Snowboarder Magazine

Welcome to the final installment of Australian Snowboarder Magazine for 2009.  This issue has a focus on the big wide world of global snowboard travel and comes bagged with a DVD from Rip Curl featuring a heli trip to Abkhazia in Russia as well as some footage from the Freeride Pro.

First stop is Poland as Liam Kaska and Tom Pelley negotiate the mean streets of Krakow.  Despite various mugging attempts, below freezing temperatures and the language barrier the boys manage to slide some rails and even score some pow up in the mountains.

Next up we venture to perhaps the cheapest snowboarding destination in the world in that of China. Invited a long as a part of the Red Bull Nanshan Open we join Mikey Williams and Andy Lloyd for all the fun and festivities.

The secret about Japan has well and truly been out for a while now. The northern island of Hokkaido has been adopted as a second home by a lot of travelling Aussie snowboarders. For those who seek there still remain some untouched and unchartered resorts. Together with Mitch Allan, Nick Gregory and Quinton Robbins, we investigate what the resort of Kiroro has to offer.

While Europe is renowned for its huge mountains and epic freeriding conditions Sean Radich put together a team of riders to investigate its park potential as well. Joined by Jason Currie and Kiwi’s Ian Wallace and Mark Anderson they set out across Austria and Switzerland to put together a top five of their favourite freestyle destinations.

British Columbia in Canada has long been known as powder filled freeriding mecca but could it also be the jib capital of Canada? While Quebec and Montreal have been receiving a lot of press for their urban potential, Canadian local Mat Galina invites Darragh Walsh and Jason Currie along to check out what BC has to offer.

To round out the issue we bring you eight pages of jaw dropping images to get you through the summer in our Backcountry photo gallery. We also introduce you to Ben Fawcett and Sam Murphy, two riders you’ll be hearing a lot more about.