World Cup skiers competing in the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games slalom at Coronet Peak today thrilled the large crowd gathered at the Rocky Gully arena, as they encountered gruelling conditions on the internationally rated course, with final honours going to Felix Neureuther of Germany and Florine de Leymarie of France.

The high calibre fields competing in the ANC Continental Cup slalom were a “who’s who” of international skiing with some of the best ranked World Cup skiers from USA, Sweden, Canada, Monaco, France, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, the Ukraine, the Netherlands, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Korea, Estonia, Australia and New Zealand competing.

Continue reading ‘Slalom at 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games’

With the 2010 winter Olympics on a few months away, excitement is brewing in the air. Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong—an African skier who lives in the UK and is known as the “Snow leopard of Ghana”—hopes to add his tale to that list at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, BC, next year.

Nkrumah-Acheampong and his family—in this case his wife, son, daughter and niece—are the second group to fly to Canada this summer as part of the Canadian Tourism Commission’s (CTC) “Connecting with Canadians” program. The CTC and its national tourism partners are organizing authentic Canadian experiences for Olympic and Paralympic athletes and their families leading up to the 2010 Winter Games. In this instance, CTC-UK helped coordinate the visit.

Continue reading ‘Snow Leopard arrives in Canada’

Texans have expressed a desire for an indoor ski facility and may finally get their wish. Two years after first reporting about it, skirebel.com has learned that a sine near Forth Worth in North Texas is awaiting approval.
Despite the Rockies being a day’s drive away, Texan skiers may soon have a ski hill in their own backyard.
SkiRebel.com has learned that a new indoor snow centre has been proposed for a site near Fort Worth in north Texas as part of a $1.6 billion multi-use centre including retail, residential, office and entertainment space.
Gardens of Grapevine expects to begin construction later this year, with an ambitious construction schedule which will see completion and opening in July 2011. The developer still needs to submit its second round of plans to the city of Grapevine next month for approval.
With a price tag of $70 million, Texas Alps is being designed by Snow Sport Entertainment Ltd on behalf of developers World Villages. The facility will include a 180m (600 foot) snow slope, indoor ice climbing wall and luge track.

We want this to be the best place to be between Vegas and Orlando,”

World Villages Commercial Real Estate Director Tony L. Bowen told local media. “It’s not going to replace the Colorado experience at all; it’s really to build up the enthusiasm and build up the day-to-day opportunity for North Texans to practice skiing for when they do want to make their trips to Colorado.”

• Houston Snowdome: Please click here to read more related stories about the following stories.

• Ski Resorts: Click here for more ski resort news.

On March 26, 2009, ski legend Shane McConkey died in a ski BASE jumping accident in the Italian Dolomites. In countless ways, McConkey defined skiing as a lifestyle and pushed the boundaries of the sport. Shane was certainly one of the most influential skiers ever to have clicked into a pair of skis.

Shane was a member of the K2 Skis Team and was a creative thinker who challenged conventional wisdom in ski design. His Pontoon rockered powder ski, introduced in 2004, was one of the most profound innovations in ski design in decades. His concept was soon after adopted by the snowboard market thus making the sports more fun for millions of enthusiasts.

To celebrate Shane’s life, K2 Skis will release a limited edition Shane McConkey Ski built on the Pontoon chassis, in winter 2009. Graphically inspired by Shane’s personality, ability and many contributions to our sport, the ski will be available at participating authorized K2 Dealers and K2Skis.com beginning in October. Approximately 500 Pair of the unique, individually numbered, commemorative skis will be produced. All net proceeds generated by the sales of the Shane McConkey Tribute ski, suggested retail $600, will be donated to Shane’s family.

“Shane was a part of our K2 family” said Jeff Mechura, Global Brand Director for K2 Sports.

“He was the pure embodiment of everything that K2 stands for, and we cherished the time we were able to spend with him. In many ways, Shane has changed the way we all think about life and skiing and we will miss him dearly. This ski is but one way to remember him and pay tribute to a legend of our sport.”

Movies: Watch related Shane McConkey videos by clicking here.

Shane McConkey’s segment from Matchstick Productions’ feature film, Focused. Shane was certainly one of the most influential skiers ever to have clicked into a pair of skis. His absence will forever be felt.

Shane McConkey from MSP’s Focused from Dave Amirault on Vimeo.

What is turning out to be an annual rendez-vous for freeskiing film makers is headec back to Montreal in September.

The IF3 International Freeski Film Festival, presented by The North Face, Reebok and Salomon, is pleased to present the third edition of the IF3, September 17-20, 2009 in Montreal, Quebec.

Freeskiing is one of the fastest growing and most skillful snow disciplines today, and has quickly developed an impressive community of dedicated filmmakers working to chronicle the sport’s evolution and talent through film. The IF3 will feature the world premieres of the top twelve professional films along with five amateur movies, and will draw athletes and adrenaline addicts from all over the world. The film showcase and its surrounding events will take place all weekend at Cinema Imperial, Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber Salle Lucie & André Chagnon, in Montreal.  Scheduling, festival information and tickets can be found at www.IF3.ca

No doubt festival highlights will include appearances by some of freeskiing’s top riders including Tanner Hall, Sammy Carlson, JP Auclair, Charles Gagnier, Tom Wallisch, Sean Pettit, JF Cusson, Matt Walker, Arnaud Kugener, Mike Douglas, and many other pros.

The festival is boasting its strongest lineup yet with free outdoor screenings and two outdoor events that are planned. Some of the featured over the three days are:

• IN DEEP: The Skiing Experience

• So Far So Hood 4BI9 Media (USA)

• Eyes Wide Open Field Productions (Norway)

• Contrast Nimbus Independent (USA)

• Can’t Stop Ride The Planets (France)

• Signatures Sweetgrass Productions (USA).

• Refresh Level 1 Productions (USA)

• Wild Stallions Meathead Films (USA)

• Every Day Is A Saturday Poor Boyz Productions (USA)

• Mad In France Ski Vision Production (France)

• Pretty Good Rage Films (USA)

• !What Else? Invert Production (France)

The winner of the coveted “VholdR Countour HD Best Single Shot” prize will win two Countour HD Helmet Camera to support their next production.

Pro and amateurs awards will be decided on by a pre-selected panel of industry-expert judges including JF Cusson /Canada (pro skier and freeskiing pioneer), Eric Iberg /USA (filmmaker), and Guillaume Lahure / France (founder of skipass.com).

Who would ever think that July would become our busiest month in terms of visits! Skirebel.com continued an incredible upward ascent in July as visitors to the online ski portal broke an all time record.
Visitation was up by over 77% over the same period in 2008 and page views were up a whopping 105% over the same period. Month to month growth has increased 53% and 62% respectively. So far Ski Rebel Magazine has surpassed website visit expectations by 37% for the year to date.

We are blown away by the sudden increase of visitors to the site. July has been a determining month for us and it usually helps us assess the trends for the upcoming ski season. We are optimistic this is going to be another stellar year and we are on target to building one of the most successful ski web properties in the world,’

said Frederick Wallace, President and Managing editor of Ski Rebel Magazine.

A number of exciting new features are going to be launched this fall and a new online ski boutique is going to open up. Based on the success of Ski Rebel Magazine, we are on track with our strategy to now expand our online base of outdoor web properties.

July’s growth was fueled by the following top stories online stories:

Continue reading ‘Ski Rebel Magazine breaks all time visitation record in July’

A quality field of top international athletes has already been confirmed for the inaugural ‘100% Pure’ New Zealand Winter Games, including a host of Olympians, world champions and national champions, with entries still flooding in.
SkiRebel.com has learned that more than 800 competitors from over 20 different countries will descend on the South Island August 21-30 to take on New Zealand’s best winter sports athletes.
Among the stars confirmed so far are five-time Olympic medalist and current Olympic slalom champion Anja Paerson from Sweden, 2006 Olympic cross-country sprint gold medal winner Chandra Crawford from Canada, Japan’s former skier-X World Champion Hiroomi Takizawa, and Australian halfpipe snowboarders Nathan Johnstone, the world number-two, and World Championship runner-up Holly Crawford.

The strength and depth of competitors heading to New Zealand highlights the importance of the Games for athletes ahead of next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver,”

said Winter Games NZ CEO, Arthur Klap. “For some it’s about sharpening their competitive edge during the northern hemisphere summer, whereas others will be going all out to gain World Cup points and qualify for their national squads.”
Other world class athletes competing at the games include three of Germany’s top four snowboard-X riders, Canada’s top-ranked female skiers in slalom, giant slalom and Super G, and four-time Winter Olympian Patrik Jaerbyn from the Swedish Ski Team which also includes current national champions Andre Myhrer and Kajsa Kling. China is sending a large snowboard halfpipe contingent that includes current women’s world number one, Jiayu Liu.
The inaugural ‘100% Pure’ New Zealand Winter Games will take place at Coronet Peak, The Remarkables, Cardrona Alpine Resort, Snow Farm, Naseby and Dunedin from 21-30 August 2009. They will feature alpine skiing, free skiing, x-country skiing, snowboarding, curling, ice skating and adaptive snow sports as well as the demonstration sports of winter triathlon and natural luge.

• New Zealand: read related stories by clicking here.