Air and Style Preview 2007: Checking in with the DC Foreign Core-Respondent Winners
The best riders in the world are in Munich for the Nokia Air and Style and I’m here with them thanks to SNOWBOARDER Magazine and DC Shoes. SNOWBOARDER’s Tom Monterosso as well as my fellow contest winners Sam Kuhn (video) and Victor McDerment (photo) and I all flew in on Wednesday. This was a day to figure things out. First of all, Munich is a great city. It’s clean and easy to navigate. The public transportation system is easy to use and gets you everywhere. Buying tickets for the system wasn’t so easy. I’m still not sure if we got it right, but no one seems to mind. Munich is beautiful; the architecture and the people. In one block you can see everything from Gothic cathedrals to modern chain restaurants. Another thing we figured out is that our phones don’t work here. That caused some stress. Try going a day without a cell phone and you’ll know what I mean. We still got everyone together and Sam and I even had some time to check out the city.
Around 7 o’clock everyone was wearing out from jet lag, so we retired to our rooms for a bit. A short nap and a hot shower later and I was ready for dinner. As luck would have it, so was Nicolas Müller, who we met in the lobby. He suggested a vegetarian restaurant called Prinz Myshkin that is his Munich standby. Tasty food and laughter ensued. Nicolas is such a great guy. This is his seventh Air and Style and he had a lot of great insight for us with some funny stories too. All of us were totally stoked on dinner. Back at the hotel we parted ways with Nicolas, Tom left to figure out cell phone-free communication issues and Sam, Victor and I decided to have a beer before calling it a night. The day was long, but we all had great stories about a new city and cool new friends. How often do you get to do these things in exotic locations? We all met a guy we’ve only ever seen in the media and come to find out he's a cool guy too. Danke schön, Nicolas.
Ever the ambitious group, we all got up early on Thursday and took the train to the venue to arrive before the shuttle bus and the crowd. Turns out the joke was on us. We couldn’t get credentials that day and since we were so early nothing was happening. Victor and Sam got some good shots from around the site, but we left without even looking at the setup. The Olympiastadion itself is a crazy structure. It’s a regular track and field stadium, but half of the seats are covered by a glass roof hung from support cables and beams similar to a suspension bridge. It was built in 1972, but it looks ultra-modern.
After getting the boot from the stadium, we hopped another train to downtown Munich and roamed through the Christmas market. All sorts of vendors selling everything that is food and craft out in the open air. It’s a great place to shop for souvenirs, pick up a quick lunch or just check out the city’s architecture. We were lucky enough to score some nice weather which meant the city was bustling. Even so, car traffic was light as Munich is very bike-friendly. Munich is also dog-friendly. We saw people walking dogs everywhere; subways and stores included. We ate lunch in a downstairs bar that featured everything from Vienna-style fried chicken to pig throat steak, all tasty, and then hit the train again back to the hotel. We went for beers in the hotel bar across the street because it was better than our hotel bar. Devun Walsh, Mads Jonssen along with various industry reps and managers were there for drinks before the riders’ dinner. The four of us stayed at the bar while the rest went to the dinner. After dinner, the real fun began.
Riders, reps and media packed a doubledecker luxury bus headed for a top-secret bar for the kickoff party. Things started off mellow enough, but after the MC's formal rider intros, the DJ took over and the place went off. Sam was the night’s MVP, showing everyone how to have fun and get punk rock. The rest, well, it was a party. Booze was flowing, people were dancing, music was loud. It was a blast and snowboarders know how to do it right.
Everyone separated afterward with Sam and I getting back to the hotel around 4am only to find a sizeable crew of Danny Davis, Mason Aguirre, Louie Vito, and Mads hanging out with Swatch TTR CEO Drew Stevenson among others. We finally called it after about an hour of winding down.
Morning came way too soon on Friday. By 10:30 we were back on that doubledecker with the riders headed to the stadium for the press conference where the pairings were to be set. The riders drew names from a bowl and here’s how the first round draw looks:
Eero Ettala vs. Nicolas Müller
If I didn’t watch them draw with my own eyes, I’d have thought it was rigged for first-round drama. Good friends and heavy hitters will face-off early. Torstein vs. Chas and Kevin vs. Danny will be especially interesting. Of course every rider here is capable of video game-like tricks, so who knows what will happen. The first round here is so important because the top eight get automatic invites next year. The rest of the spots go to the top seven from the year-end TTR standings and the winner of the Air and Style rookie challenge.
After a brief interview session, the riders got a chance to check out the contest setup. The practice session started out on the down box and smaller jump at the bottom of the course. Some of the riders were hitting the course for the first time. Couple that with the early-season nature of the contest and things started mellow for sure. Rider opinion is split on whether the jib features will matter this year. Torstein and Nicolas both think it will, but Louie Vito disagrees. After some maintenance, they started hitting the big gap. This year’s kicker is just over 80 feet long and nearly 60 feet up from the stadium floor to the lip of the takeoff. That session also started mellow and progressed. Eero Ettala came back from a slam to show that his knee is back in shape. Things heated up after a little more course maintenance and Chas, among others, threw down some practice session intimidating 1260s. Travis was corking out and stomping hard. Basically, everyone was showing why they deserved the invite. After a little while longer the kicker wound down and the game went back to the down box area. Kids were getting creative with the rails on the sides, doing multiple bonks to bomb drops. I even saw Nicolas do an invert on the landing transition. The vibe was back down to chill again and it stayed that way until we left. This event is going to be all-time. The creativity on display made for a super fun atmosphere. Some jaw-dropping super-spins will be thrown and some fun laid-out flips, too. Oh, and Sean Paul is going to get real on the mic to set the place off. Check back for the full wrap on Sunday. Peace!
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