Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into a rider’s favorite playground: the Stubai Zoo!
This place in the heart of Tirol, is Europe’s hotspot for many of the world’s best riders to gather early in the season. Their goal is to go bigger, become better, inspire and at the same time get inspired by other riders. Freeskiers and snowboarders ride together on some of the most impressive jumps you’ve ever seen.

Every year, the Prime Park Sessions’ motivated crew of shapers designs and builds a new line of top-notch jumps. The fact that this park is THE place to be to kick off the season highlights its importance to the European freestyle scene. It goes without saying that it took a lot of effort to get this far and obviously, this beauty has not been built overnight. It has taken years to see the steep hills of Stubai transform, and shape into these incredible jumps. The shapers crew relies on tons of experience from hard working people, which allows them to create the park we’re looking at and cruising through today.

Reverse got invited to this Prime show to witness some of the most incredible and ridiculously stylish tricks that are stomped out here. We had the honor to sit down with the two main people behind this mad event, and thus satisfy my curiosity on the evolution of the park.

Interview with Daniel Schiezzl

At what time did Stubai take part of this freestyle movement and what did it look like back in the days?
It’s a bit hard for me to talk about that, because I haven’t been here when this happened. But from what other people have been telling me, the Stubaier Glacier had a snowpark since a long time. It had jumps and rails, just like it has now, but it was located at a different, way more shady and therefore colder location. About seven years ago, they moved the park to its current location and I think that’s when Schneestern started to take this park more serious and baptized it as the “Stubai Zoo”.
Of course, it took years to push and compress the snow to build the landings for these kickers. It was a long process that allowed us to build bigger and better jumps year after year.

We have been involved for four years now, since this is our fourth edition of the “Prime Park Sessions”. I believe this is the best location we can find all over the whole world, considering the early timing in the season.

The park started as a flat plane and is now consisting some of the biggest jumps in the world. How did this evolution happen?
I wasn’t up here very often before we started working together with the shape crew, but from what I heard, it was a pretty nice, but average snowpark. The kickers and rails were good, but comparable to other parks in the Tirol area. A factor, of which I believe it changed the game a little bit, was the idea to intensify the park’s capacity by making it so good, that the world’s top athletes in freeski and snowboarding would like to come here to ride. We kind of had to do the first external investments, to show the people from the ski area, that good things could be done.
That’s how our event started four years ago and I believe this changed the “Stubai Zoo”. It put a mark on the map as the most important location for the entire snowboard- and freeski scene at this time of the year. Behind the scenes, there’s a lot of planning to be done though. We have to start organizing the whole event in springtime, and try to figure out how the park should look like in fall. Then we leave the shapers with enough time to push the snow to where it belongs, before it gets covered up with foil over the summer.

You are now hosting some famous events and shootings like the Legs of Steel shooting or the Prime Park Sessions. Why are you doing these in Stubai?
Personally, I don’t operate within the “Legs of Steel” crew, but I hope we can work together a bit more in the future. So far, we only work together on the “Prime Park Sessions”. But to answer your question… I just think the Stubaier Glacier is the perfect spot to host this event. Not only because of the very good park, but also because the resort’s location. It’s very close to the city of Innsbruck, and meanwhile, we’re not too far away from other big cities such as Munich and Zurich. We have a nice valley with a good infrastructure and super modern lifts and gondolas. We want to make life as easy and productive as possible, for everyone who comes here.

Where does Stubai get all the fame from? Why are so many people gathering here and willing to queue up for hours, just to ride your park?
I have to quote my coworker Tobi Reindl on this one. His saying is: “Build good parks and people will come!” The better the park, the more people are willing to stand in line to ride it. But seriously, it is a big problem. We had people waiting 30 to 40 minutes at the T-bar… I hope to find a solution in the future, to make it faster and easier for everyone. But this is really hard and kind of a luxury problem that the resort is dealing with.

A lot of people are talking about making the sport accessible to everyone, and therefore not separating the pro’s from the conventional riders… Yet, the prime line is reserved to the elite of freestyle. Why this choice and how is it related to the high price?
Personally, I’m a fan of not separating pro’s and other riders, as long as it makes sense. In most parks, the pro lines are built for everyone, which is a good thing.
The extra jumps (Prime Line), we build up here in Stubai, have a certain size, which I would not feel comfortable with, if they were open to the public. The consequences you’re facing in case you are not 100% sure of what you are doing, are very high and the risk of getting injured gets really serious on these features.

We separate the riders because of two reasons. First one is to maintain the safety of all riders. The second reason is the ensure the quality of the jumps, for professional athletes, who are training for competitions. I think this distinction is the reason why the pro’s come back to the event every year. Furthermore, most of the talented riders who hit the pro-line (which is open to the public), don’t really want to hit the Prime line. The reason for this is because they know that the jumps are just a little above their level, so they want to avoid dealing with the possible consequences. I think that’s why all the requests for “Prime Park Sessions” we had so far, came from professional riders only. We’re trying to offer these athletes the perfect environment to train in. That doesn’t only involve focusing on the perfect shape for the jumps, but also includes offering them extra benefits. For example, the riders who take part of the event get free entrance to the gym and the indoor skate park in Innsbruck. This is what makes the price fair in my opinion.

What should we expect for next year?
There is no precise plan yet, but I think the Stubaier Glacier resort is really motivated to keep the collaboration running. The resort managers noticed that things changed up here in the park and realize how busy the park is. It makes them aware of the benefits that a really good snowpark bring. I hope that, on this ground we can keep working together. We believe that if our setup gets better, everyone’s setup gets better. That’s how this collaboration worked out four years in a row. We hope for it to stay like this in the future.

Thanks for having us!
The Reverse Team

Pictures: Nicki Antognini
Words: Nicki Antognini, Sebi Geiger & Dries Meesschaert
Location: Stubai, Austria
Thanks to: Dani, Tobi, Jules, Paddy and all the shapers for the great work and for having us