Mondial du Snowboard Photo by Fanny Terrer

The 14th Annual Mondial du Snowboard was held in France's Les 2 Alpes, and as the first snowboard rendezvous of the season, it started winter off with a bang.

The event took place in two villages. The lower village, at 1650m, featured King Size Ramp, the 300m skatepark, as well as the manufacturers' exhibitions. In the evenings, this place came alive with fashion shows and street dancing exhibits.

The upper village, at 3200m, is located on Les 2 Alpes's glacier. The biggest rideable glacier in Europe, it was opened especially for the event. In this village, all the big board and eye-wear companies showed off their 2004 gear and allowed free demos. This and the parties was what most people came for. The snowboard contest was held up here, and a special space was reserved for snow-kite demos by Jean-Luc Pelletier and Frantz Luley. To add to the atmosphere, a DJ booth was situated by the stands, pumping up the crowed.

Saturday was the snowboard contest qualifications day. The run was made of 4 modules: a first handrail followed by two jumps, one at 20m and the other one at 18m, and to finish, another handrail. Approximately 100 riders entered the contest with fair conditions and fresh snow. But soon, six pros got hurt and the rest of them became nervous to throw themselves off the two huge Big Airs, considering the early stage of the season. At the end of the day, the smell of parties with Rossignol at La Boule de Neige, Salomon at Smith's, and concerts came tickling everyone's nose. Yes, it was a long crazy night!

	Mondial du Snowboard Photo by Fanny Terrer

On Sunday, bad weather conditions and wind forced the contest to be postponed to the afternoon and eventually cancelled. No luck, or maybe yes...as the storm brought fresh snow!

To bide my time, I checked out some of the new equipment: Burton's new bindings Mission Grid blew me away. This new system will be installed across the entire line for next season. It's fantastic because your feet are attached to the board without any forward backward movement, so the board responds very quickly, and it's very comfortable to ride. It was as easy to get strapped on and off as with regular bindings. Also, Burton's new board, the T6, is powerful, precise and very responsive.

After Burton, I swung quickly by Nitro Snowboards, who have put out the most expensive board on the market this year. Named the Dark Horse, it is only produced in limited editions and comes in 162, 165 and 168. There are only 600 of these boards worldwide. They're expensive, but here is why: at only 2.5kg, the boards are very light but with great absorption, and very rigid on it's length with not too much torsion. They are built with a wood composite core, carbon fiber triax and the inserts are made of titanium. The top of the line!

After all of Sunday's snow, the sky was still really grey down in the lower village on Monday, but above the glacier, the sun was shining and the sky was brilliant blue. The conditions were ideal for the last day of the Mondial. The finals were on, but not on the circuit originally planned, considering the accidents of the first day. The shapers and volunteers organized a new area after all the snow, building a full handrail circuit. Meanwhile, the pros had decided all together to divide the 15,000 euros prize money among themselves to take away the pressure and compete in a laid back and friendly atmosphere. At the end of the day, David Lambert and Travis William took home the top honors.

— By Fanny Terrer