Designed to help Red Bull snowboarding athletes prepare for the upcoming season, the Red Bull Performance Camp in New Zealand is officially underway, with the likes of Pat Moore, Greg Bretz, Sebastien Toutant, Spencer O’Brien, and Iouri Podladtchikov in attendance.
As the athletes settled in and adjusted to the new time zone, groomers at Snowpark worked tirelessly building a unique playground that would await the riders early the next day. With sunny, spring-like conditions, the progressive set-up was designed to help the world’s top snowboarders push their limits and the progression of snowboarding to a new level.
After trying a double backside rodeo, Australian Scotty James had good things to say. “The jump is sick, and the speed’s good if you just go straight. It’s getting better now too.”
"This is my first time using the bag jump, it’s so fun for sure." -Pat Moore
Two identical step-up jumps were built, one with the bag jump – a custom-built air-filled landing pad that lets the riders get comfortable progressing their riding and technical tricks. Leading the charge was U.S. rider Pat Moore; acting as a coach and mentor, he got the speed dialed in and it didn’t take long for the other riders to get in on the action.
Southern Hemisphere riders James and New Zealand’s Jacob Koia, along with Greg Bretz from the U.S. were among the first to hit the step-up, and after initial jumps all three were into the doubles. The coaching team was on hand to offer advice, going over key points for each rider to work on, helping progress the athletes to new levels.
Not to be outdone by the guys, Canada’s Spencer O’Brien stepped straight up and threw down backside rodeos. The session started to heat up as riders got their ‘shred legs’ back and became comfortable hitting the feature.
“Today was awesome,” Moore declared after the session. “It was a good meet-and-greet day, everyone came in from either not riding all summer or riding quite a bit… Everybody was just taking their own time and enjoying it. This is my first time using the bag jump, it’s so fun for sure; there’s nothing like it. I’m really happy with how it’s going.”
Wrapping up the first day, athletes returned to a wind-down session at the gym and a meeting with the coaching team to go over the action and plan for Day 2 of the Red Bull Snowboarding Performance Camp – a new day for progression.
The full list of riders includes:
- Scotty James (Australia)
- Jacob Koia (New Zealand)
- Wojtek Pawlusiak (Poland)
- Seppe Smits (Belgium)
- Marc Swoboda (Austria)
- Manuel Pietropoli (Italy)
- Jamie Nicholls (England)
- Iouri Podladtchikov (Switzerland)
- Greg Bretz (USA)
- Pat Moore (USA)
- Spencer O’Brien (Canada)
- Sebastien Toutant (Canada)
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