Words by Sophie Everard

With winter slowly and surely rearing its head, getting us all at Cooler HQ super psyched at the prospect of dusting off our jib sticks and unfurling our winter garb (check us out in our shred jackets already), the Relentless Freeze festival is the event that surely hits the gong that the lazy, hazy, sweet sunny days of summer are finally over, and shit yeah, it’s time to get stoked on snow.

Unlike previous editions of the Freeze, where torrential rain, gusts and gales were the order of the day, Mother Nature had other, more rad ideas in store, surely knowing that not only was the Freeze going down, but the premiere of the almighty “5 More Minutes…Please?!”was also in town, and duly obliged with blazing sun and only a few splatters of token Freeze raindrops.  Although Freeze is strictly a competition for the dudes, it’s irrelevant.  The riders threw it down, with our brother magazine Whitelines’ Battle of Britain showdown on Friday amongst the cream of UK snowboarders  leaving jaws dropping at the standard of shred the UK has produced.  Billy Morgan’s super steezy, more laid-back-than-Luda-‘s double backflips were the crowd pleaser of the day, claiming top spot, and a face full of champagne.  The World Cup clash on the second sundrenched and (slightly hungover day) drew a crowd of 17,000 (or so the super-amped commentators were telling us), and riders including winner Janne Korpi and UK favourite Jamie Nicholls double corked their way to the top of the rankings.

Joining forces with the Roxy and Nikita crews, including riders Lisa Wiik, Aimee Fuller and Ivy Taylor who were all in town to represent at the premiere of “5 More Minutes…please”, the chicks brought the stoke and with a packed blow-up cinema and a bursting crowd of super psyched girls and guys, Aimee leapt up to the front of the throng and kicked off proceedings.   And kick off shit she did – current Cooler cover girl Aimee’s opening section explained just why this little lady is one of the most stylish and thrilling of riders to watch right now.  She has got it, and by the bucket load, pairing her fast-developing trademark steeze with some seriously mahoosive and ballsy trickery.    Her endless spins and flips off the backcountry kicker into pillows of the soft fluffy stuff were spinetingling and goosepimpling  – keep your eyes peeled for Miss Fuller this season, we have a sneaking suspicion that she is going to own it, and blow a good few minds along the way.

Lisa Filzmoser’s heavy charging left no doubt that the Nikita rider is one of the most accomplished and progressive of girls out there, and Enni Rukajarvi’s short and sweet 20-second segment was more than long enough to affirm that the former TTR champ has some of the most stylish spins in town (when we say town we mean the whole fricking world).   Perennial favorites Jenny Jones, Basa Stevulova and Julia Baumgartner’s effortless, tweaked-out skills were also amongst the stand-out sections.

“5 more Minutes” director Sophie Morawetz and producer/ superstar Conny Bleicher have stunningly captured both the shit-hot talent that Europe boasts, and also the raw beauty that is riding in Europe.  From the rocky and mezze-heavy section in Turkey, to the supernatural splendor of Scandinavia and gulp-inducing heavy kickers in the Dachstein and and Laax snowparks, we may think that our sisters across the pond are super spoiled for shred choice, but we are reminded that Europe is home to some of the most culturally diverse and radically different snowboard spots in the world.  So cheers to that.

Judging by the whoops and hollers as the credits rolled in, “5 More Minutes…Please?!”, which, it turns out, was the most popular movie showing the whole weekend (damn straight), has blown boundaries across the board.  Sublimely sick filming, the pairing of current and future legends, and a very healthy dose of stoke and fun make for one of the most rad of girls shred flicks to date.   The premiere was the juicy cherry on the top of one of the best Freeze weekends so far, “5 More Minutes…please?!” all around!

Cruise on by to relentlessfreeze.com for more Freeze fun, and lipstick-productions.com for “5 More Minutes…Please?!” goodness. And to see our action fashion ed Britta Burger’s photo take on Freeze click here