Blog

Crap Weather

2010-09-03T07:33:15Z

So the trend for the last few days has been rain, rain and more rain. Not stoked on it but I guess its spring. The good thing about the rain is that the parks will be super soft when the weather clears up.

The main view of thredbo, Clouds have been hanging around the whole day.

Road Trip !!!!

2010-08-27T08:57:57Z

Packed our bags, climbed into our cars and drove down to Falls Creek. It was a pretty easy drive. I thought due to all the new snow that the roads would be super crazy but it turns out it was fine.

The road over the pass. This was as bad as it got

Me taking a break on the road trip

Arriving at falls creek i realised how much snow they had. Cars in the car park were buried.

We only got one day shredding on the kickers but it was super fun. I think we got some really good shots. I can't wait to check all of them out.

The step over kicker. I think it needed to have a bit more pop

The step down kicker was super fun as well.

MTV Snow Jam

2010-08-26T21:13:40Z

I headed up to thredbo yesterday to check out this event. Turns out it was one of the worst events I have ever witnessed. Because of the new snow everybody was struggling to make it over the jump, it also seemed poorly organised and none of the riders seemed to know what was going on. The plus side of it was I was a spectator and didn't need to worry :)

Heading down to falls creek today to hit the style wars jumps. There is a 90ft step down into a 80ft step over. Hopefully we get some shots and do some good training.

Russ

Pipe/Slope

2010-08-23T07:55:44Z

Yesterday I went up to perisher to compete in the ''King of the mountain'' competition which is basically a series which includes a pipe, slopestyle and big air event. Each event has a 1st place prize of $1000 and the overall winner get a PS3 and a further $500.

First event of the day was pipe. I have to say I was really intimidated even though the pipe was only 18ft. I hadn't skied pipe in about 3 years so to try tricks in it again was pretty scary.

My run for pipe was 9, straight air, 5, right 3, switch 3. I didnt think I was going to beat fellow aussie skier Jordan as he is way better at pipe then me but I some how managed to pull of a win. This is the first pipe result in 3 years and I am stoked on it.

Mid way through my 9

Jordan Mid way through his run

Straight after the pipe comp finished the slopestyle training began. The course was super fun. 4 jumps in a row with rail options. I had a super good time and ended up coming first in this as well ahead of Jordan and Jonny.

Jordan mid way through a switch 10 blunt on the last jump

Jordan and I after the comp

My slope run was switch 7, switch right 7, switch 9, dub 10. I can't wait to go ski the last jump again. Super fun. I think tomorrow we are ment to have some new snow so I might head to thredbo and shoot some photo's.

Stay tuned for more from downunder

Russ

Freeskier article

2010-08-20T00:13:54Z

When most people think of Australia they probably think of surfing, kangaroos and people who say “cheers mate” at the end of their conversations, not skiing. However, one of skiings biggest superstars is from the “land down under”.

Russ Henshaw hails from Jindabyne, Australia and is currently one of the hottest skiers out there. Henshaw has landed on the podium in many big airs and consistently lays down slopestyle runs that are sexier than intro to Baywatch.

Russ recently sat down with us and talked about everything from being an Aussie to Mattttt Daaaammmmoooon. Check it out.

What is the best part about being Australian? Most people don’t exactly relate skiing to Australia.

I guess the best part about being Aussie is the country we live in. Its awesome, everything about the place is amazing. I am always super stoked to fly home from my trips around the world.

Oh and the skiing in Australia is actually pretty good, nobody realizes that though.

What else have you been up to recently besides winning contests, skiing and just being an overall good guy? Any vacations or fun adventures?

Before I came to New Zealand I wad spending a lot of time at home trampolining. They have just built a new tramp centre in Jindabyne and its amazing.

As far as vacations go I am trying to squeeze in a trip to Queensland (top of Australia) for a break at the beach. We will see how that goes though (laughs).

What are your other hobbies/ interest besides skiing?

I really enjoy skateboarding and trampolining. I have been doing both since I was a little kid

To put it modestly you have quite the trophy case and many podium finishes. Is there one victory that sticks out over the others?

Yeah Im stoked on all the results I have achieved over the years. I’d say the one I was the most happy with was my first international result. I placed 2nd at the US open Slopestyle in 2007. That is when I knew I wanted to keep doing what I was doing.

Congrats on recently taking the top spot at the NZ Open. What is it like knowing that in order to compete today you have to throw two doubles into one run?

Thanks a lot. I guess I knew back to back doubles would come into play at some stage. Throughout this past northern hemisphere winter people were doing two doubles in one run, but none were natural and unnatural. I figured If I wanted to place I had to do something different and so I started doing the unnatural dub.

Do you think the NZ Open was a good preview of how crazy this competition season is going to be? What do you think about the future of skiing?

Yeah the NZ Open is always a good preview of things to come. I feel like NZ Open is just the start of crazy things to come this season. I’m not looking forward to seeing how crazy the X Games will be haha.

What are your plans for next winter?

Yeah well my northern Hemisphere winter starts next month (September) with the city big airs. Then after they wrap up, I guess I will be heading over to Breck to train and do the Dew Tours and X Games. It is shaping up to be a busy year thats for sure.

Photo: Camilla Stoddart

In your eyes, who is the most influential skier today? Why?

I would say Bobby Brown. The kid is amazing, he won 2 gold medals and Im not sure he even realizes it (laughs). All he thinks about is skiing and getting better at skiing. He influences me to be the best I can on ski’s and to try my hardest at all times.

Lastly, and the most important question is… if you could a movie star for a day. Who would you be? Why?

Maaaaattttt Daaaammmooon. That’s the only person I could think of right now, and the only reason I could think of him was because of Team America (laughs).

Any shout outs?

I’d first like to thank my Girlfriend Laura for putting up with all the travel I do followed by my parents. Then I’d like to thanks my sponsors Red Bull, Volkl, Volkl Performace Wear, Marker, Dalbello, Adidas, Leki and Thredbo.

RipCurl Throwdown

2010-08-19T04:46:14Z

Last night was the Ripcurl Throwdown event. The features were sick but unluckily all it did was rain. After 2 runs on the course I was soaking wet. I decided to soldier on and keep sessioning because the features were just too much fun. Here are the open men's ski results:

1st Russ Henshaw

2nd Jordan Houghton

3rd Watkin Mclennen

Check out this video of the event:

Ripcurl Freeride Pro

2010-08-18T01:48:30Z

The sky was blue, snow was fresh and the course was ready. At bib collection everybody was eager to see what Thredbo park crew and Ripcurl had in store for them with this year's edition of the Ripcurl Freeride pro.

The weather hadn't been cooperating on the lead up to the event but the day before god delivered 10-15cm of fresh snow then on comp day the clouds parted and the course was in prime condition. It was a little windy, however, as the day proceeded the wind continued to die down.

My brother Trevor on the 2nd kicker

Along with all the sick tricks people were landing came all the tricks people weren't landing. The 2nd jump in the course was the jump that took the most victims. Some of the crashes were pretty funny to watch.

Chris booth took this one big landing to the left of the black flag in the picture

This was only qualifying and finals are today. Hopefully everyone ski's as well as they did yesterday and good luck to them all.

Tonight is the Ripcurl Throwdown event in Thredbo. It is basically a jib set up with a rider judge format. The event set up last year looked awesome so I have decided to do the event this year. Here is a video of the set up this year and a video from last year:

This year's feature includes a gap to down box (far left) Pole jam gap (middle) and a urban wallride (far right)

Interview

2010-08-16T11:28:25Z

Here is an Interview I did with powderhound. What do you guys think ;)

Pro skier and Powderhound blogger Luke Kneller caught up with Australia's own freeride hero, Russ Henshaw just prior to his win at the NZ Open...

When people think of Australia they think of Steve Irwin, of a land where kangaroos are the only means of transportation, a land were our women are sheilas and our men are blokes. The last thing they think of is snow, let alone enough to have ski resorts. So how is it that one of the best freeride skiers in the world comes from this mythical place?

Meet Russell Henshaw. The wonder from down under who is taking the world of freeride skiing by storm. Russ was born in Sydney but moved to Jindabyne after his family realised his love for skiing at the age of 14. He first began racing with the Thredbo Ski Race Club but after a few years of the stupidly early starts his mind began to wonder and his urge to fly and grind in the terrain parks rose. He decided to put away the lycra suit and race skis and pick up a pair of twin-tips and some baggy clothes. I caught up with Russ at the Action Sports Training centre in Jindabyne were he was busy practicing his new tricks...

So how is it that you got into freeride skiing? Did anyone push or convince you to change over from racing?

I always jumped, even when I raced. I kind of got bored of racing and decided park was more fun, so that’s how I decided to switch over.

When did you start competiting in the freeride scene?

When I was 12 I started doing some local competitions around Thredbo and Perisher and then when I was 15 I did my first season overseas winning my first open event, The Austrian Open Slopestyle and Halfpipe.

Did you just wake up one morning and realise that you were good at the sport and could make a living out of it?

Nope I have worked really hard to get where I am. I am lucky it has all worked out.

How do you go about learning new tricks?

Usually I'll try them on tramp first. Jindabyne now has an amazing Action Sports training facility at Sport and Rec run by the legendary Andrea Berchtold. It’s perfect for learning new tricks as it has numerous in-built trampolines, a tumbling floor, bungies, harnesses, you name it! So when I’m not skiing in Australia, I’ll be there. From there I just go take that to the snow.

So what does the future hold for you? Where do you want to be in say five years?

In five years I still want to be doing what I’m doing right now. Maybe after that I'll start doing something else but right now all that’s on my mind is skiing.

Just after writing this Russ won the NZ Open slopestyle event. He was the first ever skier to successfully land a double cork into an unnatural double cork in competition! This is a prime example of the amount of skill that Russ possesses.

Russ's next big event is the second annual Toyota One Hit Wonder, he will be jumping and training on the kicker before leaving to europe for the Big air cuircut

Luke Kneller

Tube My Ride

2010-08-15T00:19:36Z

So once again the Tube My Ride competition has been held at Perisherblue. It is basically a filming competition where athletes have 1 week to film a video in the terrain park. My mate Jordan Houghton entered and made a little go pro edit. Check it out:

To vote for this video click here

These guys would be stoked if you took the time to vote.

Sorry

2010-08-14T06:39:18Z

Sorry I haven't been blogging the last few days, I have had a super bad cold so I have been chilling in bed watching TV. I made the trek home from NZ back to Australia yesterday and lets just say the flight didn't make me feel any better.

I came home for my brother, Trevor, 18th birthday party. Going to be a crazy night tonight so I am looking forward to partying with him. I don't think this party is going to help my cold but whatever.

Here is a cool shot of a Heli follow cam I got in NZ. Sam Murphy Showed me.

Going to party now.

Russ