Red Bull Snowscrapers Confirms All-Star Cast for New York City’s Largest Urban Snowboard Event:

Sixteen of the World’s Best Snowboarders and Legendary Band Anthrax!

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ — On Thursday, February 5th, 16 illustrious professional snowboarders from around the globe will compete against the majestic backdrop of the New York City skyline in a contest that will prove to be the biggest winter event to come to New York City. With a nine-story tall ramp and $100,000 on the line, it’s officially official — Red Bull Snowscrapers has locked down the heaviest snowboarders on Earth — and an entirely fitting musical act.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090114/LA58491-a)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090114/LA58491LOGO-b)

THE WORLD’S ELITE

Red Bull’s iconic snowboarders including Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White, freestyle / backcountry legend Travis Rice and ultra-progressive phenomenon Pat Moore will fight for their share of the massive $100,000 prize purse in the East River Park (corner of Houston Street and FDR) from 6-9 pm. Other confirmed Red Bull riders include Finland’s Eero Ettala and Canadian prodigy Dustin Craven.

World renowned Burton riders for the ground-breaking event include Kevin Pearce, Mikkel Bang, Danny Davis, Japan’s own Kohei Kubo and Kazuhiro Kakubo, as well as Norwegian snowboard icon Terje Haakonsen. Other confirmed riders include Nitro’s Andreas Wiig, DC’s Torstein Horgmo, Forum’s Jake Blauvelt and Greg Bretz, along with Rome rider Bjorn Leines and Ride’s JJ Thomas. This roster is sure to give spectators a show they will never forget.

TRUE TO THE ‘CORE

Anthrax, known for being the first group to combine heavy metal with rap music and the thrash metal scene, are from the Big Apple. Staying true to the core, Red Bull enlisted their local talents to blow out the spectator village located in East River Park. It’s going to get loud and rowdy along the river–so don’t miss it. Gates open at 3 pm, the contest starts at 6 pm and Anthrax goes onstage at 7 pm. See it in person or catch the finals live at 8pm EST on MSG+TV or tune into the live web cast on www.RedBullSnowscrapers.com.

JUDGEMENT DAY

With so much on the line, Red Bull left nothing to chance, and enlisted a panel of internationally licensed judges to call the shots at the banner event. Confirmed competition director for the Snowscrapers event is International Snowboard Judges Commission (IJC) judge and pro / am organizer, Jason Grossi.

A CONTEST FORMAT THAT ROCKS

Red Bull Snowscrapers will utilize a jam session format for both the preliminaries and finals. In this format, a rider is neither dismissed nor defined by a single run or fall–rather, the athlete who consistently lands difficult and creative tricks with skill and style throughout the entire jam session is deemed the overall winner. For this event, Red Bull will create a towering 90-foot tall, state-of-the-art structure for top riders to own the iconic Manhattan skyline. The athletes will drop in from the nine-story structure before flying off the specially constructed ramp toward an immense 80-foot long hip. The innovative hip, built by world-renowned designers Frank Wells and Mike Bettera of Snow Park Technology, allows riders multiple angles of trajectory — frontside or backside, landing on either the right or left side of the massive 45-degree spine. Additionally, the ramp design will allow spectators to get up close and personal, giving fans an opportunity to experience the action first hand as the riders spin roughly four stories into the sky.

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ON THE LINE

Sixteen of the world’s best snowboarders will compete to own a piece of the $100,000 purse. With so many angles of approach, options, and opportunity, the athlete who ultimately conquers the ramp will be rewarded handsomely with a hefty $50,000 prize to the first place winner. Second place takes $15K, third $10K, and the remaining purse will be divided up by the rest.

SWATCH TTR WORLD SNOWBOARD TOUR

Red Bull Snowscrapers will join the ranks of the most prestigious snowboard events on the planet as a 5 Star stop on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour. “We are very excited to have Red Bull Snowscrapers come on as a 5 Star event on the TTR World Snowboard Tour” says Reto Lamm, President of the TTR World Snowboard Tour. “It is great to have another innovative Red Bull concept on tour and there is no better location than New York City to put this on. New York has a huge snowboard community and this will be a great opportunity to showcase our sport on such a large platform.” The TTR crowns a World Snowboard Tour Champion at the culmination of each season and pays out an end-of-season prize purse worth $200,000.

Tune into NBC to watch Red Bull Snowscrapers on February 15th, 5pm EST.

For downloadable web clips as well as additional imagery please contact crystal.garrett@us.redbull.com or libby.tierney@us.redbull.com.

ABOUT SWATCH TTR

Founded by Terje Haakonsen and industry innovators in 2002, the SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour is a non-profit, rider-driven organization with the mission to create the highest quality competitive snowboard environment in the world, using authenticity, accessibility and innovation as guiding principles. Since its foundation, the Swatch TTR Tour has developed into the most exposed snowboard tour worldwide featuring global grass root and key independent freestyle snowboarding events over a ten-month period from Southern to Northern Hemisphere locations. Events are rated via a 1-through-6 Star system, with points allocated accordingly, a 6 Star event holds the highest (1000 Swatch TTR points). Any rider participating in these events, from up-and-coming to professional talent, earns ranking points and a position on the SWATCH TTR World Ranking List. The top male and female rider based on an average of their best seven results of the season is crowned SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.

SOURCE Red Bull