New Freestyle Academy LAAX Opening this Week
New Freestyle Academy LAAX Opening this Week
Published : 28-Jul-2024 11:12
The era of freestyle academies has seen these temples of freestyle sport opening in cities all over the world with new centres opening each year, allowing skiers and snowboarders to hone their skills indoors, year round, with the aim of follower boards, trampolines, dry slopes and foam bits to name but a few.
Many are tied to outdoor terrain parks in winter and a few, such as the Woodward Centre at Copper Mountain in Colorado, maintain snow parks outdoors through spring and summer too.
Europe's original centre opened in December 2010 in Swiss ski resort, Laax. The centre operated for a dozen years but was built in a former indoor tennis centre, dating back to the 1970s, and the decision was made to closed and rebuild the facility from the ground up in 2022. In the interim the Freestyle Academy LAAX has operated in a giant circus tent from National Circus Knie located in Flims, but from 1st August the popular freestyle hall is scheduled to re-open, completely rebuilt.
The new Freestyle Academy is back at Laax Muschetg and the resort promises it will be even bigger, even more action-packed than before.
"The proximity to the mountain and the snowparks and the combination of on- and off-snow training is what makes this location so special," a spokesperson said.
The new hall is intended to reflect the change and progress that freestyle sport has undergone in recent years. Those responsible for the project gained inspiration from discussions with coaches, national and international competitors and observing trends in the scene. They also picked up interesting insights from other destinations and winter sports resorts as they researched existing facilities. The new hall has been designed though to allow continuing evolution of its facilities moving forwards.
At 2,000 square metres, the new Freestyle Academy is half-as-big again than the old hall which was 1,300 square metres. It has been built partly underground which caused challenges during construction making difficult at times to deliver the building materials, many of which came from the old hall. True to Laax's eco-principles known as 'Greenstyle' the onus has been to 'reduce, reuse, recycle', everything that could be recycled was reused.
However, parts that had to be transported in large pieces posed a major challenge for the team and a few adventurous manoeuvres were necessary to get them into the hall. However, all the parts found their place and are now being partially enlarged and extended. A total of around 200 cubic metres of new wood has been used.
Facilities will be much the same as before but bigger and with more elements added. They include four Grand Master trampolines plus a Grand Master trampoline with connection to an airbag in the trampoline zone. The zone is complemented by an airtrack for acrobatics and an additional freestyle trampoline for jumps and tricks. One of the highlights is a Fivesquare trampoline equipped with a camera system for 360-degree video analysis of the jumps.
The new Freestyle Academy LAAX will be open, as before, to all - kids, families, teenagers and adults, who can use and enjoy the facilities alongside professional athletes who are working on skills, fitness and perfecting new tricks.
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