Christian Nerdrum from the Norwegian outdoor magasine, FriFlyt, was here with us during the Nordic Masters and published an article about the event in their internet edition.

Check out the article here.

The pricegiving party was held at the infamous club HC in Sälen.
A group of 70 kitesurfers occoupied the entire restaurant at the club, wich just made the atmosphere even better with only kitesurfers at the club.
We even got a visit from Thilo Trefz the responsible for the upcoming Snowkite World Championships who gave us all an introduction to what is going to happen in the snowkite scene next year presenting to us the new World Championships trophy.

A fun thing was that Camilla Ringvold from Norway had birthday on the 15th of March.. I cant imagine a better thing than to celebrate your birthday with 70 likeminded people..

The winners of Nordic Masters 2008 where chosen by the riders them selves together with the spectators:

# The Battle of the Babes was won by young Malin Rapp from Sweden who despite her young age charged the rails and kicker hard getting pulled in by a snowmobile.

# The Master of Tricks went to Andreas Toverud from Norway who surprised us all by pulling of backflips and raileys from the snowmobile!!

# As last year the Master of Style went to the stylish moves of Claes Lundin from Sweden showing us sweet off axis 360 and a smooth style on the rails.

# The overall winner of the Nordic Masters was by the riders chosen to be Kevin Steen from the US who hit the rails with mellow style showing his ghetto attitude on phat K2 skis who mostly belong in deep powder and not on the rails. But Kevins laid back attitude and clean style gave him the first place at the Nordic Masters.



The prices where much more fancy this year with OXBOW giving away cool outfits of both jackets and pants to all the winners, XTRAVEL giving away kitetrips to egypt with accomodation on a kiteboat, and KITEKRAFT from stockholm giving away nobile kiteboards.
The winners received heavy applaude from the large group of kitesurfers as the received their very fancy diploma from the event directors

It’s incredible how good atmosphere there is in a no wind kite event!!
All riders wish to help and make the event work as good as possible. So when we had to reshape the kickers and move the rails prior to the snowmobile heat. all attending riders gave a hand so we could start as fast as possible.
Maybe thats why Nordic Masters is so special.. the riders are the event!!

Here are a couple of more pics from the Nordic Masters day two from Christian Nerdrum at FriFlyt and Hans Berggren

How do you get the worlds best riders to come to a “no wind” event!!

In a weird way, when spectators decided to stay home, the Nordic Masters still manages to attract the snowkite elite, media and photographers although the wind forecast is somewhat bad.
So the answer must be to have the BEST atmosphere of all contests… and always have backup activities in case the wind doesn’t deliver..

There was no wind during the Nordic Masters but the top of Högfjället was perfectly rigged with good atmosphere, food, music, chill out area, and a slopestyle area that could work as a snowpark in any small resort.

But having the snowkite elite ready and anxious to play standing in front of a playground of obstacles.. We decided to bring a snowmobile as replacement for the wind, pulling the competing riders to the jumps and rails.
this worked perfectly as a heat since the wind stayed out.

The session was heavy with sweet music and spectators chilling in the sun. Sigve Botnen, Petter Johnsen and Claes Lundin deliverred as always with their sweet wakestyle, clearly showing what guys have been training on water, but new for this year was the young Andreas Toverud who impressed everyone be pulling of backflips on the large kicker and a HUGE railey after the snowmobile.
Just like the hip-hop music kept flowing from the speakers, Kevin Steen from the US showed off incredible layed back ghetto style on his phat K2 Hellbrents.

Check out some of the shots from Nordic Masters taken by Ludvig Persson:

On a windless day one the riders arrived to the event area rigged for battle with reindeer skins in the chillout area, food and music. Sponsor flags, pink rails but now wind..

Using the day for a fun activity we decided to bring all the riders to the snowsled “world championships” in Lindvallen. Using it as a first heat in the competition the riders where able to still give points for style and trick!!
After the snowsled happening some of the riders went to the superpark in Tandådalen to hit the kickers and rails.
Here are a couple of sweet pics Claes Lundin in the park from Ludvig Persson:

After a fun day although the wind didn’t deliver, we all went to see the outdoor movieshow on a huge snowwall, showing the animated movie Horton.

Lets see what happens tomorrow..

Here are the riders who will compete during the Nordic Masters.. For the first time we have a number of swedish riders competing, and several girls for the “Battle of the Babes”.
Riders have come from the following countries. Sweden, Norway, Scotland, USA, France, Netherlands

The largest internetforum in scandinavia Freeride just published a small article prior to the Nordic Masters in Sälen.
check the article out here

We are finally rolling, and the first day of the Nordic Masters started with a introduction/skippers meeting at Högfjällshotellet in Sälen.
Gathering all riders from different countries at once was somewhat of a trial, but we finally managed to register them all in the fine atmosphere of the TB restaurant. The atmosphere among riders was as always good with friends meeting again. Even Petter Johnsen, the 2007 winner has recoverred from his injury last year and is back on his feet.
When registrated, the riders recieived a goodie bag whith info about the upcoming days, Nordic Masters schedual and a sweet gift from OXBOW. A total of 25 riders will compete.

At the Skippers meeting, the decision was to take the first day as a freeride/training/relax day due to the heavy fog, and if the wind is not with us, the backup plan is to move the sound system down to the largest ravine and build a huge kicker and a big air competition will be held in stead.

The Nordic Masters schedual is as follows:

More and more riders keep dropping in for the Nordic Masters in Sälen, and currently we have registerred riders from the following countries; Sweden, Norway, Scotland, France, Netherlands, Australia and USA.
It certainly looks to be a great weekend with a lot of nice people here in Sälen with over 60 persons registerred for the dinner and pricegiving at HC on saturday.

With the large Norwegian participation in the Nordic Masters, the Norwegian outdoor magasine, FriFlyt, published an article about the event in their internet edition.
It feels good to see that our Norwegian friends are supporting the event..

Check out the article here.