American freeskier Eric Pollard and Olympic snowboarder Torah Bright are among those who will cast their votes remotely for the prestigious ¥120,000 Judge’s Choice prize. The Public Vote winner will take home ¥80,000.
The Niseko Shootout ProAM is one of three categories under the 2020-21 Niseko Shootout photo and film competition banner.
A total of 31 professional and amateur athlete-photographer teams will take to the mountains in and around Niseko between January 7-10 with the aim of capturing the best photo of the period, with ¥200,000 (US$2,000) up for grabs.
Contest organiser Winstead Heyward said unlike last year there was plenty of powder around and possibly even a bit of sunshine around for teams to work with.
“That’s the beauty of this competition – it’s held on set dates so teams have to work with whatever conditions Mother Nature throws at them,” Heyward said.
“We’ve just come out of three weeks of non stop snow so the mountains are loaded with snow. I’m expecting to see a few mushrooms shots and more photos taken in resort due to the lack of peak-season crowds due to the pandemic. However photos can be taken anywhere in the Shirebeshi region of Southwest Hokkaido, so there is bound to be a few backcountry shots, maybe with some ocean in the background thanks to the nearby Sea of Japan. I’m excited to see what everyone produces!”
Teams
| TEAM SPONSOR | TEAM MEMBER 1 | TEAM MEMBER 2 |
|---|---|---|
| James Winfield | Alister Buckingham | |
| Island Snowboards | Stu Cady | Toni Rodriguez |
| Niseko black | Simon Pervez | Bianca Peralta |
| Tenchi Miyakoshi | Takeshi Kuramoto | |
| Far East Snowsoprts | Andrew Willink | Toni Rodriguez |
| Far East Snowsoprts | Haruka Uozumi | Toni Rodriguez |
| Takumi Woodwork | Louis Higgins | Shinya Tabata |
| Niseko Black | Liam Larnach | Dora Krupic |
| Oyuki Japan | Ryu Atobe | Chris Smith |
| SnowPlus ski school | Eden Gao | Nicole Wang |
| Niseko Zen | Nolan Yoshiaki Isozaki | Saki Hayashi |
| Km4k (カモシカ) | Takashi Yoshimura | Shuhei Kato |
| Takara Masatoshi | Akagawa Mirai | |
| Hanazono Niseko | Jimi Oertli | Toshi Pander |
| YamaPlus | Evan Wilcox | Toshi Pander |
| Rhythm Japan | Jimmy Norris | Sean Potts |
| Powder Yoga | Toni Rodriguez | Charlie Davies |
| Rhythm Japan | Chris Smith | Josh Fawcett |
| Sea And Summit Media | Chad Clark | Justin Graves |
| Cyndie Hu | Ben Braunstein | |
| Niseko Shootout | Aaron Jamieson | Winstead Heyward |
| Powderlife | Aaron Jamieson | Kris Lund |
| Aaron Jamieson | Acme Wu | |
| Rhythm Japan | Darren Teasdale | Alex Koens |
| Callum McWilliam | Ayaka Shibasaki | |
| Henry Johnson | Stefan Boers | |
| GENTEMSTICK | Rei Igarashi | Katsuhide Fujio |
| Jack Phillips | Makenzie Robson | |
| Luke Sandalls | Justin Dowell | |
| K2 Snowboarding | Daisuke Watanabe | Kentaraw Matsuda |
| MnK Niseko | Patrick Ohtani | Jack Woods |
VOTING & JUDGING
ProAM Judges’ Choice Winners: ¥120,000
Our 2021 judge panel includes: Taro Tamai, Tsutomu Nakata, Yoichi Watanabe, Neil Hartmann, Torah Bright, Eric Pollard, Lena Stoffel, Mattias Fredrikson, Aline Bock and Alex Yoder. You can read all about the Judges on Niseko Shootout Instagram or Niseko Tourism Facebook – Niseko Shootout ProAM Album
ProAM Public Vote Winners: ¥80,000
For the Public Vote we need you – the public! Public judging will take place over four days from January 15 to 18 –
You can register your votes by by liking photos that will be uploaded into the 2020-21 Niseko Shootout ProAM photo album on Niseko Tourism’s Facebook page during that time. Voting ends at 23:59 on January 18 – make sure you VOTE and help decide the winner!
Winners will be announced at an Award Ceremony on January 20. More details to come.
