Gigi Rüf

Since the beginning of skiing and especially freeskiing, airtime has been essential. Speeds, slopes and soft snow simply demand that you give up contact with the snow. So either special kickers are built and jumped, or natural terrain features are used: cliff drop, gap, step-up, transfer - you name it! Of course, this is fun and also scores points in the freeride contests. We hope you enjoy today's airy selection!

"The Wizard" Gigi Rüf qualified for the Verbier Extreme 2020 at the FWT in Fieberbrunn with a lot of style. [Should it take place, as of today: "Ghost Contest" with live broadcast, see below]. He has left his mark on Absinthe films, and we look back on these great, golden snowboard films that have been watched so often for their soundtracks alone.

The third ContestHappening of the season is about the Freeride Junior World Championships in Kappl, the FWQs in Engadin and Les Arcs, as well as a new season wildcard for the FWT and two more wildcards for the Kicking Horse stop.

It's just under a month until the first stop of the 2019 Freeride World Tour (FWT) takes place in Japan. The qualifiers (FWQ) and juniors (FJT) will also not start until the beginning of January. Nevertheless, to get you in the mood for the upcoming contest season, the following article summarizes which riders will be taking part in the tour this year. Who got a wildcard and who has advanced from the qualifiers? Find out here!

At the penultimate tour stop of the FWT, things got down to business once again and in most categories it remained exciting right up to the end in Verbier. However, Kristoffer Turdell has already secured the FWT title in the men's skiing category. The day after the FWT, a 3* FJT contest took place at the Wildseeloder from the women's start, which we will also report on at the end.

ContestHappening is entering its second round and for the first time, it's back in the new guise of PowderGuide 3.0! It's about time: In a few days the first tour stop of the Freeride World Tour (FWT) will take place, and the first qualifier (FWQ) events have already been held last week. We also present the PowderGuide event calendar, which can be filled by users!