Rock a Rail, by Tim Schiphorst
After seeing the Momentum video, expectations were high for Tim's edit of the Rock a Rail battle. But Tim still managed to surprise us. Take a look at his awesome vid recap of the 2011 Rock a Rail.
PROTEST ROCK A RAIL, FUELLED BY MONSTER ENERGY from Tim Schiphorst on Vimeo. We told you it was awesome.
Three, two, one, iSnowboard vidcast
The infamous iSnowboard vidcast producer Johnny Dertien was at the Protest Rock a Rail and made this nice video. Three, two, one, hello and what's up!
Thanks, Koen Veldman!
Koen Veldman shot some photo's at the Rock a Rail, check 'em out in the gallery.
See dem pho'os!
Surfin' the web, we found some nice galleries.
Check out Tacky, Adrenalinesports and Taste magazine for some real nice photos!
The picture below is stolen from Michiel Rotgans. Sorry about that…
French fun!
We found this little video of Aymeric Tonin having fun at the Rock a Rail. Thanks for being here dude!
DONE.
That's it. Let's party.
1. Wessel van Lierop
2. Felix Engstrom
3. Cees Wille
Best trick:
Bob van Unnik and Marc Swoboda
Best rocking chick:
Rachida Aoulad-El-Haj-Amar
Yippieyayay!
Looking back with Monster
Monster Martijn, the event's over, what are your thoughts about today?
It was the best. Such an awesome event to introduce a sport like street snowboarding to the big public. We at Monster are always looking for ways to showcase an extreme sport in a way that the core and the mainstream public both can enjoy. This was a perfect example of that. And now off to the Supermarkt. Hurray!
Piece Of Cake!
We had a quick word with Henrik Hellman of POC, one of the sponsors here at Rock a Rail. He is kinda stoked: I love this event. Look at it. Don't you think it's awesome?
We couldn't agree more, Henrik. POC is famous for their helmets, tell us something about that.
We're still quite a new brand in the scene, but people are starting to pick it up. We don't see a helmet as 'another safety gear thing', but we turned it into a fashion statement. You could say we're a bit like Apple; combining safety, quality and design. And making it look good. But hey, I see a lot of the riders aren't riding with helmets yet, so we still got work to do, haha.
Go out and do what you have to do!
Cheers!
Half way down the final heat
Does the fact that we're half way down the finals mean that we're in the semi-finals? Big shout out to Bob van Unnik who is going crazy on the super high flatrail.
Footage qualifications
What have we got here? It's footy from the quali's!
Rachida is the best rocking chick!
Rachida Aoulad-El-Haj-Amar
 just won the girlie-finals. She could've won the men finals, we've been told. Congrats, Rachida! It's time for two snowboardfilms now. Oh and just so you know, it's Veroniqi Hanssen in the top photo.
Who pulled the wild cards?
From each heat, five riders are going directly through to the finals. One rider in each heat gets a wildcard, so they can still prove themselves to the jury in the finals! Welcome Thijs Ottens, Denis Leontyev, Felix Engstrom, you guys made it to the finals.
Check out the other results on the results page.
Results heat three
The results of heat three are in! Through to the finals are Wojtek Pawlusiak, Jonny Russel, Gerben Verweij, Wessel van Lierop and Bob van Unnik.
Chicks for finals or finals for chicks
The level of riding today was high and especially the ladies were ripping like maniacs! So we've improvised a new finals heat for the ladies only, coming up!
Results heat two
Ludwig Lejkner, Steve Grumser, Flo Achenrainer, Cees Wille and Joey van Essen are through to the finals. Congratulations!
Railman Gerben
We spoke with Gerben in the afternoon. His company Gerben Verweij Constructions has taken care of the rail setup.
Gerben, what are you doing with the rails?
Just grinding off the top layer of the rails to get rid of all the paint and to make sure the rail will be as smooth as possible. I know all these guys personally and I have to ride these rails as well, so it would be stupid not to make this rail as perfect as possible.
We hear a lot of positive feedback on the rail setup. How come you chose for this particular setup?
Well, we had thought of a different setup before, but some time ago I was in Stockholm and couldn't sleep. Then I thought of this concept. I think it's pretty special, because we have some nice features like a high flatrail, two downrails with a big drop in the middle, the hanging Monster Can, the wallpaper with the bricks on it that makes the setup even more 'street'... and the double kink with the donkeydick of course, that's a first ever feature in the history of urban railbattles as far as I know. The donkeydick is the last bit of the rail that has a little kink in it, it takes more focus and skill to ride that rail. The riders are already pretty stoked about it. Let's rock these rails!
Hi Aymeric!
Bonjour Aymeric Tonin, how are you doing?
Hi! I'm très good, it's crazy here in the city. The snow is better here than in the indoor slopes. Normally it's quite hard to be stable in that snow, but this is more like normal snow. Looks good. This'll be my first ride of the season and I got a big season coming up, so I don't want to take a lot of risk... on the other hand, I want to push myself to do the best tricks I can on this setup. I guess I'm pushing my limits within certain limits, haha!
Qu'est-ce que your thoughts about the setup?
Gerben did a très bon job with the rail setup, it's really good. The riders have lots of options, these are pretty long rails, there's lots of show, it's gonna be magnifique! Normally I'm not really that fond of contests, but when my sponsor Protest asked me to ride here I was pretty stoked. As with the other Protest events I've seen, this one has been well set up and the atmosphere is super. And all this in a country without mountains, that makes it even better.
What are your plans?
My specialty is a switch frontside boardslide, so I want to try that trick on the downrail. And as for my other plans today; I've seen the Monster girls and I know the Dutch go crazy when there's a party, so I'll be in the Supermarket for sure!
End of heat one
Heat one just ended, these five guys are through to the finals:
Dominik Wagner, Marc Swoboda, David Struber, Klaus Lotto and Kas Lemmens. Way to go guys!
Here's a random shot of three judges.
Dominik Wagner at the Rock a Rail
We had a short word with Dominik Wagner. Hit the play button.
Who started all this nonsense?
No initiative without an initiator. We had a talk with Marlon de Gruijter, one of the founders of Stichting Blanko and über über head chief here at the Rock a Rail.
Marlon, what's up?
Yeah hi, all is well! It's nice to see a year's work come together nicely, all on this day. Everything is going as planned, so no stress!
How were the past few days for you?
Wednesday morning we started to set up the construction together with Gigant Podia and Gerben Verweij. Setting up the stairs, laying down Gerben's nice rails, getting the banners up... and we've been interviewed by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and Den Haag FM, which was a lot of fun.
Tell us something about Stichting Blanko, the organisation that started all this mayhem in the middle of The Hague...
We're a very young foundation, just started about a year ago with Rik Kingma and Sander Minnoye. We're focused on bringing alternative sports to an urban environment. This is a perfect example of that goal; getting snowboarding (and in particular the rail riding discipline) into the urban jungle. We're combining action sports, music and lifestyle and mixing that up with the city, and this is what you get. Don't you love it? I think it's awesome!
Heat one just started
Dominik Wagner, Marc Swoboda, Leo Crawford, Jonathan Lindhe, David Struber, Klaus Lotto, Niels Shack, Rudi Janda, Jesse Augustinus, David van Gessel, Steef van de Meer, Kas Lemmens, Joshua Pires, Bart Fahlhaber, Dion Janse, Thijs Ottens, Deon Kuiper and Max de Vries just started the fun. Two quick shots to start off with!
Welcome to Rock a Rail!
Welcome to the Rock a Rail. We've made a little video, so check it out.
Who is to judge?
Street rail snowboarding is a rather young discipline which develops every day. Every day, somewhere in the world, progression is made in rail riding and the level is continuously getting higher. So who is to judge this sport? Older judges may have a lot of experience, but they may not be as up to date with rail riding.
So, the riders will judge each other. Who are going to judge? We've got Aymeric Tonin, Oivind Fykse Engelson and Cees Wille as judges in heat 1, Dominik Wagner, Vojtek Pawlusiak and Bas Mons in heat 2 & Ludwig Lejkner, Rudi Janda and Ricky Martens in heat 3.
In every heat, there are up to 20 riders riding together. They get 20 minutes of training and then a 30 minute jam to show off their rail skills. The best five riders of each heat get through to the finals. There are a total of three wildcards for the finals, and the 'best rocking chick' will also proceed to the last round.
Let's get it on!
So, the riders will judge each other. Who are going to judge? We've got Aymeric Tonin, Oivind Fykse Engelson and Cees Wille as judges in heat 1, Dominik Wagner, Vojtek Pawlusiak and Bas Mons in heat 2 & Ludwig Lejkner, Rudi Janda and Ricky Martens in heat 3.
Mister speaker!
Mister Henry Jackson, What have you been up to lately?
OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE?! Good question actually... I've been hosting some snowboard events in New Zealand, London, but the season has just started so there's a lot coming up.
You flew all the way from Australia to here?
Yeah, I'm just here for this event, been here for a few days now. Checking out the Dutch snowboard scene, they say rail riding is their cup of tea and I've seen some pretty sick edits of the riders in the indoor slopes, so I'm definitely stoked to be here. Back in the day I've been riding with Joris Engels and Tijs Goossens, so I know a bit of the Dutch scene, haha.
As a part of the MC duo Banterbox, you've been all around the globe to host snowboard events. After hosting several big international events, what do you think of hosting this much smaller event in Holland?
Well, I've been friends with Rik for a long time, he said 'come check out our event!' so I'm here. At first I thought it'd be a pretty small event, but now I've seen the setup and wow. It's crazy! This is probably the best street rail setup I've seen until this day. I love it and I think speaker Seb van den Berg and I are gonna put on a great show for you guys!
Last minute new sponsor
We are very happy to announce our new sponsor! SnowWorld will be giving away discount coupons all day today. Be here at four to collect some free fridge time!
We are ready
We're going to be blogging all day, so keep refreshing this website to stay up to date for the latest info about the Protest Rock a Rail fuelled by Monster.
Second day setup
Today we gave the setup a final touch. Smoothening the rails ain't that easy. Also, the snow guys from Polar Europe just arrived and will let it snow tomorrow morning.
Getting busy with the setup
The guys from GV Constructions and Stichting Blanko got busy last night. They set up the main part of the Set up. Nice!
See some more photo's over at the Mustachio.
We need a medic!
Oh no we don't. We've got medical support by one of the best in the field: Fysio Franc. He will be watching over our athletes all day. Do you have a question about snowboard related injuries? Or are you in need of any help on that matter? Check out Fysio Franc's website or send him an email at franc@fysiotherapiewestergracht.nl.
Need sleep?
If you're one of the five people that is actually going to sleep friday night, you could consider sleeping in the Mercure Hotel. If you think this hotel is too far from de Grote Markt, have a look at the Ibis Hotel. straight from the bar in in your bed!
Two premieres!
Just in! Not only will we be showing 'Momentum' at the Grote Markt, Rockon Snowboarding will also present the World Premiere of 'Propaganda'. Two snowboardvids in one night!
More riders!
The Protest Rock a Rail fuelled by Monster is an invitation-only event. Sorry beginners. We've been invitating like maniacs. Isn't that invitating?
The recent wave of invitationings have led to a nice, rich riderspage. Click on that green word to see it yourself.
Norway or the highway
Three boys from Norway have been to Holland before. Øivind, Jessi and Sindre ripped some rails here at the indoor slopes. They even made a video about it. Soon they'll be hitting the outdoor rails at the Rock a Rail. Until that moment they'll be jamming on Vimeo over and over again, as long as you keep pressing the 'play' button.
Ludwig's lost and found
We've found some footy in the basement. Behind some boxes we've found a video with "Ludwig Lejkner" written all over it. We'll help you to get there.
Here.
Flo Heim
We just heard that Flo Heim confirmed that he will be with us at the Protest Rock a Rail Fuelled by Monster. Nice, Florian. For those of you that don't know him, watch him ride here:
More riders confirmed
Yes. We've got some new riders for you! We'd like you to say "hi" to Jonny Russell. This Englishman has a huge appetite for street rails. Furthermore, Tom 'Little T' Guilmard will also be attending the Rock a Rail event and is ready to throw down some sick tricks. Check these boys out at the 2:22 and 2:30 mark of the following vid.
And don't forget to check out the riders section, cause we're adding new names. Have you noticed we've added another railing Dutchman? His name is Wessel van Lierop.
Check out MOMENTUM
Perhaps you haven't taken a look at the schedule yet, but if you do you'll see there will be an airing of MOMENTUM at 23:30. A Dutch movie production by Postland, directed by Tim Schiphorst. Come check it out to see the top of the bill of the creme de la creme of the best railriders Holland has to offer. Bob van Unnik, Cees Wille, Gerben Verweij, Joey van Essen, Kas Lemmens, Wessel van Lierop... they're all here in this action-packed 20 minutes of pure goodness.
Watch it here and come watch it again at the Rock a Rail.
MOMENTUM is presented by Shaped Snowboarding and supported by Forum, Signal, DC, Smokin and Ongetemd. Media partners are theMustachio, Taste Magazine and Method Magazine.
Win this beast
There we've said it. Our sponsor Monster is giving away an Omatic snowboard, the Louie Vito pro model. Isn't that awesome? Just sign up and be at the Rock a Rail.
First confirmed riders
The Protest Rock a Rail fuelled by Monster is an invitation only contest, which means only the best riders will get a chance to rock those rails. Among them will be the European riders Aymeric Tonin, Ludwig Ljekner and Florian Heim. Confirmed sliding Dutchmen will be Cees Wille, Joey van Essen, Bob van Unnik, Kas Lemmens, Steef van der Meer and Kevin de Haan. Check out more details on these guys at the riders page.
Posters and flyers
They're here and ready to be displayed at any suitable spot. 
Welcome to Protest Rock a Rail fuelled by Monster!
Protest Rock a Rail fuelled by Monster is a rail jam with 40 of the sickest riders from all over Europe in the center of the Hague. Check this website tomorrow for more info. And the day after tomorrow. And the day after the day after tomorrow. And the day after the day after the day after tomorrow. Daily.
