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Korea World Champs: Final Images (Half-Pipe & Big Air)

Jan 242009

The Hyundau Sungwoo Resort in Gangwon.

Some final images of the past two days before I leave for Switzerland Tomorrow.
Yesterday’s half-pipe saw some amazing action but the light was horrible for photography. Still managed to pull a few nice shots, especially from the winner Ryoh Aono from Japan.

Ryoh Aono 2x

If yesterday was cold, today was Arctic. With heatpockets in both hands I managed to keep my fingers a bit above freezing temp but the conditions weren’t as nice as they were in the first few days. Guess we saw it all this week: full sun, biggest snowfall in 20 years and freezing windy icechills to end the week with.

Last contest was the Big Air which had horrible angles from all sides so no real great images here too. Perhaps tonight for the finals things will be nice with my slaves and all the lamps they’ve put up at the jump.

David Mol (close-up) and Pim Stigter (action)

That’s it for this amazing Korean week, what a great place for such a contest. I’m off, Laax (Switzerland) is next… see you after the weekend.

Korea World Champs: Half-pipe & Big Air

Events, Snow No Responses »

Jan 222009

Some more shots of todays action: the half-pipe contest which sadly turned out to be a bummer for Dolf van der Wal (missing the finals by 2/10 points on a disputable judging score). Some nice shots even though the waether was a bit bleak.

The nights Big Air practice turned out to be fun again while stressing the camera to the limits, using the high ISO range and two slave flashes. Happy with the results and ready for the contest the day after tomorrow.

Korea World Champs Snowboarding: freestyle coming up!

Events, Snow 1 Response »

Jan 212009

Todays carving action wasn’t too succesfull for Nicolien either but fortunately I was able to do some decent freestyle shooting today. First some shots at the half-pipe (in between parallel slaom heats) and then some difficult shots with slave-flashes at the nightly big-jump practice session.

Tomorrow: half-pipe qualification and perhaps a couple more bigjump shots…

Images from the Giant Parallel Slalom

Events, Snow No Responses »

Jan 202009

Some images from Today’s GPS event. Jetlag got me up early on the mountain, right in time to catch the sun rising above the hills.

Early rise!

Nicolien Sauerbreij memorizing the course.

Nicolien Sauerbreij in action.

The steep course made for some great crashshots!

Amazing lightshow.

A quick back-and-forth to the halfpipe for a shot of David Mol.

Korean Update (Tuesday 20th)

Events, Snow, Travel No Responses »

Jan 192009

Quick note from Korea

Events, Snow, Travel No Responses »

Jan 182009

From South-Korea this week I’ll bring some updates on the 2009 FIS Snowboard World Championships.

Munich take-off

Seoul arrival… hmm!

A bit of a thing: driving 8 hours through heavy fog to Munich to catch a plane to Korea. But, it’s a small price to pay for a dream-assignment like this! So, after an easy but mostly sleepless flight (compensated for by gin-tonics) we arrived at Seoul Airport with a gentle but nagging jetlag of eight hours.

Getting close to the contest.

After a mad and three hour VIP Taxi transfer that took us past the edge of the capital city, traffic jams, heavy snowfall and a highway though the mountains (hills, if you live in the Alps) and the crazy Hyundau Sungwoo Resort in Hoengseon-gun in the Gangwon-do province. How about a mounthfull! As the Koreans were convinced I was an important competitor the drive was fast and furious and ended up with a police escort for the final 5 kilomters, cool!

Bell Berghuis and coach Frank Germann discuss the course.

Some high-grade board preparation.

From the taxi it was straight to the slopes to watch Bell Berghuis compete in the Boardercross qualifications. It’s a pity she fell on her second run because she had a very good chance of competing in the finals. Still, a nice day for me photograph-wise. More updates this week as there are plenty more Dutchies competing.

Practice run on the first rollers.

First quali-heat on the massive corner!

Over and out…

Port Ghalib – Marsa Alam (Red Sea, Egypt)

Interior, Travel No Responses »

Jan 032008

Port Ghalib is a newly constructed resort and marina very close to the airport of Marsa Alam in the South of the Egyption Red Sea. In 2007 and 2008 I had the opportunity to stay and photograph the immense project as it just opened its doors. Incredible to imagine that before these buildings there was only sand and rocks. The Palace Hotel has the largest manmade saltwater pool area in the world.