Red Bull Playstreets, one of the most innovative freestyle skiing contests in the world, returns as a group of leading freestyle skiers turn the historic Austrian resort of Bad Gastein into an urban playground.
Progress
Red Bull Playstreets is a new school freestyle skiing competition which moves the action of the tradition free skiing territory of the pistes, pipes and back country into an urban setting – more like street skating. It gives the skiers free reign to perform jumps and tricks around an historic Austrian mountain resort.
Location
The action is held in Bad Gastein, an ancient spa town nestling on the edge of a national park. Through the years, it’s been a centre for gold mining and a resort visited by such colourful historical figures as Sisi (Elisabeth of Bavaria), Otto von Bismarck and the Shah of Iran. These days it’s a popular ski and snowboarding resort.
Atmosphere
With 10,000 fans cramming into the small town which is lit up with a battery of coloured spotlights and reverberating to music, Playstreets has a unique atmosphere to match its unique setting among freestyle skiing events.
Young guns,
The snowboarders will be a mix of established names and rising stars, including Russ Henshaw, Dadali Ahmet, Markus Eder, Oscar Scherlin, Henrik Harlaut, Thomas Hlawitschka, Bene Mayr, Patrick Hollaus, Antti Ollila, Elias Ambühl, JF Houle, David Lesh, Paddy Graham, Fabio Studer and Tobi Tritscher.
Snowboarding
As well as a ski resort, Bad Gastein has built a strong reputation among boarders as a regular stop on the FIS Snowboarding World Cup where some of the best freestylers hit town for two days of Halfpipe and Parallel GS competitions.
Theophrastus Parcelus
Sounds like a nasty infection but is in fact short for Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541), an alchemist, astrologer and occultist from Salzburg who – when he wasn’t dabbling in quakery, mumbo jumbo and other bullsh*t – came up with the name for zinc and made great strides in the area of botany. He also studied the curative properties of the thermal spring waters in Bad Gastein helping to establish the old town as a health resort.
Radon
Nobel laureate Marie Curie and physician Heinrich Mache later discovered the waters of Bad Gastein contained radon, which they thought explained the spa’s curative effects. As a pioneer of the study of radioactivity, Curie used the gas as part of her treatment for wounded soldiers in the First World War.
Edition
This is the fourth edition of Red Bull Playstreets after a two-year break. The one to watch has got to be defending champion Russ Henshaw. The X Games silver medallist has never finished lower than second place in the event. Part of his prize in 2009 included the keys to a new Suzuki Grand Vitara, which came in handy as the Aussie had only passed his driving test the previous summer.
Extreme
The freestylers will have to pass by a variety of obstacles as the entire town is transformed into a freestyle skiing playground, with roads, concrete wall and even whole buildings being turned into obstacles. Extreme also encompasses the boyhood interests of Henshaw, who was into skateboarding, motocross and BMX before becoming a skier.
Tourism
As well as skiing and spas, Bad Gastein also boasts a casino, hiking, a 140 metre suspension footbridge and many waterfalls and ice falls which make the area a Mecca for ice climbers. New for this year is the Urban Ice, which sees 20 daring ice-climbers tackle the famed Gastein Waterfall.
Star
The winner of Red Bull Playstreets will also receive a star on Bad Gastein’s walk of fame.
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