Monday Mix - May 27, 2019

It's the last Monday in May, which means it's once again time for the Mix!

The biggest news on the FIS front is that the spring meetings and calendar conference are set to take place this week in beautiful Dubrovnik (CRO). With two meetings set for the big Snowboard, Freestyle & Freeski Committee, as well as meetings for the Park & Pipe, Snowboard Cross, and Alpine SB subcommittees, the next few days in Croatia will be important ones as we lock in the 2019/20 season schedule and begin the implementation of new proposals, rule changes, and improvements for the coming season and beyond.

Samkova wins Snow Queen honours in Czech Republic, rides horse to podium

With that official business out of the way, let's move on to some news about Utah 2019 world champion, and 2018/19 SBX crystal globe winner Eva Samkova (CZE), who made what can only be described as an iconic entrance to recieve her award for "Queen of the White Track" in Prague this past week, riding an ACTUAL HORSE to the podium to recieve her honours.

By claiming the award for the top Czech snowsports athlete of the year, Samkova dethroned alpine rider Ester Ledecka, who had owned the title for the previous three seasons. And, by riding a horse to the podium, Samkova dethroned pretty much anyone who's ever thought they had the best stage entrace at an awards show anywhere, ever.

Mammoth extends season through to August

Now back to the slopes, as California's Mammoth Mountain has announced that they're extending the 2018/19 shred season into AUGUST after a record-setting May snowfall saw more than 100cms of fresh hit the resort. While all that snow has made things a little tricky for the national teams set up and looking to run park and pipe camps in Mammoth this spring, it also means that they've all been riding fresh pow through the entire month pf May and no one feels too bad for them. Maybe try running camp again in July?

Riders rise to the "Stäle's Lines" challenge

Staale Sandbech (NOR) and Gimble God dropped the incredible "Lines" edit a few weeks ago, and now riders around the world are stepping up to showcase their attempts at pulling off a similarly impressive sequence. Czech rider Sarka Pancochova released her version last week and it's definitely worth a watch:

Redbull Recharged goes down in Mammoth

A few of Redbull snowboarding's finest got together in Mammoth during a rare decent weather window a couple of weeks ago for the "Recharged" competition/film session, where three teams - lead by Mark McMorris (CAN), Ben Ferguson (USA), and Brock Crouch (USA), respectively - were given three days to collecct their 10 best clips on a custom-made course at the Californian resort. At the end of the sessions the one and only Travis Rice was the judge and jury to select the winners, and that video was released last week. Check it out here...

Final "Best of 2018/19" photo galleries now online

Our final two galleries collecting some of the bst images of the 2018/19 FIS Snowboard World Cup season are now online for your veiwing pleasure. Check out our slopestyle gallery HERE, and the halfpipe collection HERE.

And if you're so inclined you can find bonus, expanded galleries of for all of our 2018/19 competitions over on Facebook, HERE.

Pierre Vaultier and wife hit the red carpet in Cannes

Jumping back to SBX...Pierre Vaultier (FRA) and his wife Kadri Pihla (EST) stepped out for the final day of festivities at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend, looking sharp as they hit the red carpet for the closing ceremonies of the prestigeous event. Shredders in suits...oui oui.

Wild QP Campout quarterpipe contest goes down in Mt Bachelor

This thing...does not look easy to ride...

Hey William Buffey, are you ok?

Looks like Canadian Next Gen team rider William Buffey might have got zapped right off the face of the Whistler park after this front three...

That's it for now! Lots more news next week once the meetings have wrapped up in Croatia!