If you don’t already know, and we’re surprised if you don’t, but one of the greatest events in the action sports calendar is descending upon us. What’s the event? It’s the European Winter X Games in Tignes! Like I said, if that’s the first time you’re hearing about it then we’re shocked but we’re also here to deliver you something pretty special.

As European media partners to the European Winter X Games, we’re celebrating the fact that we’ve got the world’s best talent in Europe for a good few days and that they’ll be showing off all over the internet and TV, we don’t want them to be the only people that win something. Sure they might win a medal and pride but who wants that when there’s a chance to win a full snowboarding set up?! Intrigued? Well, read on…

As we know, you lot out there love Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. So much so that we’ve designed a little prize for those of you that interact with us during the X Games through these sites and we’ve even roped in our fellow magazine sites too. Starting Wednesday March 20th the guys from Whitelines, Onboard, SnowboarderMBM and Skiing Mag will be giving away 10 one year’s subscription to their magazines per day to one lucky person, for three days. Not one person for all mags but one person PER MAG. So there’s 30 subscriptions up for grabs! All you have to do on Twitter is tweet a photo, share your thoughts or just generally say something about the X Games. When it comes to Instagram you can upload a picture of you watching the X Games, your disbelief of how good a run was… anything really but there is one condition – you must use the hashtag #XGAMESNOW. Whether you’re tweeting or instagram-ing you need to put this hashtag on it and we’ll be able to pick winners.

But that’s not all!

Aside from subscriptions, at the end of the ten days the editors from the magazines will sit around a large table and argue about which one lucky git will be able to take home ‘the big prize’. The big prize will be:

TTR x Nitro Snowboard
Onboard x Union Bindings
Onboard x 686 Jacket
Onboard x Level Gloves
Whitelines x 7-9-13 Shoelace Belt
Onboard Tee
Whitelines Tee
Onboard x Neff Beanie
Whitelines Beanie
Onboard Sub
Whitelines Sub

Not bad eh? All for sending a tweet of a picture with a hashtag. But it doesn’t stop there!!
That’s what the guys at the magazines are giving away but there’s also the people that are huge Facebook lovers too! For everyone that fancies winning this huge prize:

Onboard x Head Snowboard
Onboard x Union Bindings
Onboard x 686 Jacket
Onboard x Level Gloves
Whitelines x 7-9-13 Shoelace Belt
Onboard Tee
Whitelines Tee
Onboard x Neff Beanie
Whitelines Beanie
Onboard Sub
Whitelines Sub

All you have to do is visit the Mpora page on Facebook and make sure you enter – for all you people who are already fans, you just enter your details on our comp page and you’re there. For those of you that aren’t friends with us on Facebook (and shame on you for it!), just ‘like’ us and then enter your details. It’s as easy as that! Hopefully you’ll be the one walking away with this huge swag we’ll be giving you.

Don’t forget to check in on Mpora though as we’ll be getting highlights and exclusive edits from Tignes as the Winter X Games kicks off!

Tweets about “#xgamesnow”

I don’t know if you lot have heard about this but there’s something interesting going on in Les Menuires. The story is that seven chalet staff in the Three Valleys have barricaded themselves into a chalet over unpaid wages and unfair dismissal. Turns out they were fired after a busy period and refused the wages they had worked for. Mark Ridgers of Skithe3V is the man in the firing line and he hasn’t really done himself any good. It turns out that it’s not the first time he’s tried this!
In the words taken from their Facebook page – “Mark Ridgers (a former bankrupt and second hand car salesman), pulled the same stunt after the busy Christmas and New Year period when they employed a large group of youngsters before dismissing them without any wages as soon as the busy period was over.”

Being hideously displeased to say the least, the chalet hosts and employees decided to barricade themselves in the luxury Chalet Georgina until they were paid, or at the very least given their air fare home. Now, it’s not like they haven’t been smart about this. They’ve consulted the French Poilce about squatting and it turns out that squatters cannot be evicted during the winter months so they’ve got a nice long stay on their hands! The earliest that the bailiffs can be called in will be the middle of March!

After hearing about this the guys at Whitelines got onto Skype straight away to talk to one of the guys in the chalet, David Haines.

Buy Snowboard Gear From Mpora Gear

They’ve featured in the Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Metro and have been creating quite the buzz throughout the internet. They’ve also recently released their video blog and we’ll be keeping you guys up to date with everything that happens!

Make sure you keep up to date with everything that’s going on by following them on Twitter and Facebook.

Basically, don’t fuck with your chalet staff.

Avid followers of the Mpora blog (I know there’s thousands of you out there) may remember that I posted up some info last Friday about the event Whitelines were holding to break the record for the World’s longest snowboard rail ride. Did they do it? Well…

After a long day at the Milton Keynes Sno!zone several people managed to hit the 55m mark and we thought that was about it. We were losing hope, losing time and not only that but we were starting to get a bit cold. It was at the point where we were going to call it a day until Calum Paton stepped up to the rail and made everyone’s jaw drop. He didn’t manage to complete the whole rail but he was on there for a staggering 78 metres, which smashed the previous record by 10 metres! He got his name on a certificate from the observers for the Guinness Book of World Records and padded his wallet with a nice £1000.

If you fancy reading the full write up from the guys at Whitelines then check out their post here. And don’t forget to keep your eyes on Mpora for when we get the final edit!

Photo: Dan Medhurst

Snowboarding isn’t an easy sport to pick up and God knows that watching the pros stomp everything effortlessly doesn’t help the self esteem. Remember though, as bad as you think you are, the pros were at that stage at some point in their career so they do know how it feels. It might feel slightly different as you may only get to see the snow for one week of the year and they see it for about 300 days, but at some point you were kindred spirits.

Thanks to Whitelines, Snowboarder MBM and Mpora’s German cousin – Mpora.de – I’m pleased to announce the arrival of Snowboarding Basics. Trick tips of all the moves that you want to get dialled explained to you by the people who you watch all the time – Jamie Nicholls, Ben Kilner, Phips Gruber and Mathias Weissenbacher. Now instead of throwing 500 videos at you with double corks and McTwists, the guys at Whitelines have divided them into 3 categories: Easy, Intermediate, Hard. Within these categories are the tricks and you’ll be able to pick and choose which ones you want to try out. Here are the first four videos that have been unleashed on the world…

Snowboarding Basics: Wallride – Drop ins with Mathias Weißenbacher

More Snowboarding Videos

Snowboarding Basics: Kicker – Bs 180s with Ben Kilner

Snowboarding Basics: Piste – BS 180s with Phips Gruber

Ok. If you hadn’t noticed they aren’t split up into their categories but if you’re able to pick up a copy of Snowboarding Basics then it’s all broken up in there quite nicely. Less confusion makes tricks easier! Keep your eyes on Mpora for the next videos to get released and keep trying those tricks until you stomp them! If you’re up on the mountain and wanting to watch these videos then don’t forget that you’ll be able to watch these videos through the Mpora iPhone app.
It’s like we’re making everything easier…

If you’re one of those people that like to buy new gear every season or if you’ve been saving up for a couple of years to splash out in 2012 then there’s a couple of things that might be of use to you. Whitelines and Onboard have spent the summer months toiling away in their snowboarding dungeons to piece together a Product guide that shows you all the new gear, whether it be good or bad, without judgement, for your delicate eyes to look over. You name it, it’s in there.
Now, the Onboard guide is currently out on the shelves for you to pick up whereas the Whitelines one will be sitting right next to it from August 31st. If you really can’t wait then I suggest that you try! With two amazing guides out there by the end of the month you’ll be sticking post-it notes on every single page for something to buy!

Let us know what you think is good/bad/ugly from the brands for this coming season!