MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 03, 2012 The renowned Australian Slopestyle competition, Stylewars, is on again at Falls Creek Ski Resort, Victoria. The very best snowboarders from Australia, New Zealand and more far-reaching continents such as America and Europe, are battling it out for the ultimate title, Stylewars Grand Master. Keep an eye out for the Dragon team throwing down. Click here to see a behind-the-scenes edit from last year's contest, featuring Nick Brown, Tom Pelley, Dane Tiene, Kieran McLaughlin, Will Snowball and Jade McJannett.    Be sure to check out our boy, Charles Beckinsale, in the latest episode of Boardworld's "Oi Mate" webisode series. Click here to view or visit Boardworld.com.au. Well done to Dragon rider, Shelly Gotlieb, for taking out 2nd place at the Billabong Bro Down, held at Snow Park, New Zealand, over the weekend. In the warm up event to the Burton Open, Shelly threw down over the huge tables, even attempting her first ever 900 in competition and impressing the judges with smooth style and a swag full of boundary-pushing tricks. Can't wait to see what goes down next week! Congratulations to Dragon's Tom Pelley for taking out the 2012 Cattleman's Rail Jam at Mt Buller, Victoria on Saturday 14th July. In a close final, Tom came out on top, stomping a backside 50-50 to front-lip slide, pretzel out from the top close out rail...! The prestigious event showcases some of the country's best snowboard talents on Mt Buller's famed Cattleman's Stair Set. Tom is only the second snowboarder in the contest's history to win the event more than once, taking home $4000 and yet another trophy to add to his growing collection!   Last week, snow retail staff from around Jindabyne, Perisher and Thredbo packed into the Banjo Paterson Inn in Jindabyne, New South Wales, for Dragon's annual LSD "All Premium Experience" Sales Training - a snow retailer training event focusing on the premium snow goggle category and key sales techniques. The event also launched Dragon's Retailer Snow Incentives program for 2012. This session was closely followed by our annual Jindy Bash - with BAGSvDK bringing their skills all the way from Melbourne to keep the guests crammed into the Cocktail Bar and glued firmly to the d-floor. In true Jindabyne style, the party didn't wrap up until well into the following morning, with the surrounding hills eerily quiet the next day... Check out some of the photos here!  The crew at Boardworld and Olliepop Films just posted this new edit, "Down Days With Charles Beckinsale" - check it out! Filmed over Charles' season in Whistler, building for the MSP Films shoot and shredding pow.  This fun little edit is currently being shared around the web, featuring Tom Pelley and crew shredding spring Mammoth park. So much fun! Full of cartwheels, handplants and slushy slashes... check it out right here. The latest episode of Japan Journals has finally landed, check it out here! Featuring Nick Brown, this episode brings us to the hectic streets of Tokyo, to Hakuba for the Slope competition and to explore some of the epic backcountry terrain. So rad!  Congratulations to Heath Townsend for taking out our first ever Search for Dragon's Party Animal BFF! This legend will now be leading all Dragon parties and events for the rest of 2012. To see his BFF Video, click here. Thanks also to the crew at Australia's Surfing Life for putting together the edits and spreading the news for us! Congratulations to Kaz Cooper for taking out the Transfer Snowboarding X Dragon Snow Goggle Design Contest. Her winning design will now be included in the 2014 Global Product Line, to be sold all around the world!    
     Hey! I come to you from the land of incredible powder... even in spring, Japan has turned it on! I have been skunked out by rain the last week and was beginning to wonder if it was the end of the season, when out of nowhere it began to thump down with snow late yesterday, which by the morning had turned into 1 meter of blower powder! Face Shots ALL DAY! Needless to say, it was a day completely full of amazing skiing in Japan's epic trees and open faces. Anyway, I will be working on getting footage over the next few days to drop into another edit, but for the moment, check out the happy snaps I grabbed today! Sorry to those who are waiting for snow to fall, I know its hard to hear about.. but it gets you SUPER STOKED to ski right!?! JNC  Japan Journals is a snowboarding web series based out of the fluffy depths of Japan's snow covered wilderness. Check out Kiwi Dragon shredder, Nick Brown, as he floats over pillows and endless pow in the first three episodes of this amazing web series.      Hey everyone! So I arrived two days ago in Japan, then caught a bus straight from the Airport to Hakuba! Its amazing how much snow is still around and still coming down at this time of the year! All yesterday I was out in the backcountry getting some amazing turns in with some good mates from Australia! I got some video footage as well, but that will go into the next edit.. so keep your eyes out! We are looking into getting some shots around an ancient temple in the snow as well.. so there could be some siiiick material to come! In the meantime, I snapped a few shots on my phone in the backcountry to show you how epic it is! I'll keep you updated on the hunt for shoot locations off the mountains! Jodan Cook.  We are stoked to announce the recent signing of NZ shredder, Shelly Gotlieb, to our snow team. As one of New Zealand's most respected riders, Shelly comes on board with a big bag of tricks and even more impressive resume of results from high-calibre events such as the X Games, US Open, and World Snowboarding Championships.
Currently, Shelly can be seen stomping clean Back 9s in the parks of Breckenridge, Colorado, while calling Cardrona and Mt Ruapehu home during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Her favourite goggle so far? The APXs Blue Sky/Blue Steel (new range dropping Winter 2012). Shelly joins a stellar cast of Dragon shredders, including Leanne Pelosi, Spencer O'Brien, Danny Davis, Luke Mitrani and fellow Kiwi, Nick Brown. Click here to check out Shelly's Welcome Edit.      Hey Everyone! I hope everyone is having a killer time in the snow, or in the sun! Just a quick hello from Vancouver, Canada! It turns out that the plans for Whistler fell through on several levels, so we have been spending the time in Vancouver, checking out the sights! I have been doing all the touristy things by day, and keeping up to the dry-land training by evening! Vancouver is a really pretty city with amazing gardens, a really cool Aquarium, a close-by island and Ground Mountain just a local bus trip away! We did a trip to the capalano suspension bridge as well... its amazingly high and has one of the most majestic views I have ever seen! I am definitely craving being back on snow though! I head to Japan on the 10th and its looking like those plans are going to play out well... fingers crossed! They are getting hammered with snow and I can't wait to get over there and try and get some creative shoots done! Anyway, here are some shots from the time in Vancouver! Stoked to bring you some skiing action from Japan! Cheers, Jodan!  An extremely polished, high quality edit of Dragon's Cohen Davies owning the rails and booters at Northstar California Resort in Tahoe. This kid's got some serious skill! Filmed by Andy Lloyd, check it out by clicking right here. Luke Kneller just shot through this teaser to an upcoming snow show, starring all the funny noises skiers wearing head-cams make... Watch them jump rivers, drop cornices and shred awesome pow! Click here to view.         Hello! Sorry for the long spell of silence! Some unfortunate events have lead to a halt in the Edit progression.. My filmer/girlfriend blew her knee and hasn't been able to get many more shots... So we all wish her a hasty recovery! However, hopefully Canada will yield some shots and I can get back on track with the edits! In other news, I have been insanely busy training like a machine! I have recently started training on the Australian SSA program, getting ready for the Southern winter and some World Cup FISS Slope Style events! Anthony the SSA Aerial and Gym wizard has put together a killer regiem that has kept me incredibly tired and usually pretty sore! Between on snow training in the morning, then gym, then tramps, It has been hard to have time to think. But the results are beginning to show already, which is incredibly exciting! I have also been busily trying to ski every hill around the Colorado area on the Epic Pass, getting shots for Snow Action's coming issues! Another bit of exciting news is that I just did a shoot with Matt Power for The House of Marley; a new headphone company that is doing wonderful things for the environment and society. So keep an eye out for those shots once they are posted online! There has also been a really cool snow sculpture contest going on in Breck... which I have attached photos of... check it out! Super impressive! Anyway, the training continues tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep! So for now, check out some still shots from the adventures and I really hope to be able to get some footage to you from Canada! Keep you're eyes on the coming season... it should be a good one! Jodan Cook  Park builder extraordinaire and Dragon team rider caught up with the Mountainwatch crew recently to have a chat about the season so far and his latest edit, When In Whistler. Have a read: When in Whistler episode 1 features the park you build, what are your favourite parts of the park and where should we look out for them in the vid? I build the park on Whistler with three others so it's not all me. I tend to work on the medium and large jumps mostly and I do a few rail sets before and after the jumps so I can hit the features I'm into in a long line. To be honest, I like the overall main line the best, but if I had to pick just one feature I would say the last jump - the one I do the frontside 720 on. It's even better now; I rebuilt it with all the new snow so it's even better. Edits always make a snowboarder's life look so much fun - how much does your typical day actually resemble the day's riding we see in episode 1? Well if it looked sunny, that's not normal for whistler but the park is fun and I always bump into friends if I go up solo. It's definitely as fun as it looks I would say. My lifestyle here in whistler is probably the best I have had. I have a way better work/life balance here compared to back home; only working four nights a week and averaging about five to six days a week riding. My fiance and I have a nice cosy one bedroom pad here so life is great. What's it like being both the builder of the park featured and the rider in an edit? It's good to have someone think your riding is good enough to point a camera at - that's always flattering, haha. Being able to build the features then ride them is a great feeling. You can build whatever you feel like filming on as long as it's not too gnarly for the public. It keeps you motivated to snowboard for other reasons too; if you built something one night, you always want to go ride the next day just to test it out to see if it worked out well.  Check out this edit of young-gun, Bailey Johnson, shredding hard in the super fun Colorado terrain parks... this kid's gnarly... and he's only 13! Click here to view.  Just received this edit from Boardworld & Olliepop Films. Super sick series of episodes following some of the best Aussie snow talent around the powder fields and parklands of Whistler, Canada. Episode 1 stars our very own Charles Beckinsale. How good do his APX look?!!! Check out the full ep right here.  Check out Dane shredding Big Bear park with big guns like Mikkel Bang & the Method Mag crew. Super rad video viewing right here! | The Blog Archive 2012 (24)September (1)August (2)July (2)June (1)May (3)April (3)March (5)February (5)January (2)2011 (1)December (1) |
