Happy birthday Eero!

Today is Eero Ettalla's birthday. Another excuse to post Eero and Heikki's awesome phone cam video!

Check out Eero, Heikki and Juuso's blog:

Three Random Riders

Big board and music mash up hits Battersea Powerstation

Don't miss Freeze, London's big snowboard comp & music mash up at Battersea Power Station from October 23rd - 26th.

Over 80 pro snowboarders and nearly 30 music acts will collide over one weekend at Battersea Power Station on the South Bank for Freesports on 4 Freeze, a huge snowboard and ski event sponsored by LG, energy drink Relentless, Shaun White Snowboarding and many more.

Some 30 UK riders, including Dom Harington, Ben Kilner and our top half pipe boy Dan Wakeham , will be up against the likes of Danny Kass and Stefan Gimpl in the Big Air competition. Even Shaun White is rumoured to be putting in an appearance.

Check out the list of riders.

On the gig front expect a mix of hip hop, indie bands and dance djs including Cypress Hill, Sway, The Enemy, Reverend and the Makers, The Automatic and my old mate from my Radio 1 website days, DJ Annie Mac. 

Check out Annie's new website where you can download a mix for free. This won't be just another gig for her. It's ridiculous how many people who work at Radio 1 are big into snowboarding.

The music line up at Freeze.

Channel 4 have an online only competition running to win tickets and a top prize of a big screen LG TV on their Freesports on 4 website. You can enter as many times as you like but you better be quick, closing date is noon on October 17th.

For more details on the event, how to get there and how to buy tickets, visit:

londonfreeze.com

Download a free Annie Mac mix at:

anniemacpresents.com

Shaun White - Wii salute you!

November sees the release of Shaun White Snowboarding on every video game platform under the sun but of special note is the Wii version which allows you to control your rider with the Wii Balance Board introduced with Wii Fit.

Are we about to witness the birth of a franchaise? It seems Shaun White has learnt a new trick from his mentor Tony Hawk and it isn't on a skateboard.

From November 14th (UK), Montreal games developer Ubisoft release Shaun White Snowboarding for Xbox 360, DS, PS3, PS2, PSP and PC. But potentially the most intriguing version will be the exclusive Wii incarnation Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip which has it's own exclusive storyline and incorporates the Wii Fit Balance Board as a controller. 

I'd like to see how grabs work on that apparatus because they're not light! Here's some screen grabs from the Wii version  and below that, Live Wire and Ubisoft demo the game on YouTube.

Watch Ubisoft and Live Wire demo the game on You Tube.

Wakey's half pipe trick tips

Learn to ride half pipe with Britain's top half pipe snowboarder Dan Wakeham on White Lines.

The White Lines boys have rejigged their website in time for the new season and included lots of videos with snowboarding tips for newbies through to jibbers.

Check out our Olympic snowboarder Dan's tips for wannabe half pipe riders.

Watch the video on White Lines

Visit the new White Lines site

Endeavor to be good?

While browsing Facebook I came across Canadian board and clothing company Endeavor (sic). Anyone know anything about these guys or know if they are sold in the UK?

The board graphics and hoodies look awesome but I must admit, I know nothing about them. 

Visit their site

JP Walker's latest movie Downloaded for free

'Downloaded', this year's snowboard film from Step Child boards, is available to download for free fromt heir official site.

It runs just under 25 and a half minutes and features JP WAlker, Markku Koski, Shin Campos, Simon Chamberlain, Stian Solberg and the rest of the Step Child crew. 

I'm downloading it myself at as I write this so I'll let you know my verdict later! It does have a Japan section though so you know I will be compelled to watch and a nice picnic table jib session.

Download the movie

Visit the Step Child blog

Step Child on MySpace

Absinthe Films get into gaming

Absinthe Films are about to release their first venture into the video games market with Stoked for Xbox 360.

Some of you will know I used to have a website called Stoked On Snowboarding where I reviewed snowboard movies and snowboarding video games. It had a logo suspiciously similar to Coca Cola's but with a snowboarder on it (Stoked ... Coke ... geddit?) until they threatened me with a big ass law suit. Did you know they have copyrighted that wavy line you see on coke cans?

Some of you may also have heard that my current day job is sticking up banner ads and mini-sites up on Xbox LIVE (which is free by the way to anyone with an Xbox 360 and a net connection if you wanna see my work! - You only have to pay if you wanna play against friends online). So imagine my surprise when this particular gem fell into my mailbox!

Top notch snowboard movie makers Absinthe Films have made their first foray into video gaming by co-developing a new snowboarding game for Xbox 360 with Destineer and Bongfish.

It's called Stoked but hey I'm flattered cos it will feature two of my all-time favourite pro riders Bjorn Leines and Travis Rice!

It's definitely not Bjorn's first time as a video game character as I've played as that dude many many times on the old Xbox.

The game include 5 mountains, dynamic weather systems and sponsorship from respected snowboard companies. Other riders named are Nicholas Muller, Wolle Nyvelt, Gigi Ruf, Romain De Marchi, Annie Boulanger and Tadashi Fuse.

I guess what Absinthe will bring to the table (besides their name, contacts and well earned respect) is their unique style and creative approach which has always been a big part of their film making. I'm anticipating a great soundtrack and some awesome graphics.

The game is out in November and when you can download the demo on Xbox LIVE, I'll shout it out.

Check out Absinthe's forthcoming movie Ready

That's All Folks

If like me, you're thinking snowboard movies are what HD was invented for, then you want to check out Travis Rice's forthcoming movie That's It, That's All.

Not only is it co-produced by Trice and shot in Hi Def, it also includes Terje, Jeremy Jones and Danny Kass among the featured riders.

You can watch trailers on the official site as well as win a heli-boarding trip to Alaska or loads of signature Travis kit.

Also there's a Facebook group for all the latest news and updates.

Visit the Official site

Join the Facebook group