The FIS may not agree, but TTR (Ticket To Ride, founded by legendary snowboarder Terje Haakonsen) has never really played by their rules anyway. TTR World Snowboard Tour announced July 3, 2012, a name change from TTR World Tour to the World Snowboard Tour marking yet another stance on the fact that they are the most credible tour in snowboarding.

TTR Managing Director Alex Doerr says, “Renaming the World Snowboard Tour enables us to create a better platform to market our Tour. This includes a new logo and website, that with a high level of interactivity, shapes new and contemporary course into the World of Freestyle Snowboarding.”

The World Snowboard Tour 2012-2013 calendar includes the classic 6-Star events around the globe such as the BigAir Oakley& Shaun White Air&Style in Beijing, China and Billabong Air&Style in Innsbruck, Austria, and the legendary Nordic classic The Arctic Challenge will be back to present another round of action in Oslo’s World Championship Pipe.

The World Snowboard Tour features not only 6-star events, but 5-1 star snowboarding events at a variety of locations around the world. Many snowboarding events actually try to be a “TTR event” or now in this case, a World Snowboard Tour sanctioned event. However the real rub comes between the FIS events for qualifying for the Olympics and the IOC which basically follows the FIS sanctioned events. More here.

The World Snowboard Tour schedule for 2012-13 is as follows:

  • Oakley Air & Style, Beijing, Birds Nest, Beijing National Stadium: November 29, 2012; men’s only event.
  • O’Neill Evolution, Davos Jakobshorn; January 7-13, 2013; men’s and women’s.
  • Billabong Big Air & Style Innsbruck, Tirol; January 31-February 2, 2013; men’s only.
  • Burton European Open, LAAX, Switzerland; February 2-9, 2013; men’s and women’s.
  • Burton US Open 2013; Stratton, VT; February 25-March 3, 2013; men’s and women’s.
  • The Arctic Challenge, Oslo, Norway; March 6-9, 2013; men’s only.

Overall, there are 6, 6-star events of which 3 are open to women pros; 9, 5-star events, of which 3 are open to women; 19, 4-star events of which 16 are open to women; 15, 3-star events of which 14 are open to women; 28, 2-star events of which 27 are open to women; and 11, 1-star events of which all 11 are open to women riders.

As usual in snowboarding, the Burton sponsored events (6-star) are open to men and women pros, with equal prize money.