The first big air of the 2009 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup season will be staged at Battersea Power Station in London this Saturday, 25th  October. After all the other World Cup events already kicked off their season, the opening of the ramp stars is a true highlight of this winter: for the first time, a LG Snowboard FIS World Cup will take place in the United Kingdom. Battersea Power Station - still the largest brick building in Europe - provides the venue for the huge ramp and an exceptional snowboard spectacle, which will the main act a big winter sports and music festival called "Freesports On4 Freeze". A massive ramp has been in construction since last Wednesday, reaching the height of 35 meters and length of 100 meters and featuring an in-run of 31 meters, built of 300 tons of scaffolding. Outstanding action will be delivered by the international crème de la crème of the scene in a superb atmosphere as live acts such as Cypress Hill enter the stage. For more information check out www.londonfreeze.com

Fittingly for the first FIS World Cup ever in London, the high class line-up is led by Danny Kass, 2006 Olympic half-pipe silver medalist, accompanied by his teammate Scotty Lago, last year's big air FIS World Cup winner Stefan Gimpl and the Finnish rippers Antti Autti, Risto Mattila, Janne Korpi and Peetu Piiroinen, just to mention a few. The fans in London will get the first chance to cheer for Dan Wakeham, Ben Kilner and Dominic Harrington on their home snow.

The London big air is also the first time the new big air format is used. All riders have to prove themselves in a qualification round to earn one of the ten spots in the one-hour-long finals where each qualified rider has three runs. But not all three jumps count for the decisive final score. The winner will be determined by the highest combined score of jump 1 or jump 2 and jump 3 which will count definitely.

FIS News