2009: Report | Results | Gallery | Video

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Natives Reporter Emma Morris captures all the action...
The atmosphere in St Anton was building as the Natives team rolled into resort for the sixth annual Workers Challenge event, the Extreme Drinks Big Air. When we arrived at Rendl beach for the preparation the sky was overcast and we worried the big event might not be greeted with sunshine, but at least the kicker looked...well, big, and there was more than enough snow in the park.

Local prizes galore
We made our presence known in town over the next few days, and the locals wereall found to be extremely friendly, especially in Bar Cuba where we were made most welcome, sampling some of the local delights including Cuban Cocaine (don't fret, it’s a blue cocktail), and persuading local businesses to donate some prizes for the Show Love Tour party at Scotty’s. Bar Cuba kindly donated some technical t-shirts, plus we received a voucher for Scotty’s pizzeria (our generous hosts for the Show Love Tour and prize giving) and some lovely headbands from Sno’Control to add to the already generous prize fund.

Stomping it home
It was an early start, at least for us, as we headed up to Rendl on the first gondola of the day. Sadly, the lovely little yellow boxes of the Rendlbahn gondola are soon to be no more as the plans to renovate the lift include new cabins. The word on the street in resort is that there will be plenty of high bids for the cabins, wanted for all sorts of purposes including smoking rooms. 

In good company
The High Mountain Pro Tour (a top notch tour featuring six of the best riders in the world) was showcasing in St Anton while we were there, providing us mere mortals with some pro inspiration. There were plenty of strong contenders entered in the Extreme Drinks Big Air (personally, giving the six elite a run for their money), and theycompeted in an Expression Session to win their places in the semi-finals.

It was a close thing, with MC Matty calling every drop in - the boys on two and one planks battled it out throwing their sickest moves over the biggest kickers. The crowds delighted in the entertainment, and I was pleased to see the girls giving them a good show, on snowboards at least.This year there were no local lasses brave enough to jump on theirskis, which was a big shame as they would definitely have been in for some great prizes.

Sometimes judging is tough...
The four judges, Benny, Finn, Niall and Nick, all from the UK, had a tough time deciding who should go into the semis. Eventually the draw was called, and as the sun began to dwindle the semi-finalists stomped their biggest moves to nail the final.

All the moves
In the skiers, Arvid Gradin landed in third with a huge over-tweaked rodeo mute 5, Matty Gshwander was throwing smooth 900 tail grabs in the semi-final but then crashed out in his final against Juan Bergada. Throughoutqualifying Juan was the smoothest skier, landing everything with his unique style of double grabs on every spin, including trick of the day - a huge 720 double grab tweaked beyond belief. In the final, after Matty had crashed out, Juan played it safe with a switch zero to secure himself the win.

For the snowboarders, Oliver Hegarty was throwing the biggest tricks of the day but couldn't quite stomp his rodeo 7s so this left him in third. Second place Thommi Neuhauser was throwing double grab 3s and 5s while Simon Holznecht - Hultzy - was throwing smooth 5s all day and after second place Thommi crashed out Hultzy threw a switch fs 180 indy nosebone and took first place.

Happy days at Scotty's after party
After we'd all been refreshed with an Extreme water or two it was time to ride on down to the prize-giving at Scotty's, where we met up with all the prizewinners. Special mention goes to Ollie Hegarty, who was thrid in the men's snowboarding, after only five weeks on the snow, in his life, ever! The party went on to the wee hours, and we were there to capture all the action for the gallery...

Everyone's a winner
PLUS we’d like to extend a massive thank you to our sponsors: Crystal,, Intersport Arlberg and Kirschbaum, who donated some awesome skis and t-shirts, clothing (GONEboarding, Greeneye and Natives), helmets (SH+), eyewear (Ryders), and goody bags from Ski Club of Great Britain, flights from Ryanair, hats from Chaos and gloves from Swany, tickets to the Altitude Festival 2009 and drinks from Extreme Drinks, DVDs (Ride Freesports and Warren Smith Ski Accademy) board games from Schuss. Local sponsors, Scotty's, plus Bar Cuba and Sno'Control.

Thanks to Finn Pomeroy for his help with this report.