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Flying Scandinavians Dominate
1999 Warsaw Nokia Takeoff
Aviation rule number one is "the number of take offs should be equal to
the number of landings."
Recipe of the Day (Do-it-Yourself)
Big Air "a la Warsaw" with whipped snow for 30 persons: Take 20,000 kg of steel tubes and force 40 workers to build a 26-meter high
ramp in 10 days. Mix 150,000 kg of liquid nitrogen with 300,000 liters of
water and whip non-stop for 20 hours. Cover the ramp with it. Add prize
money - $30,000 or more. Now wait for pro riders - they will come and make
you happy.
On October 23, the city of Warsaw, Poland, was the scene for the opening of
the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup season. For those of you who love math
and hate geography - Poland is a medium-sized country in Eastern Europe,
sandwiched between Germany and Russia, with strong ski and snowboard
traditions. According to the Polish Snowboard Association the number of
snowboarders in the country is about 300,000 not bad for a country with a
total population of 38 million.
Twenty-nine snowboarders from all over the world, from Norway to Cameroon,
including six of the best Polish riders, were invited to participate in this
Big Air competition. The event was organized in downtown, at the foot of
PKN - Palac Kultury & Nauki (Palace of Culture and Science) a neo-communist
style sky-scraper, which was presented to Polish people by Stalin in the early
'50s.
After a welcome speech of Warsaw Mayor Pawel Piskorski, riders
started the prelims - two jumps for each. After that they performed two
jumps in semi final, and three jumps in final. A team of FIS certified
judges were analyzing and digitizing the tricks. Guys from Freaks on Snow out of Austria were playing the role of brave clowns on snowboards between
the sessions. Along with that, skaters, BMXers and inliners were having fun
in a full size vertical ramp. Spectators were watching snowboarders and
listening British rock groups Reef, Countermine, Polish Wzgorze Ya-Pa-3 and
American DJS.
The festival woke up the entire local snowboard community.
They were able to see the take offs and landings and everything in between
live as well on a huge TV screens.
Flying Scandinavians dominated the whole event. The winner was Tomas
Johansson, a 21-year-old Swedish rider, and King of the Hill '99 in Riksgransen,
who without a doubt was demonstrating the best tricks and the highest
amplitude from the very beginning of the competition 'til the very end.
"The city of Warsaw provides an excellent setting for the spectacular
takeoff of the Nokia snowboard season. In essence, snowboarding is an urban
sport, and we have wanted to bring it downtown and mix it with other
elements of current pop culture, music and mobile phones. Snowboarding and
Nokia share same values of creativity, freedom and individuality. We enjoy
doing things differently. We are happy that the city of Warsaw is
enthusiastically working with us on this unique event," said Anssi Vanjoki,
senior VP of Nokia mobile phones.
Results
1 - Tomas Johansson, Sweden
2 - Jussi Oksanen, Finland
3 - Travis Parker, USA
4 - Sebastien Vassonney, France
5 - Arild Brun Kjeldaas, Norway
6 - Peter Line, USA
7 - Stephane Huard, France
8 - Roger Hjelmmstastuen, Norway
Valeriy Yevseyev, MountainZone.com.com Correspondent
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