Nanshan Open

We were laughing our ass off when Teo arrived with his boardbag. Actualy it wasn't more than a plastic bag wrapped arround his board and buindings, safed with sticker tape! He arrived 2 days earlier than the rest of the riders, brought a pretty decent flue with him and tried to cure it with 8 hours Playstation sessions and beers. Bravo! The strange thing was, that it didn't actualy work out. Since Teo brought along his camera, we checked out the roof top of Steve's apartment building and were stoked about the view!
The rest of our PirateCrew included Fichtl, Kalle, Schnipfel, Tyler plus also 2 new members Markus "Mä" Keller and Filipo Kratter. It was a great chance to hang out with the freshies and get to know each others habits.

When you have the chance to join the Nanshan Open you can basicly leave your brain at home, because everything is organised. This contest is not only about riding, but experiencing a bid more of this interesting country. The MellowParkChina crew brought us to the Tjenamin Square (where it was fucking freezing), the Olympic venues, shopping madness and of course the great wall. During the Beijing days everybody stayed at the Kempinski Hotel, one of the fanciest in town, that had an amazing breakfest buffet.
After a one hour drive from the capital we arrived at Nanshan, the best ski resort of the region. Getting from A to B is pretty interesting, because so many things happen outside the window. Watching the traffic is exciting too, because chinese drivers maybe the sketchiest on this planet. That's why it's not unusual to see someone stop on the highway for a pee or even going backwards on the middle lane, because the driver missed the exit! I also seriously doubt that they use mirrors at all.
The first day on the mountain started with a rocking Fichtl, that realy went for it...but after the wind changed it's direction he totaly overshot the jump and slamed on his sholder. He was in big pain and went to the hospital. We all had a weird feeling in the stomach. Luckily nothing was broken and Fichtl's pain went down during the days.
After the high class qualification, all Pirates made it into the finals on Sunday. There were many people watching the contest on the spot, but also millions on the TV. CCTV5, the biggest sports channel in the world (reaching more than 200 000 000 people) was broadcasting from the event with all sorts of cameras.
Too bad the weather turned worse again on sunday, when the finals and superfinals went down. Mä, Kalle and Tyler made it in the superfinals but couldn't stomp their runs in the end. Freddy Austbo, the smallest of all riders used his aerodynamic superpowers and made it over the obstacles, winning the 7th RedBullNanshanOpen.
There was also a remarkable karaoke session, some epic and some funky dinners plus a few decent beerspraying sessions. There were quite a few memorable moments during the 6 days of the program. Ask Filipo for the Snüs story, when you meet him. Yes, we enjoyed ourselfs and yes, we'll come again!