Reira Iwabuchi

ASPEN 2021 FIS SNOWBOARD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: SLOPESTYLE & BIG AIR PREVIEW

A hugely exciting set of competitions is set to take to the slopes of Aspen's Buttermilk resort beginning on Wednesday, as the most progressive snowsports athletes on earth will finally get their time to shine when the Aspen 2021 FIS Snowboard and Freeski World Championships get underway this week.

Pictured: Red Gerard during Slopestyle practice for 2021 Aspen FIS Snowboard World Championships at Aspen Snowmass, March 9, 2021. Image credit: @ussnowboardteam / @mikedawsy

LAAX OPEN 2021 SLOPESTYLE FINALISTS DETERMINED

With the renowned LAAX OPEN, the FIS Snowboard Tour opens the 2020/21 season for Slopestyle and Halfpipe. The multi-award-winning freestyle winter destination LAAX presented itself in its brilliant best light to the World Cup circuit at Crap Sogn Gion: lightning-blue skies, the best snow conditions, the immense pipe and an innovative Slopestyle course. It being precisely this course that was the focus of the contest action today. As winners of today's semi-finals, two-time Olympic Slopestyle champion Jamie Anderson (USA) and Moritz Boll (SUI) are entering the finals on Friday, 22 January 2021 with confidence.

Image credit: LAAX OPEN / Laemmerhirt

SLOPESTYLE SEASON SET TO START AT LEGENDARY LAAX OPEN

One of the most anticipated weeks on any self-respecting snowboarder’s calendar is upon us, as once again a heavy collection of the world’s best riders have descended upon Switzerland for the legendary Laax Open, where the 2020/21 FIS Snowboard slopestyle and halfpipe World Cup seasons will finally get underway.

Image credit: Buchholz / FIS Snowboard

LAAX OPEN 2021: TOP RIDERS @ SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP SEASON STARTER

On 19 January 2021, the freestyle snowboarding professionals will kick off the World Cup circuit in the Slopestyle and Halfpipe disciplines with the LAAX OPEN. It’s the first international contest of the season in a pre-Olympic winter and it’s all about quota spots, snowboarding at the highest level and prestigious titles. In addition, the LAAX OPEN is considered a favourite contest for many riders.

Image credit: LAAX OPEN / Ruggli

The Interview: Reira Iwabuchi

In the lead-up to the 2020/21 FIS Snowboard World Cup season we'll be interviewing some of last season's crystal globe winners to find out what they've been up to in the off-season, what they're looking forward as we head into winter, and hopefully a little bit more about what it's like behind the scenes for some of snowboarding's top riders. Today we're catching up with 2019/20 big air crystal globe winner Reira Iwabuchi of Japan...

Pictured: Reira Iwabuchi in Beijing. Image credit: Buchholz/FIS Snowboard

FIS World Cup 2019/20 crystal globe winners

Most of the FIS World Cup tours ended abruptly before the scheduled Finals due to the outbreak and spread of the Covid-19 Coronavirus and increased travel restrictions. Below is a full list of the FIS World Cup 2019/20 globe and Top 3 medal winners.

Picture: Scotty James (AUS) is 2019/20 Halfpipe FIS World Cup men's overall winner, after finishing 2nd at 2020 FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup Calgary Snow Rodeo, at Canada Olympic Park, Calgary, Canada, February 15. © Buchholz/FIS Snowboard

X Games Aspen 2020 kicked off Thursday night at Buttermilk mountain in Aspen Snowmass, Colorado, where day one of the 24th edition of the X Games winter event began with a few eliminations and closed out with the first-ever Ski Knuckle Huck, Monster Energy Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe and Pacifico Women’s Big Air.

Image credit: Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images

The weather played along another day putting smiles on all faces while witnessing today’s Snowboard action in the innovative course for the highly anticipated Slopestyle finals in LAAX. Julia Marino (USA) & Sebastien Toutant (CAN) are the proud first LAAX OPEN winners of the new decade walking home with a prize purse of CHF 25.000 each.

Image credit: Laax Open / Lämmerhirt

The 2019/20 big air World Cup season went into the history books on Saturday night at Sun Trust Park, the home of Major League baseball’s Atlanta Braves, where Japan’s Reira Iwabuchi put an exclamation point on her second-straight big air crystal globe-season with a victory, and the USA’s own Chris Corning stomped a final-run quad cork 1800 to make history, win the event, and walk away with the seventh crystal globe of his career.

Image credit: U.S. Ski & Snowboard