SnowboardCross, a lost world?

Three weeks ago, I went in the Hautes Alpes (south French Alps) to see a friend of mine competing the French and European SnowboardCross Cup in Puy St Vincent during 3 days. I had no idea about how the competition will be, and I was surprised by the good level of the riders and the professionalism of the teams. I've seen some riders from all the European countries, and also from Australia and South Africa to compete the cups in order to gain some points for the global ranking.

But I was shocked by something, I was the only photographer (except a girl who came for the local newspaper) and I was also the only spectator during 3 days! Come on, it's an European Cup guys! I couldn't believe it, and if you go on Google and search "SnowboardCross", there is almost nothing, only amateur things. Sounds like you can only find something on this sport during the World Cups... It's sad. Is this sport lost? No money? No sponsor? No media? Even the French Federation of Snowboard didn't seem to be interested to promote this sport with professional images : "Yeah, send me some pics, we have a cool Facebook page". Are you kidding? My pics for free on your poor facebook page? Nope, I prefer to show them on my blog!

But I took some pictures for my friend Vincent and, maybe, a french magazine... Anyway, here are my favorite ones, at least, you guys can tell "snowboardcross still exist, I have seen some pics on this blog!"...

Thanks for visiting.
I'll be on the road tomorrow to be on time for the "Rallye Neige et Glace" 2013 edition. Cheers!

8 am, the riders are already on their way for the first training while the ski resort is still sleeping... 

After the first trainings, it's time for the qualifications. One by one.

My friend Vincent is here for the fun, and prefer to have fun in the powder before the qualifications (with his snowboardX board and his bib)!

Here is a local french coach training some Australian riders. All is good!

Pierrot is a legend, but you probably don't know him. This is the guy behind the Karine Ruby's Olympic Games gold medal (1998). We miss you Karine

This sport if full of girl riders, and it's good. 

Go big or go home. Girls power! 

Yes, she is also a girl, and she can ride with style.

Your turn boys!

The big final fight! SnowboardX is cool. 

No good result for Vince, but mother nature is everywhere and is good.

Cheers!

Paris Heineken Cup Launch

In September, I had the chance to photograph the Heineken Cup Launch in Paris for Getty Images and the ERC (European Rugby Cup). The mission was to make some portraits of the athletes and their coach in the France Television photo studio, to shoot some cool outside group pictures and to take some photos during the press conference. All was really fast, and it was not easy as I had to run everywhere, but it was a great job and opportunity to meet these great champions.

Here is a bunch of what I've shot. You can see all my work for Getty Images whenever you want on their website typing "Richard Bord" in the search area ;-)

Thanks for visiting. Cheers!

Captain Aurélien Rougerie of ASM Clermont Auvergne

Captain Sébastien Tillous Bordes & coach Bernard Laporte of RC Toulon

Captain Jacques Cronje & coach Gonzalo Quesada of Racing Metro 92

Captain Imanol Harinordoquy of Biarritz Olympique PB

Coach Guy Noves of Stade Toulousain & Coach Laurent Rodriguez of Biarritz Olympique PB

Captain Thierry Dusautoir of Stade Toulousain

All the images are © Richard Bord / Getty Images

Derby du Vénéon, a successful first edition

After almost 4 months, I'm finally back to the blogg! Time goes fast and it's hard to keep blogging when you are very busy working everywhere. I'll try to post things about what I did these last months during the next weeks...

Last week-end I was pleased to shoot a kayak event in the French Alpes called "Derby du Vénéon" consisting in going down a river from a "A" point to a "B" point as fast as possible with a team of 3 kayakers. 16 teams of very good kayakers were in La Berarde to compete on the river. It was cool to be (again) in the Alpes walking and running along the river to catch the vibes of this very first Derby organized by the well known french kayaker Mathieu Dumoulin from the Adidas SickLine Team.

Here is a bunch of what I've shot during the week-end with my brand new Canon 5D MKIII and my "old" Canon 7D...
See you there soon for more news ;-)
Cheers!

Here is the official video edited by Stephane Pion : https://vimeo.com/48961575/