This past Saturday, the Stash Avoriaz hosted its very first event, open for all followed by a Night Photo shoot with invited riders with an invitation for the top 3.

As we were taking a run down the day prior to the event in order to select the three sections of the course we would use for the event and where we could install best the judges we faced the Stash’s only problem, which is that all sections are so amazing that it makes it almost impossible to decide.

Then Jean-Noel Calvet, the responsible for all parks in Avoriaz, came up with the idea to run the contest from top to bottom which sounded great but not easy for judging, as the Stash offers more than 50 features.

After a few hours of brainstorming, we finally came up with the idea of sending small groups of riders with three judges riding along from top to bottom and at the end of the run, the judges would take the two best riders who would make it to next round until the top 6 would battle it out on a last final run.

Although this format is way more time consuming, we could not hope of a better way to stoke riders and judges, who for the first time did not have to sit down and write scores all day long.

The three judges crews were the Homies crew with Nico Droz, Fred Couderc and Cedric Giovanola, the Burton Team with Niels Shack, Kim-Rune Hansen and Maxence Tevelle and the Team SnowZone with Benjamin Taberlet, Vincent Buquet and Nicolas Rosset.

The contest started one hour later than planned as the snow was still quite hard but also because many of the riders did not quite make it on time due to the Friday night partying.

But that was not really a problem and the contest could finally start under fantastic blue bird sky and spring slush.

We were kind of anxious if the new concept would work and if riders would like it but our worries vanished as the first heat returned to the cabin with huge smiles on their faces.

Heats went on until lunch with a BBQ offered by the Avoriaz tourism office and after an hour break the contest continued with the Women’s and Kids’ heats.

Only 5 girls and 2 kids showed up which made them go straight into finals, but this did not affect the quality of the riding at all as when judges came back with their groups, they could not believe with how much motivation the girls went for it and same for the two kids who battled for the title as if there was no tomorrow.

On the men’s side, the riding level raised after each heat, making it more difficult to judge heat by heat.

During the semi-finals, the Homies judging crew even had to have 3 riders battling it out on one feature to decide who makes it into the finals.

Then it was time for the finals, where the 6 finalists had one run with a judging team composed of one member of the Homies, Burton and Snowzone judging crew. But as they started, most competitors and the public followed the group for their last run as if it was a golf tournament.

With the public behind, riders went off doing tricks never seen on wood features before as if edges never existed.

During the prize giving riders were awarded some very special prizes which included unique Stash products, pimped wooden medals and the winner of each category received a Season Pass for the next year offered by Avoriaz. Judges came to us telling us that we should invite all 6 finalists to the Night Photo shoot; so we did.

Before the Night Photo shoot the Avoriaz Tourism office (We definitely love these guys even if though they wear ski boots) prepared a meschui, which is a traditional North African grilling of a Lamb which takes around 5 hours of preparation which we devoured while waiting for the sundown.

Then Snowcats came to pick us up and brought us on  the newly built BIG section of the Stash where invited riders and top 6 of the Stash conspiracy went off while renown photographers such as Snowsurf/Vianney Tisseau, SnowboardMag/Giacomo Margutti, Burton/Cyril and filmers from MethodMag/Marc Vaudroz, Burton/Andro Kayzer and Homies Filmers/Kevin Prusse and Bulus

witnessed their skills which will be released in the best magazines and websites across Europe soon

At the end of the session, we let the riders decide the Top 3 of the session. Niels Schack took third place, followed by Michael Mikael De Rose in second and first place went to Thomas Delfino who all received a unique Stash Board created for the occasion.

Results Stash Session

     Women 

          1^st           Marion Haerty

          2^nd          Lorian Reuse

          3^rd          Virginie Reuse

     Kids

          1^st           Timothe Baisany

          2^nd          Dylan Durand

     Men

          1^st           Billy Morgan                     

          2^nd          Thomas Delfino                              

          3^rd          Mikael De Rose               

          4^th           Alexandre Mallet

          5^th           Paco Camberlin

          6^th           Severin Bongrand

Thanks to all participants, photographers, filmers, the Homies and of course the amazing resort of Avoriaz without whom this one of a kind event could not have happened.

P:  Cyril 1-15

P: Damian MCArthur 16-23