As the historic snowstorm in Oslo created huge challenges for the crew, the riders took advantage of the situation and made an Urban Photo Shoot. Posses of snowboarders and photographers made their way through the city and gained attention from young and old – and even the Norwegian police.
The Arctic Challenge put up 4000 dollars for the eight best pictures. Riders and photographers were motivated and used all elements of the city in creative ways. Some crossed the east/west barriers of Oslo on the Aker River, others did rails in tube stations (with national TV watching), some made powder turns on swimming pool houses and others just cruised with the local kids. The police asked some questions to a couple of the crews, but they soon realised this was pure fun and let the riders go.
After some tricky internal decisions, the jury picked out eight different winning pictures, and the photographers of these were:
Monky Production, Norwegian extreme sport photograph company (with three winning pictures). Riders: Inge Wiik and Terje Skulstad.
Markus Fischer, Pleasure Snowboard Magazin, Germany. Rider: Christian Haller.
Hansi Herbig, Pleasure Snowboard Magazin, Germany. Rider: Markus Keller.
Derek Heidt, Team Manager Oakley, Canada. Rider: Danny Davis.
Veron Deck, Method Mag, Switzerland. Rider: Daniel Ek.
Danny Zapalac, photographer Oakley, USA. Rider: Travis Rice.
Watch the winning pictures at t-a-c.no and tacky.no.
You can also see some of the other pictures from the contest here.
Håvard Schei from Monky Production was surprised and happy to hear that they had three of the winning pictures in the urban photo shoot contest. “We have just started our company, so it means a lot to us to get this attention” says Schei. Monky Production had used well known elements from Oslo in all their pictures, like Eventyrbrua (the Fairytale Bridge) and the Aker River.
- TAC is a huge media event. Sometimes this can be a challenge for us who are covering it. The quick decision on utilizing the historic winter wonderland of Oslo instead of cancelling one day of riding is a good proof of the playfulness inherited in snowboarding. The capital of Norway was firsthand eyewitness to how spectacular it can be when the snowboarding elite are gathering in one place. Involving the media in the event like this was brilliant. I mean, how often is it the photographer, and not the snowboarder, that takes the first prize, says editor of Norwegian snowboard magazine Tacky, Morten Nymoen.