Image: Parky. Gian-Luca Cavigelli mid spin to 2nd place
The colossal Battersea power station provided an eerie backdrop to the much anticipated London Freeze festival. In the evening the disused structure came alive aided by brightly coloured strobe lighting.
Revellers flocked by their thousands to attend the variety of events throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friends reunited, fun, snowboarding, break-dancing, trials mountain biking, music, energy drinks and alcohol all helped shape the festival atmosphere. On the flip-side, expensive drinks, lack of available seating and non-existent loo roll added a slight air of agitation to the mix.
Saturday provided some highlights for those focused on freestyle snowboarding. The veteran Austrian Stefan Gimpl out performed his younger compatriots by winning the FIS big air competition on his 30th birthday. Gimpl’s years of experience coupled with his technically astute and cleanly stomped riding helped him gain a deserved victory.
Another standout rider was Swiss young gun Gian-Luca Cavigelli. A Huge and smoothly styled back rodeo 7 marked his strong return from a ACL knee injury. Cavigelli placed an impressive 2nd above the Slovenian Domen Bizjak who took the 3rd spot. It was Gian-Luca’s first FIS podium finish.
The UK crowd witnessed some homegrown talent in the qualifiers by 21 year old British Pro and olympic hopeful Ben Kilner. Kilner finished 14th overall and ranked highest above his fellow countrymen Nate Kern (20th) Jamie Nicholls (27th) and Jack Shakleton (47th). His casually styled corked backside 720 was favoured by the judges over Nate Kern’s smooth Backside 900 mute. None of the UK riders scored enough to make top 5 in their heats to advance to the finals. However, their level of riding is not far off the slew of elite international professional snowboarders.
By sundown the crowd favourite amongst the music fans were the Audio Bullys. Two massive tents hosted artists such as Pendulum, Calvin Harris and Orbital. The London Freeze certainly provided a weekend of fun, snowboarding and music in the heart of a nations capital that is more accustomed to rain than snow.
Full Results:
Rank Name Year Nation Result
1 GIMPL Stefan AUT 1000
2 CAVIGELLI Gian-Luca SUI 800
3 BIZJAK Domen SLO 600
4 PRISTAVEC Matevz SLO 500
5 TONTERI Roope FIN 450
6 KORPI Janne FIN 400
7 BADERTSCHER Ulrik NOR 360
8 KLEIVDAL Morten NOR 320
9 TILLER Sondre NOR 290
10 BRAATEN Gjermund NOR 260
11 ASKMYR Niklas SWE 240
12 GRIMSRUD Per-Iver NOR 220
13 GRILC Marko SLO 200
14 KILNER Ben GBR 180
15 NIEMELAE Nuutti FIN 160
16 EDMAN Jakob SWE 150
17 BERARD Thibault FRA 140
18 VON STRATEN Rocco NED 130
19 MACHO Michael AUT 120
20 KERN Nate GBR 110
21 PETEK Matevz SLO 100
22 FASSNACHT Fabian SUI 90
23 MATTSSON Niklas SWE 80
24 LUNDSTROM Tor SWE 70
25 FRANC Thomas SUI 60
26 NECAS Jan CZE 50
27 NICHOLLS Jamie GBR 45
28 BAECKSTROEM Kevin SWE 40
29 KRIJBOLDER Steve NED 36
30 CHOKOEV Dimitar BUL 32
31 LANDMARK Zebastian SWE 28
32 NADIG Benedikt SUI 26
33 HALLER Christian SUI 24
34 HANSEN Kim-Rune NOR 22
35 RUITER Richard NED 20
36 GEENEN Joy NED 19.7
37 KODRIC Mitja SLO 19.4
38 FALKEIS Stefan AUT 19.1
39 JEROMEL Luka SLO 18.8
40 SOERMAN Chris SWE 18.5
41 DECLERCQ Philippe BEL 18.2
42 KALLIOLA Martin FIN 17.9
43 BOUDJELAL Yannick FRA 17.6
44 DE LE RUE Victor FRA 17.3
45 BRAATEN Brage NOR 17
46 BJORNSTROM Isak SWE 0
47 SHACKLETON Jack GBR 0
48 LANSIO Niko FIN 0
49 LIPTAY David HUN 0
50 MAUSSER Florian AUT 0
Did not start
HARINGTON Dominic GBR
CERNIK Martin CZE
BENIO Mario BUL
