas-Fee remains the perfect terrain and resort to host the Saas-Fee Ride and with this the event organisers had pulled off another successful competition. We are all eagerly anticipating the next instalment in the Ride event calendar.

There will be a 24 minute TV programme of the event available from mid August.  First broadcast will be on this website so watch this space.  There will also be an IPOD and 3GP2 phone clip available to download to your phone of the event.
Hope you enjoyed the day if you made it to Saas-Fee for the event. If you didn't get over here and check out their new summer snowpark, it's well worth a visit! Look forward to seeing you all at the London Ride 08 on the 25th October at the Kensington Olympia, London.  It's part of the Metro Ski + Snowboard Show 2008 so you can expect to see a great indoor event!

All the best,

Warren Smith