For this year’s Nea Awards 175 fun and extremesports athletes from 18 different
nations, five videos, five print-ads, five industry-websites and five music
acts are nominated. The Nea Award Show will be held on July 23rd, 2001 during
the worlds biggest sports trade show, the ISPO in Munich (Germany).

126 magazines from 16 different nations took part at the nomination
Supported by printmedia and TV the Nea Awards are the world’s biggest base for
fun- and extreme sports. 126 magazines from 16 nations of all 5 continents have
nominated the best athletes of the year 2000 and winter 2000/2001. This means
that more than twice as many editorial offices than last year took part at the
nomination for the Nea Awards 2001.

Kitesurfing is the new category at the Nea Awards 2001
Awards for the best male, best female and best newcomer in eleven sports and
6 Special Awards will recognize excellence in xtreme sports. This year, kitesurfing
is the new category at the Nea Awards. During the last years kitesurfing has
become more and more popular because of the spectacular actions of boardriders.

Online-voting from April 16th until June 30th, 2001
Fans will decide about the Nea Award winners by online voting from April 16th
until June 30th on www.nea-awards.com. Profiles and information about the nominees
on the website may help to choose one of five nominees in each category. To
guarantee a fair competition, users have to register before voting. Double voting
is prevented.

New on www.nea-awards.com
When voting starts on April 16th a redesigned flash 5.0-version of the www.nea-awards.com
goes online. Games with cool stuff to win and new links are waiting for their
first hits. A new "Nea Style" photo gallery presents "the most
sexiest outfits" and the "evolution of style" of nominees and
presenters at the Nea Awards.
A new and special service in fun- and extremesports gives updates on the most
important events. www.nea-awards.com will be linked to the contest sites.

A selection of nominees are…

Kelly Slater (surfing)
No one has changed and won as much in the world of surfing as Kelly Slater.
After winning 6 world titles, he turned his back to the competition life in
1999. Only once in a while he shows up at world tour events, sees his friends
and scores the title. In 1999 he won his fifth Masters Crown at Pipe in Hawaii
and in 2000 he claimed his 22nd WCT-victory at the Gotcha Tahiti Pro, Teahupoo.
This year he is going to surf the tour again.

Laird Hamilton (surfing)
Men who ride mountains. Laird Hamilton began using a Jet Ski to tow him into
waves that were too big to catch by paddling. When Laird and his friends took
the skis to Jaws, the evolution of big wave surfing was on its way. Their boards
had straps, the ridden waves were on the next level. Hamilton keeps pushing
the limits, latest on August 17th, 2000, at Teahupoo, Tahiti.

Layne Beachley AUS (surfing)
2000 ASP (Association of Surfing Professionals) World Champion. Three times
world champion Layne Beachely is not only a strong competitor, she is one of
the few girls who charges in big waves all around this planet. In her 12 year
WCT (World Championship Tour) career, she claims 21 WCT victories, three during
the 2000 season.

Daida Ruano Moreno (Windsurfing)
PWA Women’s Wave & Overall Champion 2000. Daida started windsurfing in 1995.
Within only four years of professional sailing, she made more than just her
dream come true. The 23 year old had a brilliant season and is now ready to
defeat her titles with more fun, more style and aerials.

Shaun White (Snowboarding)
"Future Boy" Shaun White is today (March 2001) second of the Men’s
Halfpipe ISF World Championship Ranking. Only 14 years old he’s the youngest
halfpipe professional in the world. There’ll be a whole new generation of talented
kids growing up with high end gear – but Shaun is the first! This season, one
of his top results is the second place in the Vans Triple Crown Motorola ISF
halfpipe finals.

Nicola Thost (Snowboarding)
She rides like a guy. Her aggressive pipe riding and smooth freeriding style
pushed the level of snowboarding into new dimensions. The 23 year old German
has countless halfpipe titles (Olympic Gold, US Open, Triple Crown, …)
and is amongst the worlds best riders. After an injury in December ’99, she
came back to show the snowboarding world one of the highest airs, ever. And
– unfortunately to rupture her knee’s ligaments again. But watch out – she’ll
be back!

Carey Hart (MotoX)
Carey definitely is one of the most innovative forces in the fastgrowing sport
of freestyle motocross. He set a milestone at last year’s Gravity Games by pulling
the first backflip ever on a motobike, raising attention even far beyond the
Motocross community. Stunts like that earned him a spot in a recent Ford commercial,
where he lands his bike on a pick-up truck after spending some quality airtime.
A film about his life won the first price at this year’s alternative Sundance
Film Festival in the X-Dance category.

Tony Hawk (Skateboard)
Tony made the transition from the world’s halfpipes into everybody’s living-room
like no other. After finishing his official contest-career last year, he is
as present as never before: Videogame character, TV-commentator, advertising-testimonial,
businessman or simply the best vertskater of all times – Tony is a living legend.
He has influenced skateboarding for more than 20 years, inventing countless
tricks and building up the popularity it has today.

Robby Naish (Kitesurfing)
In 2000 Robby Naish was honoured for his outstanding windsurfing-career with
the Nea Lifetime Achievement Award. This year he is back again being nominated
amongst the best kite-surfers in the world, for the Nea Kitesurfing Award. At
the "King of the Air 2000" Robby finished second after the master
of kitesurfing "Flash" Austin, who is also nominated in the same category.

Shaun Palmer (Crossover Athlete)
The New York Times called him "America’s Greatest Athlete". Put him
on skis, a snowboard, a bike – anything – Shaun goes for the max and fights
his way up to the top. The latest results of his illustrious career is a first
place in the skiercross and a third place in the boardercross at the Gravity
Games 2000 in Mammoth, CA.