Share

Videos

X Games Real Snow Backcountry 2015

Five crazy parts from five of the best backcountry riders around

For another year, X Games’ Real Snow format has been taken out of the streets and deep into the backcountry – this time with perhaps one of the greatest contest line ups ever assembled: Kazu Kokubo, Gigi Ruf, Mikkel Bang, John Jackson and Jeremy Jones.

We’ve compiled all the parts here for you, so all you gotta do is sit back and enjoy them – and don’t forget to go vote for your favourite!

UPDATE: The competition is closed and the winners have been decided

John Jackson – Winner!

JJ had a couple of seasons off due to injury, so the fact that he has footage like this is, quite simply, astounding. Big backcountry booters, huge descents and monster drops, and he’s still sitting of whole trips worth of clips filmed for Brain Farm’s next movie. Another dreadlock warrior, another amazing entry.

Kazu Kokubo – Second Place

Get ready to watch BC, Alaska and of course Japan get well and truly beasted by of of our favourite ever riders. Kazu Kokubo‘s part is taken mostly from footage used in TWS‘s Origins movie, but we could watch this kind of riding all day – we’re like rats in a lab pressing a play button to get that next grain of coke, though in this case it’s miles and miles of pristine powder with a crazed buddle of dreadlocks blasting through that we’re devouring.

The best bit? We’d have to say it’s that mid-spine line butter that just pops out of nowhere!

Gigi Ruf – Third Place

There’s few riders that show ‘magic snowboard syndrome’ better than Gigi Ruf – it looks like he swapped his old ride for a handful of magical beans which grew into something that could transport him down the mountain with no fear of crashing, somehow he just stays on for everything! We were so stoked when we found out he was going to be part of this year’s contest – with no Pirates movie due for release this winter we thought we’d be waiting a lot longer to see more moving images of Gigi, now we just need more!

Mikkel Bang

Only thirty seconds in and Mikkel Bang already has a contender for one of the best backside rodeos ever, and for once we’re actually looking forward to the behind the scenes voting episode due out soon – he must tower over the other riders like some kind of Norsegod of snowboarding. Every line he takes looks like it ends at the gates of Valhalla, and each landing is more casual than the last.

Jeremy Jones

The one rider who can fill a 90 second part with talk and the other 30 seconds with the kind of heavy breathing that wouldn’t sound out place down a 1970s housewife’s bakelite phone, but that aside of course Jeremy Jones takes the concept of backcountry riding to a whole new level with one insane line down an Alaskan face, twelve days in the making. Beast.

Newsletter Terms & Conditions

Please enter your email so we can keep you updated with news, features and the latest offers. If you are not interested you can unsubscribe at any time. We will never sell your data and you'll only get messages from us and our partners whose products and services we think you'll enjoy.

Read our full Privacy Policy as well as Terms & Conditions.

production