Archive for December 3rd, 2006
In addition to the increased difficulty of the 2006 Red Bull Last Man Standing course, one thing that will no doubt add to the competitors’ nerves on Saturday, December 2 is the growing list of notable riders who have entered. The entry list features a who’s who of world and national Enduro and Trials champions, as well as Dakar and Baja 1000 winners.
A limited number of spots remain for the event, which will pit the best of the best against each other and the elements of the Red River Motorcycle Trails on the Texas/Oklahoma border. The first 300 Pro, AA and A level riders to register at www.redbulllastmanstanding.com will gain entry to the Last Man Standing qualifier on Friday, December 1. There is a $100 registration fee, of which 100 percent will go toward the prize purse.
All 300 registered riders will get two runs on a high-speed qualifying course using the same bike that will be ridden in Saturday’s main event. The fastest 100 riders will advance to the main event.
On Saturday, December 2, the 100 qualified riders will line up and blast toward the first corner of the ultra-demanding 40-mile loop which will feature car-sized boulders, dirt, loamy sand and high-speed straights, in addition to technical elements that will test even the top riders. The field will be reduced after the first round. The second lap will include only riders who finish within one hour of the first finisher. The second and final lap will take place when the sun goes down, and this time, with the course reversed.
For more information, log onto www.redbulllastmanstanding.com.
December 3rd, 2006
Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk hasn’t just turned the extreme sports world into a cash cow over the last two decades, he’s also helped us mere groundlings feel like we’re still young and hip — or at least young with bad hips — in his steady line of skater games. Tony Hawk’s Project 8 delivers exactly what we expect from the franchise: high flying vert ramps, cluttered street courses, an eclectic and ear-drum splitting soundtrack, and enough product placement to make Ricky Bobby blush. But Project 8 also shows off some new tricks, the most noteworthy of which will keep you on your couch and off that dusty board in the garage until the next Hawk game hits shelves. Familiar controls mean you can pop the game in, jump on your board, and roll straight into career mode. The underlying theme of the game is to climb the amateur rankings through a series of tests and challenges to become one of the top eight amateur skaters in the world, thus entitling you to a spot on Tony’s Project 8 team. As you roll through the layouts, the tests are administered by anyone from innocent bystanders to well-known skating pros to random guests stars.
It’s a cool premise which means that all of your skating in the open world leads towards achieving top eight status, whether it’s showing off tricks for the locals, learning lessons from the pros, or the good old fashioned Classic mode. (There’s something about picking up hovering letters in video games that never gets old.) Move on after achieving amateur status for any challenge, or stick around and try to reach the pro or sick level. Obviously, the better you perform, the quicker you move up the rankings. A new wrinkle pops up through the game’s various “spot challenges.” A bunch of tags pop up under spray paint cans on the pavement and building facades (parental advisory: this game contains graffiti) and require you to hold a grind or manual until you reach the next marker. Just like with the tests, the challenges offer the amateur, pro, and sick levels, the last of which takes considerably longer to achieve. It’s a simple rule to live by for video games — easy to learn, hard to master — but it’s been the edict since day one for a reason. The most ambitious innovation unveiled in Project 8 is also the game’s coolest. If you click down on both analog sticks when you’re in the air, you implement the “Nail the Trick” feature. Everything slows down and the camera angle pans down and around to close in on your feet and the board. Once you’re in “Nail the Trick” mode, you can control your feet using the analog sticks, meaning you can create undiscovered combos by either flipping or spinning the board with your feet. While the timing takes some getting used to — for so long, we’ve been accustomed to pulling off combos in Hawk’s games at warp speed — it definitely adds an entirely new dimension to the franchise, which is no laughing matter considering this is Hawk’s eighth run through the digital skate park.
For the group clamoring for some next-gen love, you can test out the PS3 SIXAXIS wireless controls on everything from simply skating around to the “Nail the Trick” feature. From the pause menu, set the controller to manual steering, balancing, and trick performing. It’s surprisingly responsive for all three options, but if you only like the feel of one of them, you can set the SIXAXIS for each individually as well. While using this is a blast, it’s harder to pull off tricks than when playing with traditional controls. It’s still much quicker to punch buttons and toggle a stick than to move the entire controller back and forth mid-ollie. The design and layout are eerily similar to previous builds of the game, so if you’re looking for fresh new rails and jumps, you might want to skate on by. But the look of the game fits the next-gen system well, including creepy facial details on all of the pros (you might want to hide the children when you find Bam Margera.) While the PS3’s capabilities are fully utilized with the above mentioned features, there’s still no online mode for Project 8. Some of the customizable options have also been stripped down, from creating your own park to character modifications. Sticklers for details might be put off by such subtractions. But while hardcore gamers will point to those limitations, Project 8 still delivers on a number of levels for the casual-to-serious gamer. Striking the perfect balance between the game’s signature features and it’s next-gen new wrinkles, the latest addition to Tony Hawk’s franchise is more than just a tacked on sequel. Skate on, Tony, we’ll be right behind you. (With elbow, wrist, and knee pads on.)
December 3rd, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ASSOCIATION OF SURFING PROFESSIONALS (ASP) INTERNATIONAL
Roxy Pro Hawaii
Event No. 7 on the ASP Women’s World Tour
Sunset Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
November 24 – December 6, 2006
Scoring the event’s seven highest single wave scores and top four heat totals, Gilmore and Bartels placed 1st and 2nd respectively in the Roxy Pro Trials to earn their main event berths this morning. Riding that momentum into Round 1 of the Roxy Pro, the duo posted several 8.0 and 9.0 point rides (out of a possible 10 points) to advance straight to Round 3.
Gilmore’s 18.10 out 20.00, the highest heat total of the day, saw her blast past Sunset specialty-surfers Layne Beachley (AUS) and Rochelle Ballard (HAW), both of whom posted 11.17, with ease.
“It’s my first time here so it was pretty nerve-wracking to draw a heat with the two most dominate girls at Sunset in the history of women’s surfing,” Gilmore said. “I went out there trying to have some fun and trying to catch anything that came my way. I was just doing my thing and I guess the judges liked what I was doing.”
Gilmore and Bartels surfed the testing break twice in the trials before paddling out a third time for Round 1 of the Roxy Pro
Hawaii. Neither showed signs of fatigue.
“The paddle out is kind of long and you have a lot of time to think about things on the way out, so it can be physically and mentally draining, but once you get out there and see a few sets coming it gets your heart pumping and you’re not tired anymore,” Gilmore said.
Gilmore, who has won two ASP Women’s World Tour events as a wildcard, the most recent of which being the Havaianas Beachley Classic in October, is no stranger to the wildcard routine. Both she and Bartels recently qualified for the 2007 elite tour via the World Qualifying Series (WQS).
“I think the wildcard position is probably the best,” Gilmore said. “There’s no weight on your shoulders so you can relax. This event is coming down to the wire for a lot of girls who are trying to qualify to stay on tour and Mel [Bartels] and I have already qualified so we’re safe. I think that’s why we’re performing better.”
Bartels surfed on the ASP Women’s World Tour in 2004 and 2005 before narrowly missing requalification last year. Bartels garnered a Roxy Pro trials invitation for her performance last week’s Op Pro Hawaii, the first jewel in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, after Pauline Ado (FRA) failed to show up in Hawaii.
“You know what I’m stoked on?” Bartels said. “I’m stoked I got a place in the trials. I wasn’t originally in the trials but I think it happened for a reason and that I was supposed to be in the main event. I’m on a good roll right now and I just hope I’m still surfing well when we run the contest next.”
A local Hawaiian, Bartels credited having her loved ones on the beach for her exceptional surfing today.
“I’m really stoked that my family came, all of my family, for the first time,” Bartels said. “Today was a day they could all make it down and I’m so stoked just to see them and to show them how I surf in this type of event. Far out, it’s such a good feeling and it’s giving me the momentum to want to do well here in Hawaii.”
The Roxy Pro Hawaii is the second of three events that compose the Van’s Triple Crown of Surfing – a Hawaiian big wave surfing series. The first event, the Op Pro Haleiwa, was won by Sofia Mulanovich (PER). Mulanovich’s Round 1 win today will see her maintain her current Triple Crown lead – though she maintains that she’s not dwelling on the details.
“I’m trying not to think about the Triple Crown too much,” Mulanovich said. “It’s better for me that way. If I win it that would be great, if not, it’s still great just to be surfing in Hawaii.”
Losing her Round 1 heat but redeeming herself in Round 2 was current world No. 1 Layne Beachley. Beachley could clinch her seventh world title at Sunset Beach should she win the event with world No. 2 Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) bowing out before the finals.
“In my Round 1 heat I had the opportunity to catch some really good waves and I didn’t go so I was kind of lacking confidence in my positioning and I wasn’t committed enough,” Beachley said. “And then in Round 2 I was committed but my timing was out so it’s just been one of those really off days. Luckily I scraped through and an inch is as good as a mile so I’ll take it and I hopefully I can improve on it in the next day or so when we compete again.”
Round 2 Roxy Pro Hawaii Results: (1st and 2nd advance to Round Three; 3rd is eliminated)
Heat 1: Layne Beachley (AUS) 7.17, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 6.17, Julia Christian (USA) 2.67
Heat 2: Heather Clark (ZAF) 9.07, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 7.43, Trudy Todd (AUS) 7.10
Round 1 Roxy Pro Hawaii Results: (1st and 2nd advance to Round Three; 3rd surfs Round Two)
Heat 1: Megan Abubo (HAW) 10.83, Samantha Cornish (AUS) 9.07, Trudy Todd (AUS) 5.67
Heat 2: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) 12.86, Claire Bevilacqua (AUS) 10.83, Jacqueline Silva (BRA) 0.00
Heat 3: Melanie Bartels (HAW) 17.43, Chelsea Georgeson (AUS) 12.00, Julia Christian (USA) 6.10
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) 18.00, Rochelle Ballard (HAW) 11.17, Layne Beachley (AUS) 11.17
Heat 5: Melanie Redman-Carr (AUS) 12.00, Serena Brooke (AUS) 9.27, Heather Clark (ZAF) 7.27
Heat 6: Rebecca Woods (AUS) 8.16, Keala Kennelly (HAW) 7.73, Jessi Miley-Dyer (AUS) 6.6
December 3rd, 2006
In the Italian Alps, Argentine freerider Oscar Sosa showed the direction in which freeride skiing is to develop: his style earned him victory at the 11th edition of Red Bull Snowthrill.
In order to win the world’s most important freeride contest this year, you needed more than exceptional risk-affinity and skiing perfection. Argentinia’s Oscar Sosa, only seventh place at the end of the first day, came from behind over the next two days to take victory among 15 of the world’s best freeriders and five selected rookies. His success was due first and foremost to the unique style he celebrated on days two and three. “My colleagues valued clean style over the risky tricks performed by some of the other riders,” was the Argentinean’s post-victory analysis.
The event is traditionally judged by the riders themselves, following long evening sessions studying and evaluating the extensive video footage taken of each ride. Sosa is the first South American winner of Red Bull Snowthrill. More important to him than the 4,000 euros’ prize money is the symbolism of his biggest success to date: “I think it also shows the direction in which freeride skiing is going to go in the future.”
This contest between the world’s best freeriders, almost an institution by now, included jumps covering more
than ten meters, garnished with backflips and grabs, as well as perfect lines—and not just the skiing conditions 
were outstanding, but also the level itself. Even so, Sosa, with his 1,415 points, put quite some distance between himself and the competition: Andrew “Noddy” Gowans of New Zealand, in the lead after the first day, lagged behind by a whopping 134 points (1,281), ahead of Austrian Martin “McFly” Winkler (1,230). The Italian Jacopo Bufacchi—one of those favored to win and, due to several drop-outs, the only local rider—took fifth place and wasn’t satisfied: “I have to admit that I’d rather be standing on the podium.” For 2007, in any case, he’ll be out to make a comeback.
Red Bull Snowthrill Monterosa Image Gallery
RESULTS:
1. Oscar Sosa (ARG) 1,415 points
2. Andrew “Noddy” Gowans (NZL) 1,281 points
3. Martin “McFly” Winkler (AUT) 1,230 points
4. Bast Blasy (AUT) 1,224 points
5. Jacopo Bufacchi (ITA) 1,195 points
6. Alois Bickel (AUT) 1,142 points
7. Sascha Schmid (SUI) 1,136 points
8. Robin Kaleta (CZE) 1,104 points
9. Jani Pogacar (SLO) 1,060 points
10. William Kocher (FRA) 1,038 points
December 3rd, 2006
In addition to the increased difficulty of the 2006 Red Bull Last Man Standing course, one thing that will no doubt add to the competitors’ nerves on Saturday, December 2 is the growing list of notable riders who have entered. The entry list features a who’s who of world and national Enduro and Trials champions, as well as Dakar and Baja 1000 winners.
