In Vans’ pursuit to bring fun back to snowboarding and unleash the creativity of the riders, the Hi-Standard Series successfully kicked off on March 12th 2013. More than 50 riders showed up in front of the infamous restaurant “L’Altiport” in Les Arcs to fight for some cash and to have fun shredding together.

Despite the gloomy weather forecasts, we got lucky and the whole event took place under sunny conditions. Keeping with the motto “the early rider catches the Van Doren dollar” the session started straight away on the kicker to fight for 1.000 EUR in cash. During this session French riders such as Sully Monod or Victor Daviet pushed the level higher – showcasing their personal best with style and creativity.  Loads of people stopped on their way to the Altiport restaurant to watch the riders and enjoy some really creative snowboarding.

After hitting the Big Air session the riders turned their attention to the Hi-Standard Rail for a further 400 EUR cash for tricks. This time Chazou, Felix Cadiou, Gabby Bessy and Thomas Guerrin owned the game and deserved their Van Doren cash.

The BBQ lunch helped riders to regain their strenghts for a last Big Air session later in the day. Once again the riders were on fire: Maxence Tevelle, Lucas Benachio, Thomas Gérin, Tom Picamoles, Chazou, Victor Loron, Franck Moissonnier, Félix Cadiou as well as Antoine Baduel showed some gnarly tricks – and only a few nasty bails! The quality of the riding made it easier for our famous judges (French VANS snow teamriders JJ Roux, Thomas Delfino & Valerian Ducourtil) to honor the participants with additional cash.        

To finish the day on a high, the riders were invited for a water slide session to give the crowd something more to cheer.

In total, 2’400 EUR were awarded during this first stop of Vans Hi-Standard Series in Les Arcs. Maxence Tevelle pocketed 300 EUR as best rider over 16, Lucas Villio 200 EUR for the under 16 category and 100 EUR to Allan Simide for the “Best Slam of the Day” with a broken nose as a result of a double backflip attempt. Many shout-outs to our local partners: the resort Les Arcs for great support, Fluofun, ActMag and Redbull.

Watch out for the next Hi-Standard stops in Austria and Scotland!

Visit www.facebook.com/VansEurope/events for more information and pics.