World Champion fell on the last contest blast edit before here, right. Next stop: Oslo. You must have been living under a rock if you missed that we’ve had from Feb. 10 – 19 our first World Snowboarding Championships going down under perfect conditions, featuring a sick ass course in Slopestyle, a beast of a quarterpipe and a perfectly shaped halfpipe of course. Over 200 riders attending, everybody was stoked on been there, about having these Championships, about been invited or been allowed to compete there with the best: Everybody but one guy: Mr. Shaun White. According to an interview on Snowboarder Magazine by Pat “the Eye” Bridges featuring Terje Haakonsen, Shaun got invited but refused to come, due to nobody was willing to pay him more than the overall prize money was at the WSC. What the fuck fellas, how couldn’t you, damn.
But back to relevance: Favs win. In the pipe it was among the women, Kelly Clark(USA) to get this first halfpipe world champion
in 4 years in the States maybe?
title, on a really close battle with Queralt Castellet ( 2. – SPA) from Spain, who also rocked badass at the Canadian Open before already and Gretchen Bleiler (USA) on 3rd. On the men side it was Iouri “iPod” Podladtchikov (SUI) to go big over the coping and win that thing, followed by Matt Ladley (2nd – USA), who looked like wanting to kill himself on the quarterpipe so big he went and Louie Vito (3rd – USA). The Slopestyle course was uber, even though some of the riders had their problems with that second money booter and its landing. In women Slopestyle, Spencer O’Brien (CAN) won clearly in front of Jamie Anderson (2nd – USA) and Enni Rukajaervi (3rd – FIN). What a real killer was the fact that young Ty Walker (USA) made it even until the finals, that girl is 14 ..come on! On the men competition it was a pure thrilling game until the very last run. Seb “Toots” Toutant (2nd – CAN) managed to kick Seppe Smits (3rd – BEL) from his leading spot, which was so far only battled among these two, because Chas Guldemond (1st – USA) has had his problems on throwing down one solid run without slamming. So there we are, Seb Toots on first, while Seppe sits on his first Silver podium spot, but – not yet. Chas has got one last run and goes big on this one ..in the end he not only succeeds on not slamming, but also threw down a run by the book: Fronboard 270° out, Frontboard 450° out, Switch BS 12, BS 10 and a Cab 12, that’s how you become a world champ – pour Seb Toots.
Overall these first ever WSC have been crazy and the TTR proved everyone to be more than able to organize a dope ass mass event like that. We (meaning you and us – us and you ..all of us) knew it before already but as long as you got suits deciding weither someone is able to do something or not and cash rules the world you always got to prove what you got. TTR did – again, but received already encouraging words even by the IOC to take TTR to the next level and make a confederation of it, what definitely also according to Reto Lamm president of the TTR will be the next step and so maybe finally succeed on that Olympics Games issue in future ..who knows.
On the Burn River Jump in Livigno, it was Roope Tonteri (FIN) again (check out the first contest blast and you know why..), to rock this TTR 5 Stars event in Italy. Two jumps and a jib section featured that contest playground, on which the riders had to prove their skills. Roope and Ulrik Badertscher (NOR) made it to the final, where Roope sticked a huge Cab 1260 followed by a BS 9 over the River and finishing with a Boardslide 270 on. Ulrik on his turn threw down a BS 10, a double BS Rodeo
Alek Ostreng on his stairway to heaven ..woosh
9 and finished with a Cab 270 Hardway. In the end it was in Roope’s favor to win the contest with 91.33 pts. in front of Ulrik who got 90.33 pts. 3rd spot went to Mark McMorris (CAN), who also won the Burn Jibmaster that night with a Switch Hardway 270 on 270 out. But what the hell ..rewatch the final action here.
Last contest feature in this post here are the BEOs in Laax, Switzerland. Henry Jackson entertained us all week long with his steezy way he’s got on commenting events and his guests of course! So you could see him hanging out in his so called booth with the FRENDS crew for example, taking over the mic and premiering new trick names like “a biiiiiiig 1260 minus 1 is a 1080!” like Jack Mitrani – gold worth ..hilarious.
On the Slopestyle it was Jamie Anderson (USA) to win in front of Enni Rukajaervi (2nd – FIN) and Isabel Derungs (3rd – SUI), while it was not decided until the last run of Aleksander Ostreng who would win among the men. Alek took in the end the win, followed closely by Roope Tonteri (2nd – FIN) and Peetu Piiroinen (3rd – FIN).
In the pipe it was Kelly Clark (1st – USA) again to prove that vert walls are her territory, followed by Gretchen Bleiler (2nd – USA) and Yuki Furihata (3rd – JPN). On the men side it was local pipe ripper Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI) to win in front of Danny Davis (2nd – USA) and Ryo Aono (JPN).
Another event that was on in Switzerland at the same time, was old fella Nescafé Champs in French speaking Leysin. The Nescafé Champs are one of the, if not the oldest contest in European snowboarding and even though the first three days of them were going down at the same time as the BEOs in Laax, plenty of people came out to enjoy best professional snowboarding under awesome weather conditions. The former 6 Star event which is now a 5 Star one, had its 21st edition this year and proofed once again that action sports, good music and urban art are the best mixture you can put in one event to succeed. Someone familiar with the name Isabel Derungs (SUI)? Well, you should be because this girl is on fire lately. She just got third on the BEO Slopestyle and couldn’t get enough, so she thought “screw it”, stopped by and took home the win at the Champs in Leysin, in front of Aimee Fuller (2nd – UK) and Elena Könz (3rd – SUI). Roope Tonteri (FIN), who is still burning, was kind enough to took take that one too, followed by Mathias Weissenbacher ( 2nd – AUT) and Nuutti Niemelä (3rd – FIN). For the wrap up of the Champs go here.
The next and last stop of the Burton Global Open Series will be then the US Open in Stratton, Vermont from March 7th – 10th where not only the 30th anniversary will be celebrated, but also the overall winner of the BGOS will be decided and announced after that final stop. Don’t forget to tune-in on the webcast, which is provided by Red Bull. The Slopestyle and Halfpipe finals will be on this Friday and Saturday.
\\ products & rad urban stuff that went down (recap)
