Kiwi youngster Finley Melville Ives showing how huge the "perfect hip" is. Photo by Theo Acworth
The 16th Swatch Nines wrapped on Saturday and beneath the crazy features, world records and drinking beer out of many shoes, it might just be more important to freeskiing than you would think.
This year saw Swatch Nines return to the Swiss resort of Schiltorn for the second time and as usual there were some crazy features, but to tell the story of Nines I managed to grab a word with the founder and driving force behind the event; Nico Zacek.
Nico overlooking his latest masterpiece
In 2007 he was competing at X Games, Dew Tour, Nippon Open and others. He was also shooting movies at the time. “So, I was shooting segments with my crew or I was competing. There were maybe seven or eight contests a year and usually three or four got cancelled every year, then two were sh*tty and two were pretty great. We invest so much time and money into these events and only half of them were really good, because you always had to deal with the ‘Livestream factor’.”
“We had to do a different freeski event. We don’t need prize money; we just want to take our filmers and photographers to shoot for us at a good jump. We just need someone to pay for it. You can put your logo on the jump, we don’t care, as long as we can just do a special shoot.”
Nine Knights, which evolved into Nines, started as a Suzuki event and after a few sponsor changes and it’s now Swatch Nines. The 2024 event, high in the Swiss Alps, started (like most events this year) with a couple of down days, but this is something Nico planned for, way back in 2007.
“It has to be a week. That’s expensive as an event organiser, but this week we had two horrible weather days, then three good ones and we’re all hyped. Imagine if it was just a two day event.
"The Swatch Nines in a nutshell; Just bring them all together and let them have fun"
The riders had plenty of fun, despite the weather, there were dodgeball tournaments and even an impromptu back yard session, featuring Jesper Tjader getting creative with hockey goals.
But the riders came (and you’re reading this) for some skiing. Nines is famous for its crazy features and the riders are fully involved in the course’s conception. This year the main feature was a gigantic hip, which was begging for records to be broken. The Swiss local, Kim Gubser, duly obliged, by breaking the record that was set at Nines in 2019 by David Wise. Kim’s new benchmark is 14.6m (47.9ft) beating Wise’s 14.2m (46.6ft). Now that was a pretty divisive record and again Nico has the answer:
“It may have been controversial, but I would never build a gnarly quarter pipe, because they would get hurt. (Kevin Rolland fractured his pelvis when trying to break a QP record in 2019). I would never build that, I’d only ever build banked landings, so it’s a different feature.”
Anyone that caught any of the Instagram stories throughout the week, may have guessed Kim was likely to be the one to go for this record. I asked him how long he’d been planning to go for it…
“The first time Nico told me that this year there would be a big hip, I instantly thought about the record. I’m super stoked that I managed to get it. I wasn’t sure I could get it, because of the angle/speed, but it worked out.”
With the men’s and women’s snowboard hip record going too. Nico said, for him the records aren’t the most memorable part of Nines.
‘It’s more about iconic moments, like Jesper’s double backie over the ‘death gap’ at Nine Knights 2014, Andri’s [Ragettli} quad, Lisette Zimmermann’s double cork 1260, on the female side we’ve had many, including the first. Switch 10s ever done, at Nine Queens.
Anastasia Tatalina. Photo by Klaus Polzer
Back to that record though. I can’t have been the only one thinking that a certain Kiwi might have had a go. With World, X Games and Olympic Halfpipe Gold’s already in his trophy cabinet, apparently Nico Porteous was happy to step aside on this one:
“It’s not really my cup of tea, I wasn’t that tempted to be honest. I really want to ski this feature differently and find creative lines with a different style. It’s been good fun.”
Fun and creativity is what Nines is all about, as Nico Z said, that’s the whole idea behind the event. Some of the world’s best have graced Nines and I wasn’t expecting such a quick and firm answer when I asked the founder who his favourite rider has been at Nines:
“Jesper Tjader! I don’t have to think about that. I could say EdJoy [Edouard Therriault] or something, who’s obviously one of the most amazing people to watch, but the way Jesper sees the world is just so impressive to me. Him and I are such a match made in heaven, because I really think about everything and try to make it super versatile to ride, then he adds so much more.”
Nico's favourite and Freeski MVP, Jesper Tjäder. Photo by Klaus Polzer
The feeling’s obviously mutual, when I asked the Swede what his thoughts on Swatch Nines 2024 was, Jesper’s answer fitted so well:
“Events like Nines, make the creativity for you. I don’t even have to think how to use a standard feature in a different way. So, you can just enjoy it. That sentiment was echoed by another Sweden-based style guru, Alex Hackel. He said that while the features at Swatch Nines 2024 are huge, they’re also “playful” and there are many ways to hit them. To see how everyone put their own twist on things, take a look at the ski edit.
Saturday rolled around and, as is tradition, the final day is public day. There’s still a fun vibe, but asked I Alex if it’s different to ski on public day?
"100%, well you have live announcers, a crowd and outside energy. The private days you’re in your own little bubble, today is when you realise just how big the features are, how crazy it is and how stoked people are. There’s no set run, no one tells you when to drop and there’s obviously no score. You go out, you ski your best and you do whatever you like to do and at the end there’s the riders’ awards.”
Alex Hackel doing things a little differently. Photo by Ethan Stone
Those riders’ awards are at the closing gala night, and everyone left with beer/prosecco-soaked shoes! Nico has stayed true to his vision after all these years, which can’t be easy with pressure from sponsors plus demands for figures and rankings. That’s why Nines is so important. Yes it’s invite only, with a pretty healthy collection of X Games, Olympics and World Champions, but it is a breeding ground for creativity and World Records.
Matej doing the customary 'shoey' on gala night!
I’ll give the final world to this week’s ski record breaker, Kim Gubser:
“This week is always about fun, getting some nice footage and just enjoying it. It’s the end of the season and it’s the best time ever. The World Record is a very nice bonus!”
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