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Polish Snowrevolution

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Polish Snowrevolution Feb 15th 2007
By: schmuckUltimate Bling!
 
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Words and photos: Tomek Gola/fikcja.pl

The Universe is ruled by chaos, but there is a certain amount of regularity. Once every few years the winter treats us with no respect for our needs and desires, leaving the outdoors gray, muddy, full of naked trees.

This is what we have experienced this year in Poland and most of Europe. No pow. Not enough to hype up our souls. All the freeskiing comps rescheduled or cancelled. Hardly any place to practice and enjoy.

It must have happened. There had to break off a revolt in this dramatic season to change everybody's attitude.

Scheduled for two attacks - one of them cancelled in January - the revolution broke off this last weekend in polish spa village - Krynica Zdrój.

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Scraping thin layer of white jewel from the slopes, Leski and Kostek—the conductors of the show—managed to build a really cool park, the best in Poland at the moment with a nice line of rails and boxes and a 12-meter kicker. The colors of the park reminded us at every point, though, how lucky we should feel to have even this much snow.

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Obviously, as the creator of the stage, Kostek had the right to hit the virgin kicker. But used to hitting something bigger, he overshot the landing and stretched his shoulder.


The day of the Revolution

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The day of the Revolution comes and the show begins. Little warm up session in the morning - for some in the sun, for some on the kicker, which by now is admired by all the riders that took part. Here Jasiek Pawlikowski throws a 7 mute.

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Marek Doniec comes back from his voyages around the Alps in search for pow to join us in the Revolution.

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Staszek Karpiel, going for his first tries, is observed by one of the top snowboard riders in Poland - Wojtek Pająk. I didn't mention it before, but Snowrevolution, in order to make it even more successful in the fight against no-snow winter depression, gathers both freeskiers and snowboarders.

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Szczepan Karpiel - the most revolutionary new-school gangsta freeskier.

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The afternoon and the revolutionaries start their fight to get into the finals. Michał Nikliński shows incredible progress during this competition.

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Jasiek Krzysztof proving his own style—smooth spins with head down—misty, bio, underflips are his specialty.

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A moment to rest before the finals. Everybody gathers in a restaurant; there is a live broadcast from a ski-jumping competition on the TV. It makes the tired participants incredibly enthusiastic. Herman actually used to be a professional and very successful ski-jumper before giving it up and switching not only to freestyle, but to snowboard. Now that's quite a change, huh? His strong personality makes him one of the most popular commentators at events like Snowrevolution, where he makes everybody piss their pants.

The final battle of Snowrevolution
The weather during the day couldn't be any better. But as soon the finals were about to start, a big cloud covered the mountain. The organizers were debating whether to cancel the finals.

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But some of the riders didn't even want to hear about giving up the revolution. Marek Doniec as the first—with a switch 180—proved that the fog was nothing to worry about. To me personally the fog was like a gift—it gave a misty ambience to the whole event. You could see nothing else but the kicker and shades of people dropping on the fog.

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And so the riders went crazy, appearing out of the fog and throwing tricks off the top shelf.
Karolina Riemen, the top Polish girl freeskier, made it to the top with a clean 540 safety. After her came Kala Niklińska with a 360.

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Jurij Durovcik from Slovakia with a clean sw7 mute surprised everybody during the finals and made it to second place.

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There was no doubts from the beginning though, who would be the most revolutionary rider in Poland at the moment. Marek Doniec with his crazy switch spins cashed 2000PLN from the sponsors of the event for the top spot.

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And so here are the standings of the Snowrevolution:
1. Marek Doniec - sw 900
2. Juraj Durovcik - sw 7
3. Michał Nikliński - cork 7 mute
4. Staszek Karpiel - 9
5. Jasiek Krzysztof - rodeo5
6. Michał Wiślicki - cork7

After the whole day of Snowrevolution, it was high time to start the after-revolution. I must have been hit during the fight, as the memories of the evening are faint if not none.

The next day was slow and everybody chilled in the park to the music of DJ Benito.

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There were rail comps that day and the absolute top tricks were executed by Szczepan Karpiel; one of his runs: 270in, switch-up, 450out.

The photo of Szczepan is of the day before though, as on Sunday I took a day off and hit the kicker myself for the whole day. It was too perfect to leave it alone. And there was hardly any other rider jumping, as most of them were either jibbing or too exhausted after the revolution.

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Photo: Kostek Strzelski


All in all the Snowrevolution was an absolute success - everybody left tired but hyped up, and looking forward to the upcoming events. To one especially: The Polish Freeskiing Open, which will take place in two weeks. So stay tuned to what is going on in the Polish freeskiing scene, or even better, come and take part in the circus!

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