As China's only, and Asia's highest-level, world snowboarding tournament, the Redbull Nanshan Open is now entering its 12th year. As many as 30 international top contestants and eight Chinese contestants, among whom 12 are women, have already entered the main event on Jan 11 and 12 at Beijing's Nanshan Ski Village. The total money awarded is $75,000 - a considerable increase over previous years.

Free registration is open to all domestic contestants for the qualifying competition on Jan 4. This year 10 domestic snowboarders will be chosen from the Internet with the videos of their performance being judged online and their traveling expenses covered by the organizing committee.

He Wei, China's arguably best slope-style snowboarder, will compete again in the final race. The 23-year-old, widely known as "Little Tiger", finished eighth at the 9th Nanshan Open, registering the best performance by a male Chinese competitor in world snowboarding tournaments. He missed the 10th annual tournament due to injury, but with only a month of rehabilitation, he finished 13th in last year's competition.

This year he came fully prepared. He has trained for nine months in both China and New Zealand, aiming to make breakthroughs in his technique. He said he will hit the competition with the Double Cork 900, a movement that no domestic snowboarders have ever tried and with which US snowboarder Jeremy Thompson forcefully won last year's tournament.

"Currently, with the protection of an air cushion, my success rate of accomplishing the movement is 90 percent," he said during the premiere of Must Be, a documentary on the training and lives of domestic snowboarders.

"This year is different from last year. I've never stopped training. The result of my one-year confined training will surprise everyone."

Snowboarding originated in the 1960s from the United States and became a professional competitive sport in the 1980s.

After much debate, in 2012 the International Olympic Committee announced that slope-style snowboarding will be a formal competition event in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. Slope-style snowboarding, with its creativity and musicality, is liked by many young people.

hanbingbin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/24/2013 page15)