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The hottest riders in snowboarding convereged on beautiful Vienna, Austria, all attempting to win the final ISF event of the '90s. Sixty-four world-class riders arrived in this "city of music" on the 29th, many with friends in tow, to stay in a four-star hotel near the Hungarian border, about 35km outside the city.

After we arrived we had little to do but rest from the trip to this city of 1.3 million people and no mountains within 200km. But they call this contest Soul City for a good reason. When you find that soul, you're glad you came.

	The Giant Swatch

We met up with event organizer Charly Weger, who was very worried about the foot of fresh snow that blanketed Vienna. Just a week earlier it had been too warm and then there were problems bringing in the ramp because oit was too windy. But the wind died down and the snow hit and I have seldom seen a city like this. The government doesn't send out the snowplows until there's 10cm of snow, so the roads weren't even driveable.

Only a few of us arrived early, so it was Drew Stevenson (Republik of Onboard), Patrick from Burton's riders services, Jonas and Gilles Jaquet's girlfriend. Most of the riders came the next morning, when the streets were mostly clean and the airport open.

All flights on the 29th were late but by the end of the day, almost everybody was here. Mikko Rajakangas (FIN), Nidecker team rider, and his girl Sari came down from Finland where they had just celebrated Christmas. Xaver Hoffmann, Nicola Thost, Stefan Gimpl (AUT) and a few others arrived on the 30th, the qualification day. It was partly sunny and very windy so the invited riders used the day to check out the historical buildings and famous coffee houses of Vienna.

But those who still had to qualify had perhaps one of the most difficult days of their careers, hitting a pretty hard kicker in the wind and clouds — not a real pleasure just before the final party of the '90s. Dieter "Tex" Steinhardt, Vienna local and founder of the Ästhetiker, showed his home audience why he deserved to be in the finals. So did Thomas Wanner, 18, (AUT) on his Burton board.

In the afternoon, the freestylers went off for their first qualification run, even though the ramp was hard as hell. It didn`t get much softer the next day, either. That was good for the alpine riders, but bad for the freestylers.

There were 16 men and eight women in the alpine discipline (actually there were seven women in alpine since Burgi Heckmair (GER) was riding with her freestyle board). Heckmair beat Christine Dietsche (GER) in the first heat and then gave her half of a second on the seven-second run. In the end, Dietsche took 3rd and Heckmair was stoked.

On the men's side Gery Samer (AUT), riding in a one-piece suit, lost out to Profanter Bernhard (AUT), the last rookie to be invited to this contest. Andi Egger (AUT) had been on the start list but fell out of the running. Stefan Gruber (AUT), who recently broke his collarbone at the Air & Style in Innsbruck, came for fun and really got the party mood going, even though everybody was slapping him on his broken shoulder.

Sigi Grabner (AUT) won the men's alpine event, with Xavier Delerue (FRA) coming in just behind him in an interesting final for these Burton riders. After the first run it was Delerue in front. Respect goes out to this French Champ who won the icy Sölden event on a freestyle board. But Grabner, who has won most of the alpine events over the past two years, pulled it off in the end.

	Ena Himmler

In the women's alpine competition, Ena Himmler (GER) took 1st while Gitti Köeck (AUT) landed 2nd. This was another interesting pair since Himmler is a two-time World Champion from Val di Sole and Köeck took 3rd at the Olympics in Nagano.

After a cut from 24 to 16 riders, the men's freestyle competition was whittled down to eight riders and ultimately to just four. Stefan Gimpl (AUT/Burton), winner of Air & Style '99, took it all. Jonas Emery (SUI/ Rossignol), winner of the style jump session at Air & Style '99, placed 2nd. Tommy Kiel Johanson (NOR/AUT) who lives in Innsbruck and loves events with 60,000 people watching, took 3rd. Thomas Wanner (AUT/Burton), out of Seefeld in Tirol, claimed 4th.

The group of nine women in the freestyle event was whittled down to four Euros with attitude. Pauline Richot (SUI), who is only 17 years old, won it. The rest of the podium spots went to: Nici Pederzolli (AUT), Innsbruck local and Soul Woman for several years; Alex Perzul (BRD), who was a little cold but pulled nice backside airs; and, Anne Molin-Kongsgaard (NOR), who finished 4th because she didn't stomp the landing.

After it was all over, everybody went back home humming reggae from the parties and with good impressions of these finals days of the year. All in all a nice way to begin 2000, bringing snowboarding into the new millenium the right way in the city of music.

The next stop is an alpine event at Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, January 5.

Thanks for listening, best wishes. Legalize peace, and get the good vibration.

— Nils, MountainZone.com European Correspondent