Women skiers fight Olympics ban.

A group of international women ski jumpers are fighting it out in a Canadian court with the Olympic committee to be able to include there event of ski jumping.

The British Columbia Supreme Court has begun hearing the discrimination case, as the 15 women accuse Vancouver’s Olympic organisers of Violating Canadian human rights law by excluding them, while men complete in three ski jumping events.

The international Olympic committee (IOC) has stated that the women’s ski jumping is not developed enough to merit inclusion.

The Vancouver Olympic organising committee (Vanoc) argues that the decision not to include women’s ski jumping was made by the IOC, which as an international organisation is outside the jurisdiction of the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms.

With a lot of interest surrounding this case the legal experts say the women must convince BC Supreme Court Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon that Vanoc is controlled by the government and should therefore is subject to the charter.

Ski Jumping is one of the few events at the winter or summer Olympics that doesn’t have both a men’s and women’s competition.

The women are asking for a declaration that if Vanoc is going to hold events in Ski jumping for men, it’s obligated to hold them for women, the lawyer for the women, Ross Clark, told CBC news before the hearing began.

Lindsey Van said “ it just hurts not the have that opportunity” she is the world champion of the US, who was outside the Court house in Vancouver.

They all believe that they all train hard, and can complete as well as the men and we are not allowed, it is very disappointing.

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A world record broken again by Danny Way.

Danny Way has broken another world record as he already holds so many world skateboarding titles and records that we can only dream about. This time Danny has only gone and broken the land speed skateboard record.

He has spent time out in the Mojave desert recently where he was training in a specialised wind tunnel, and an adapted hi speed low rider of a vehicle. After Danny had completed all his training he soon earned himself the title of fastest man on a Skateboard.

He wasn’t content enough with the compliment of being able to kick flip while signing another 7 figure invoice and chatting to his wife on the phone. Danny Way is a constant reminder that pushing your boundaries makes life worth living, or not at all.

7 things you didn’t know about Danny Way………

• He won best Vert at the 6th annual Transworld skateboarding awards.
• He won gold in 2004 at the first skateboarding Big Air contest held at the X games at the staples centre in Los Angeles, California. He set a distance record of 79 feet.
• In 2004 he became the only person to win the Thrasher Magazine Skater of the year twice.
• On July 9, 2005, Danny Way completed a 360 across the great wall of china with a severely sprained ankle.
• Danny also won another gold in 2006 x games Big Air. He did this by clearing the 70ft gap with a rocket Air Backflip.
• He won silver in the 2008 X Games Big Air. He did this after taking a brutal spill during his second attempt, which apparently left him a broken foot. Even with his injury, he completed his last three runs, landing runs 3 and 5 much to everyone’s surprise.
• He was asked to be a full concept of the new game: Skate asking to be a whole mission path, and being a playable character.

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Great Amazement at the X fighters in Egypt.

More than 10,000 spectators were treated to a world class FMX action directly in front of the pyramids of Giza which is located on the outskirts of Cairo recently, getting a tantalising taste of the Red bull X Fighters World Tour. South Africa’s Nick De Wit spontaneously created a “Pharaoh” leap especially for the occasion.

The awe-inspiring show in front of what is arguable one of the most impressive backdrops on Earth was witnessed by 10, 000 Egyptians. In conjunction with the red Bull X fighters, Nick de Wit (RSA), Chris Birch (GBR), Morgan Karlson (SWE) and Jimmy Verburgh (BEL) gave Egypt a foretaste of what can be expected when it will likely become a full-scale event in the tour next year.

The crowd was enthralled by the flips, and tricks like tsunami, Superman and stripper on the specially designed course in front of the Pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos.

South African “sick” Nick de Wit was treated to especially war applause for his pharaoh leap, which hre created as a tribute to Egytian fans.

After the successful show, plans are in the works for a full fledged competition in front of an even larger audience at the pyramids – directly in front of the famous great Sphinx.

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The Burton AM Tour pushes Euro Snowboarding.

The Burton AM Tour Finished its forth season in Val Senales , Italy. Once again one of Europe’s largest amateur freestyle snowboarding contest series, pushed snowboarding to a new level. Almost 600 riders made use of the perfect park conditions and the organisation of the tour stops.

The series started in Bispingen Germany and travelled over 25,000 kilometres and covered twelve resorts in twelve different countries. Throughout the winter, the tour crew had to fight countless snowstorms, spent several days on ferries and had to deal with customs officials in many countries. Tour partner Volvo cars always helped maintain the high quality and good vibes of the tour.

All Burton AM Tour stops were Swatch TTR 2 Star events, with various nationalities taking part in each event, the tour had a multicultural atmosphere throughout the season. The overall tour winners were Dutch riders Bob Van Unnik, winner of the junior boy’s category, and Rachida Aoulad El-Haj-Anar, winner of junior Girls category. Congregations also to the 13 year old Slovenian sensation Tim-Kevin Ravnjak for winning the youth boys title for the third year in a row, and to British rider Katie Ormerod, overall winner of the youth Girls category.

The four overall AM Tour winners received a full Burton European Open 2010 package, which contains the starting slot for the Slopestyle competition, the on site board and lodging and a Volvo VIP transport from their home to the Burton European Open in Laax 2010 and back.

Tim-Kevin Ravnjak was p[lease with the way the tour went saying the tour is a sick series, where you get to meet loads of people and ride different places, he is happy and proud of winning the tour for the third time, and he will try harder next season to grab yet another title, he wishes to thank Burton for putting on such an amazing tour.

Ivar Fougstedt Burtin Europe’s Marketing Director is also happy with the e event series. Who goes on by saying “the tour’s credo has been ‘join – create – progress’ and this is exactly what the kids have done. Throughout the season the Burton AM tour remains one of the best ways to push and grow freestyle snowboarding”.

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Grind heads to downtown Austin.

This spring, starting on April 5th, the third annual Grind, Action Sports and music festival is coming back to downtown Austin and its shaping up to be the best one yet.

Being hosted by under 360, roadway events, University of Texas wake team, and 101x are kicking off the summer rail jam contest, vendors from the action sports industry, live music throughout the day featuring bands like the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Black and White years, The River boat gamblers and many more.

The event takes place in downtown Austin in the shadow of the bob bullock state history museum and university of Texas main campus. This is action sports up close and in your face and its as exciting for the riders as it is fir spectators.

The Wakeboad and Wakeskate rail jam, presented by Texas Ski Ranch and pulled by Yankmeister winch co. will feature local and professional riders such as Tom Fooshee, Bret Little, Ross Skrudland, Lucas snider, Billy Garcia, Brett Hickey, Witt Finley, Ryan lemons, Jesse Landry and many others competing head to head for cash and prizes.

Not to be outdone, the skateboard competition feature local and professional skaters as they manual, Kickflip and Nollie Heelflip the obstacles in the street course. This year the course will feature a real car to jump, grind, and smash. The skaters will also be competing for a lump some of $1000 in cash and prizes.

Combine the rail jam with a skateboard competition, live music, great food, graphics artist exhibits, custom boat and Wakeboard accessories, Wakeboard instructional sessions, a showcase of the latest wake board boats, and much more, you’ve got the ultimate action sports festival in central Texas.

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A big win for Kelly Clark, who is now the new TTR World Tour champion.

It was an awe inspiring finale at the tour defining a 6 star Roxy chicken jam Slopestyle as Kelly Clark (USA) locked in the swatch TTR world snowboard tour Champion title.

Kelly was up against a stacked field of slopestyle rider’s field of Slopestyle riders but was able to bump herself up to world number 1 with a 21st place finish. Janna Meyen-Weatherby (USA) took out the 6 star Slopestyle Title with her ‘all or nothing’ riding style, Jenny Jones (GBR) took second and Lisa Wiik (NOR) third , giving her a TTR world no.2 finish.

After some intense wind that put the contest on hold, the weather cleared and it was a perfect sunny day for the slopestyle competition. The course consisted of a hip jump to start things off , a double jib option, into a three hit kickers line and ended with a wallride of box option. Things kicked off in the morning with a 37 rider semi final session, which narrowed the field down for a 12 competitors.

Slopestyle veterian Janna Meyen-Weatherby (USA) was in a class of her own, stomping a huge stylish run that amazed both the judges and onlookers at Mammoth. Her winning run consisted of a Japan air on the hip, a 50-50 on the rail, backside 540, cab 720 mute, cab 540 mute and a 50 – 50 on the box. Jenny Jones was one to watch and looked down second place when she busted out a frontside Air, 50- 50 to 180 off, cab 360 cab 540, frontside 720 and a 50-50 to finish of her run.

Lisa Wiik also had a great day stomping a method, 50 – 50 to backside lipside, frontside 360 stalefish, backside 360 indv, backside 540 indv and a 50 – 50. her third place finished today allowed her to lock in the world number 2 position and a $25,000 USD cheque for her outstanding swatch TTR season.

A total of $90,000 was handed out to the women’s TTR Top 3 along with automatic invites to all of the major TTR events for the 2010 season. After an unpredictable season, Lisa Wiik sits just below Kelly in the rankings with Jamie Anderson (USA) ending up in the world number 3, world number 8 and ‘Rookie of the year’ Sarka Pancochova (CZE) has had a breakout season on the Swatch TTR TOUR and will be a force to be reckoned with next season. Jamie Anderson maintained the world number 1. ranking for over 40 weeks throughout the season and it is only a matter of time before she is back to chase her second title.

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