Atomic Skis…wicked
Jib Session…awesome
Andorra…errm, what? is that a resort?
No, in fact it is a whole country…and no I’m not making it up!
Andorra is squashed in-between France and Spain, and it is the only country in the world to have two reigning co-princes! Post a reply and have a guess who they might be…
Andorra is a small, ok, very small – the entire country is 468km squared! If that means nothing to you think of it like this, it is the same size as Winnipeg, Canada and half the size of Indianapolis, Indiana. And for those bearing the gray skies of the UK think of it like this…Andorra would snuggly fit into the size of London with a little breathing room to spare.
I’m not going to run through every detail of Andorra though – sufficed to say is climbing the ranks for European skiing destinations, millions and millions of Euros worth of investment which has been cleverly spent in upgrading lift systems, extending piste and building mad parks (El Tarter is without a doubt one of the best in Europe and hosts the TTR Total Fight Masters of Freestyle in March (https://blog.grandvalira.com/freestyle/en/events/).
But what’s this about an Atomic jib session I hear you ask? Steezy. This past Saturday (23rd) saw the Atomic Night Fever jib competition enter its 6th successful year. It was an open competition with the qualifiers held the day before and with a tasty 500 euro prize (710 dollars) finding riders was not hard. As I am frequently told in my office, it is all about the details…so here they are:
9PM – The actual comp was set up in the rather understated car park of the El-Tarter Snowpark. Biggest was the flat-down rail box mounted onto a giant 4×4 Monster Energy truck (ok well giant for us – that thing would absolutely school my tiny Renault Clio). With some decks set up and lights in position it was time for action…!
After a rad display of style and skill the winners were announced…In snowboarding, Mati Radaeli took 1st on the podium by clearing the plate gap to frontside noseslide then 50-50 to nolly frontflip 180 exit, sweet! Merlin Balfour brought home second and Juan Cruz third.
In skiing, Noah Albadalejo shredded a 450 over the gap to 270 out on the rail finishing with a backside 270 out of the box beating his bro Joel and Albert Martinez, sick!
All the riders with the exception of Juan Cruz ride for the Grandvalira Freestyle Team, Coliflor – check them out on the Grandvalira Freestyle site (https://blog.grandvalira.com/freestyle/en), you never know…these might be the guys you next compete with!
Comp done it was time to hit the bar, hard. Celebrations continued through the night at Nemo’s bar with some proper tunes and nice company, some verrr nice company infact! There were plenty of examples of how your balance is impeded by alcohol resulting in bruised bodies and battered egos. Its true humans never learn…to that I say, good! We would be a pretty boring bunch otherwise!
Verdict: “Without doubt, the best Atomic Night Fever yet!”
Want to know more about Andorra? Check out these linky link links:
www.andorra.ad
www.skiandorra.ad
www.igluski.com/andorra
www.blog.grandvalira.com/freestyle
