JOSS Winners, Eh!

So the other day Jon Olsson Super Sessions wrapped up and awards were handed out. All the riders threw down and all the edits were banger but in the end our very own Team Canada took it! Here are the results of the competition and the winning video.

Results

1) Team Canada
2) Team Newschoolers
3) Team Norway
4) Team America (and winner of the People’s Choice Award)
5) Team Sweden
6) Team Down Under & Team Europe (tie)

Niklas Ericsson-Best Style
Russ Henshaw-Best Air

Jon Olsson Super Sessions

For those of you that have not heard of Jon Olsson Super Sessions or Jon Olsson for that matter..quit riding! Just kidding. But, I do hope you’ve heard of him. Jon Olsson is a super pro freestyle skier and racer. He’s been hot on the scene for years and doesn’t do too badly for himself seeing as he drives a Lambo to the hill. Anyways, several years ago Jon started his own competition called the Jon Olsson Invitational because he was fed up with formats and poorly built features of other comps. This competition has turned into JOSS.

JOSS has been voted as the most prestigious freeskiing event of the season. In this competition 21 of the world’s best freeskiers and 12 of the world’s finest ski film makers work together in 7 different teams, representing 7 nations. The teams are: Sweden, Norway, Europe, Down Under, Newschoolers, USA and Canada. Each team consists of 5 people, 2 filmers, 2 pro skiers and a rookie skier. The rookie is new for this year and the only condition to classify as a rookie is that you haven´t participated in X-games before 2010.

The teams have 264 hours to let out their creativity on the features in and around Åre including urban features. The goal is to put together the most amazing and entertaining 5-minute edit. There’s a healthy cash prize and winner takes it all.

The teams’ efforts will be unveiled at the Mix Megapol Arena in front of a massive audience. This venue is somewhat of a gala night. Different nominations and awards are handed out here but instead of rewarding the best sound etc the best trick is rewarded, the most spectacular crash etc. All the 5-minute edits are shown and the judges will present the winner of JOSS 2010.

Heres Day one of 2010.

Keep it real Grouse,

Eric Beckstead

JOSS: The sceret goods.

A good friend of mine, Andreas Amble, is attending JOSS right now. He is working with Friflyt Magazine, a Norwegian ski and snowboard magazine. Andreas is a very smart man. He knows that people want to see what’s going on at JOSS. If you’ve been checking Jon Olsson’s videoblog, josupersessions.com, Jacob Wester’s blog, or the Newschoolers.com blog, you would know that everyone at JOSS seems to be a little hush hush on showing the goods.

This is were Andreas comes in. Check out his edit from Trysil, Norway and the Sweet Rumble. It may not be the most professional video but it gives you a great idea of what is going down.

While you’re at it, check out Andreas’ blog…try to be forgiving of his English, it’s his second language.

PK Hunder... Photo: Newschoolers.com

Wish I was there.

-cj

JOSS/JOI

Jon Olsson is pretty much the man. This guy just gains more and more popularity each year, vaulting him to a level of celebrity status that has yet to be passed in the ski world. I mean he drives a Lambo with a rocket box for pete’s pots. In the past, Jon has thrown together an event called the Jon Olsson Invitational, where some of the top riders in the world come to compete in what is basically a massive and epic big air comp. Despite its inauguration nearly three years ago, JOI was substituted in 2008 with a new comp; a comp where the format was not a one-day throwdown, but an extensive and impressive 7 day ski-party. In its place came the Jon Olsson Super Sessions.

Enough said. Anyways...

JOSS is a week long JOI, where riders are to produce their own bangin’ 5 minute video and photo slideshow, obtained from 5 meaty features across Sweden. Best edit = 1st place. 2008 Marked the first JOSS, and in the end it was so successful, its return was inevitable. Here the world laid its eyes on skiing so fantastic, snowboarders dropped their planks and swapped sides, babies stopped crying, and the element of invitational competitions would change for eternity. Here is a fantastic video summarizing the week of JOSS last year. I highly suggest watching this if I am making no sense so far.

Last year’s winner, Sammy Carlson, produced a segment so sick it hurts my eyes to watch it again.

This year’s format for JOSS is slightly different, however the principal is still the same. Instead of individuals, teams were made up, each consisting of 2 riders from the same country, 2 filmers and a photographer. Here are the teams for this year:

Team USA
Rider 1: John Symms
Rider 2: Colby West
Filmer 1: Mike Thomas
Filmer 2: Josh Finbow
Photographer: Alex O’Brien

Team America
Rider 1: Simon Dumont
Rider 2: Tom Wallisch
Filmer 1: Josh Berman
Filmer 2: Tyler Hamlet
Photographer: Nate Abbott

Team Canada
Rider 1: TJ Schiller
Rider 2: Ian Cosco
Filmer 1: Darren Rayner
Filmer 2: Neil Sotirakopoulos
Photographer: Damien Cromwell

Team Sweden
Rider 1: Jon Olsson
Rider 2: Jacob Wester
Filmer 1: Johnny Decesare
Fimer 2: Drew Lederer
Photographer: Mattias Fredriksson

Team Norway
Rider 1: Andreas Håtveit
Rider 2: PK Hunder
Filmer 1: Jon Håtveit
Filmer 2: Filip Christensen
Photographer: Thomas Kleiven

Team Europe
Rider 1: Laurent Favre
Rider 2: Henrik Harlaut
Filmer 1: Christian Sander
Filmer 2: Joakim Aslund
Photographer: Erik Wibaeus

Team Down Under
Rider 1: Jossi Wells
Rider 2: Russ Henshaw
Filmer 1: Kris Ostness
Filmer 2: Rob Norman
Photographer: Tony Harrington

JOSS has been going off so far this year and is almost halfway done. Check out Jon-Olsson.com, where there are daily updates of each day’s activities and some behind the scenes stuff. Also check out www.josupersessions.com, where Jon’s alternate filmer covers more of the ski side of things, along with tons of interviews and updates from the riders and their teams. Check it out!

Cam

XGames Judging

For those of you who caught the X Games ski big air, you will know what I’m talking about. If not, this is a good summary of the night for skiers.

For the first time ever in the X Games, the judging of the big air, both snowboard and ski, was to be done not by a panel of judges, but by the public viewing the event. The votes would be measured by text messages received from the viewing audience. I’m guessing you can see where this is going…

In the snowboard category, Travis Rice, being the sole American competitor in the event, had little to worry about that night, claiming “America’s got my back”. And right he was. An entirely American crowd of teenage boys and girls showed little to no compassion for Rice’s competition, clearly the better side. This article explains how the prejudiced judging went down.

On the ski side, it was the same. Simon Dumont, the lone American, had little to do but show up in order to get his gold medal. The degree of difficulty and execution of his tricks were nothing compared to that of his competitors. In the Jan 24th episode (Big air practice) of Jon Olsson’s videoblog, he predicts Simon will win the contest with a superman double front flip, clearly a crowd pleaser. Sure enough, despite PK Hunder’s amazing double 12′s, and Jon’s switch double 10 (with afterbang thank you), Simon walked away with the gold. Here is another good summary of this debatable topic.

Anyways thought I’d share that with you. Nonetheless, Simon was kind enough to donate his winnings to his injured friend Riley Poor, which in the end was a very thoughtful move. Perhaps a new judging system is to be thought of?

I currently am searching for a petition of some sort showcasing the redundancy of this text-based voting system and will share when found.

CAM

Photo: Bennylin0724 on Flickr

Jon Olsson

His girlfriend! I wonder what will happen if things turn sour between them...

Hey gang,

I was just browsing around recently and came across the Videoblog of Jon Olsson. This guy has been around for ages and still proves to be one of the best park skiers ever (specializing in varied aspects, of course). This little videoblog he runs has been going strong for almost 2 years, although his new website is set up for videos dating back to only a few months ago (Why Jon?) He keeps his updates fresh and frequent, varying from park lapping, to comps, to training and so forth. He even went back to his routes and took up racing again. If that doesn’t stir up the mix then I don’t know what will. Check him out!

On a side note, for those of you who know the story of his pro model skis: first the blondes, then the brunette, then…

Check the dew tour update on his page for a better look at the skis. I can’t link you to it, but you can find it on the main page with the other recent videos (Jan 10th update)

-Cam