To me halfpipe riding is based mainly on flow and riding from wall to wall which I tried to showcase in an extended way.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about how snowboard halfpipe is on the decline, something tacked on to the end of the X Games for them to pump a few more viewing figures out of the inevitable Shaun White victory. Not so much in 2014.

So far this year we’ve had Danny Davis grabbing headlines – even in the mainstream press – with his switch method, plus the gladiatorial battle that was the Sochi Olympic men’s final, proving that snowboarding still can have drama.

Now there’s this: Christian Haller‘s Memoires Memoires project filmed at his home resort of Corvatsch in Switzerland. Here’s what he had to say about the venture:

“After competing and riding mostly halfpipe for the last couple of years I wanted to film some of the moves for an edit. Last spring a resort near my hometown called Corvatsch built a nice halfpipe and I thought this was the right moment for it. As halfpipe riding is nowadays mostly presented through competitions my main reason was to capture it as pure as possible. To me halfpipe riding is based mainly on flow and riding from wall to wall which I tried to showcase in an extended way. To say the least I had a lot of fun filming for this piece and breaking free from the programmed contest runs.”

The slash to back 360 at 48 secs was a particular favourite in the WL office this morning. That and in the inverted Eurocarve!

Normally when riders spaff on about snowboarding you can chalk it up to puffing on the wrong sort of pipe – this not so much. Especially when you see the finished project.

Three minutes of creative, stylish and gnarly pipe shredding – wall to wall carves and slashes, crazy grabs (back hand method anyone) and double corks that look as floaty and  fun as straight airs. There’s influences here from Kazuhiro Kokubo to Nicolas Muller – check out the corked 540 Japan – as well as new-school Hood-inspired carving: the slash to back 360 at 48 secs was a particular favourite in the WL office this morning. That and in the inverted Eurocarve!