Some people look forward to skiing and snowboarding during the spring break, but a few hardy, lucky souls are already making tracks in the February snows, not in Charmonix or Colorado, but in Norway. The annual Oakley Arctic Challenge got underway Thursday with the first round of the big air competition.

Snowboarders Shayne Pospisil and Daniel Josefsen each took home cheques for $6000 USD when they were announced as Thursday’s winners. Although the world record of 9.8 metres remained unbroken, in spite of unfavourable weather conditions and in front of a crowd of 1000 spectators, both riders reached the dizzying height of 6.8 metres.

“It is difficult to adjust the speed in this weather, so the level of riding is not as good as the two previous days. When you ride that fast into a transition all the details count, so the weather was definitely an important factor this time”, said competitor and event organiser, Terje Haakonsen, himself a tireless snowboard rider.

The Oakley Arctic Challenge is heralded as one of the best independent snowboard competitions on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, partly because of its dedication to promoting green causes and minimising it’s own environmental impact. The food for the competition is now almost completely organic, and the Arctic Challenge organisers are careful to select environmentally conscious suppliers and delivery firms to help them put the competition together.