A Look Behind The Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Tour
Jan 24 2007 / Los Angeles, CA
For most of the early years of competitive snowboarding, there were two organizing bodies: the FIS and the ISF. The FIS is a skiing organization that decides things like who goes to the Olympics and still runs slalom events. The ISF was the preferred organizing body of most snowboarders, but unfortunately, being cool apparently doesn’t help business and it disbanded about 10 years ago. This left competitive snowboarders two options: suck it up and deal with drug tests at FIS events to be ranked or compete in dis-organized events with no year-end status.
But legendary snowboarder Terje Haakonsen didn’t want to settle for those options, so he started Ticket to Ride. TTR was an alternative way to rank snowboarders according to their competitive performance, and has become an annual tour that includes some of the biggest events of the year, such as the Innsbruck Air and Style, the European Open, Nissan X Trail and the US Open.
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For snowboarders, one of the biggest benefits of being involved in the TTR series is a chance at going to the Arctic Challenge. The Arctic Challenge, after all, is snowboarding’s coolest event. Organized by Haakonsen himself, riders used to have to be hand picked for the prestigious trip to Norway. But now thanks to the TTR tour, there are a few ways to get there: either win one of the three major qualifier events, take top 10 overall on the TTR tour, or get invited by the Terj himself.
TTR is serious business, with a lot of perks, but to really excel, riders have endure a seriously long year. The contest season isn’t just happening when there is snow in your backyard. The TTR actually has a 10-month long competition season including events in four geographic zones. In 2006, 91 results were registered from 4 formats (Slopestyle, Halfpipe, Quarterpipe and Stadium Slopestyle) equating to 1435 riders from 37 Nations receiving end of season World ranking recognition.
Terje Boycotts the Olympics
It may not have officially been a TTR moment (since it didn’t exist yet), but Terje Haakonsen’s disdain for the organization of the Olympics is somewhat responsible for TTR coming to be. After all, in snowboarding, TTR is the main alternative to the FIS, who organizes the Games. When snowboarding was announced as an Olympic event, Terje was the first rider to say he wanted nothing to do with it. Although the riders who did want to go for the gold may have let out a slight sign of relief not having to compete against the best snowboarder in the world, the snowboard industry knew that when a true legend like Terje isn’t there, it’s just not as relevant. Snowboarding is still in the Olympics, and with the addition of Snowboardcross in 2006, things just keep getting bigger. But now, thanks in large part to Terje, riders who aren’t interested in halfpipe, racing or snowboard cross have another, much cooler option.
In 1999 Terje Haakonsen and fellow Norwegian Daniel Franck created the Arctic Challenge. The goal was to make an event that would be both participant-friendly and push the progression of the sport. Since then, the Arctic Challenge has been the most anticipated event of the year for the select few who get to compete. Riders not only get to ride against the best, on the best courses in the world, but are also taken on arctic fishing and surfing trips—a nice break from the regular contest season.
First-ever Global Champions Crowned
Each year the US Open in Stratton, VT marks the columniation of the TTR World tour. In 2006, the first ever Global Champions of snowboarding were awarded. After collecting the most points at TTR events throughout the season, France’s Mathieu Crepel was crowned champion for the men and Holland’s Cheryl Maas took it for the women. You may wonder how Shaun White, who seemed to dominate everything last season, wasn’t champion. While he did win plenty of events, many were Olympic qualifiers, and not TTR events, and when all was said and done, he was bested by Crepel.
In 2001 Heikki Sorsa’s 29-foot backside air hit a mark that in the past 6 years, no one has been able to touch. In his TTR profile, Sorsa said “It’s cool that snowboarding has been progressing so much in the last couple of years, yet nobody has passed it. I think that someone is going to in the next couple of years for sure, but I don’t care. Sort of stoked that I held it for so long.” Of course, judging by the time it took for the previous record, set by Ingemar Backmann in 1995, to be broken, 2007 could be the year!
Mascots aren’t just for football games and pep rallies. The Arctic Challenge actually has one too. In 2003, it was 12-year-old Luke Mitrani. The pint-sized ripper didn’t just wave a flag and wear a costume though, he straight killed it. He busted an impressive 19-foot air out of the giant quarterpipe. And it turned out to be just a precursor for what was to come—just two years later (and only a little bigger) Mitrani busted a 31-foot air at the Breckenridge Grand Prix quarterpipe competition.
TTR ’07 Schedule
Nokia Air and Style—Innsbruck, AUT—December 12, 2006
Burton European Open—Laax, SUI—Jan 21-27, 2007
US Open—Stratton, VT—March 13-19, 2007
Burton New Zealand Open
Burton Australian Open
Budriders River Jam
Phoenix Park 3rd World Free Style Champs
