The Billabong Air and Style in Innsbruck... it's kinda a big deal. It's a 6 Star TTR event (as highest ranked as they come) and this years showing of big names like Travis Rice, Peetu Piiroinen, Andreas Wiig, Iouri "iPod" Podladtchikov and Torstein Horgmo made it even that much bigger of a deal.

But it was the modest Slovenian kid with the dimples who dropped those "big" names down on the results list and came out on top with the always heartwarming underdog story.

You may not have heard of Marco Grilc but any friend of his, especially any friend of the European type, will tell you that this is a much deserved win for the unassuming Slovak.

Here's the bottom line in results, but for more impact check out the bottom line in video courtesy of TTR (Ticket to Ride) If you can't get your fill here make the jump over to www.ttrworldtour.com for even more eye candy.

1. Marko Grilc SLO 281 Pkt. Switch Backside 1080 Double Corked Mute Grab

2. Peetu Piroiinen FIN 268 Pkt. Backside 1080 Double Corked Mute Grab

3. Andreas Wiig NOR 251 Pkt. Frontside 1080 Double Flip

4. Iouri Podladtchikov SUI 54 Pkt.

5. Eero Ettala FIN

6. Werner Stock AUT

7. Elias Elhardt D

8. Torstein Horgmo NOR

9. Antti Autti FIN 10 Marc Swoboda AUT

11. Chas Guldemond USA

12. Stefan Gimpl AUT

13. Risto Mattila FIN

14. Tim Humphreys USA

15. Travis Rice USA

16. Gigi Rf AUT


This is what Marco did to win:


Here is the overall breakdown:


And here is what Rice did:
For more footy of each rider head over to TTR's profile and scope out all the different edits from one of the biggest nights Innsbruck will see this winter.

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Another day of bluebird skies graced Cardrona Alpine Resort, which remained impervious to the clouds, sitting above the inversion layer once again for men's and women's slopestyle semifinal and final competitions today. Part of the Burton Global Open Series and the Swatch Ticket To Ride World Snowboard Tour, the seventh annual New Zealand Open showcased some of the world's best riders as they took to Cardrona's 800m long slopestyle course, which featured up and downrails, boxes, three kickers and a unique upstair feature to quarterpipe.



A field of 42 men and 16 women were battling it out for a piece of the $24,000 slopestyle prize purse and the top spots worth $6,000 each. An international field of riders from nine countries included New Zealand's own Shelly Gotlieb, James Hamilton, Stef Zeestraten, in addition to BGOS Champions Chas Guldemond and Jamie Anderson, Olympians Danny Kass and Mason Aguirre, and many more.



The women were first to drop and competition was stiff through semifinals, but it was Kiwi Shelly Gotlieb that came out on top, killing it on the course with a run that featured style and variety on the rails, a Cab 5 indy, a backflip and a backside 360 tailgrab. Gotlieb continued to ride strong through the finals, taking third, being outdone by Janna Weatherby (USA) in second and 2008 NZO slopestyle champion Jamie Anderson (USA) in first. Anderson impressed the judges with a run that started with a street style tailslide, 5-0 to fakie on the box into a switch backside 360 on the first kicker, followed by a Cab 540 melon into a front 360 melon, followed by a 5-0 on the uprail, to a tail stall on the quarterpipe, finishing with a 50/50 frontside boardslide on the kinked rail. "I had a blast," said Anderson of her win. "It was a beautiful day, we lucked out with the weather, and I was happy with my riding, I had so much fun today."



French Canadians Sebastien Toutant and Charles Reid clinched the top two spots in men's semifinals, Toutant taking the top spot by wowing the judges with his signature "Toutsie Roll," a backside doublecork 1080 melon. Reid couldn't stick his run in the finals, dropping him to the back of the pack, but Torstein Horgmo (NOR) threw down in his third and final run with back to back 1080s, giving him an edge and finishing second. Eric Willet (USA) stuck back-to-back 900s and had smooth style on the rails, giving him an edge and riding away with third. But in the end, Sebastien recreated his winning run from semis by starting off with a backside 270 on the first rail to 50/50 backside 360 on the second rail, into a backside rodeo 540 indy, into a Cab 900 stalefish, followed by a backside 1080 double cork melon, followed by a noseslide on the uprail to alleyoop backside 50/50 on the quarter, finishing with a frontside boardslide on the kinked rail. "I'm so stoked to win my first contest of the year," said Toutant. "It was a great course, very different. I had fun trying new things and am so happy to do well."



With 850 TTR ranking points, both winners of today's slopestyle finals took over the world number one spots on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour. The Burton New Zealand Open is a perfect opportunity for riders to get a jumpstart heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter.
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Photos by Phil Erickson courtesy of Burton

The first few days of any of the Burton Global Open Series stops are brutal. They have to whittle fields of hundreds of riders down to just 10 men and 5 women. They do this for the men with a pre-qualifier (25 men get in) and then a qualifier (the 25 dudes compete against each other for the 10 spots.) The 45 women vying to even make it in the even don't get a pre-qualifier. They cut them down from 45 to 5 in one foul swoop. Harsh.

They do this in two days. One day for Slopestyle, and one for Halfpipe. They are long-ass days. Take it from me, I've been at plenty of them- including a couple in New Zealand.

They are even longer when the weather is crappy. And insider reports claim that the weather was not only crappy on the first day during the Slopestyle knock-out rounds at Cardrona Resort, but that it was downright shitty. And, as fate would have it, the shitty weather got shittier after the men finished competing, just as the girls stepped up to the plate. Poor darlings really got the blunt end of the stick this day.

The girls took their first run and the weather got so bad that they postponed the second run until the next day, a rare occurrence at any snowboard competition. The girls are slated to battle out the final run on Friday morning. The top five will go straight into Finals that afternoon.

Here are the Men's results from Slopestyle Qualifications. These lucky few will go on to compete against the riders that are previously qualified from last year's BGOS rankings for Semi-Finals (Semi-Finals and Finals happen this weekend), and the fields are STACKED. The mens start list is boasting riders like Torstein Horgmo, Chas Guldemond, Antti Autti, Danny Davis, Peetu Piiroinen, and Tim Humphreys. On the Women's side slopestyle slayers like Chanelle Sladics, Jamie Anderson, Silvia Mittermuller, and Spencer O'Brien. It's gonna be a good one.

Slopestyle Qualification Results

MEN
1 Atsushi Ishikawa JPN Flow
2 Sergey Tarasov RUS Burton
3 Christian "Hitch" Haller SUI Burton
4 Tore Holvik NOR Sweet
5 Arthur Longo FRA Volcom
6 Sage Kotsenburg USA Quiksilver
7 Eric Beauchemin USA DC
8 Gjermund Braaten NOR DC Shoe Co USA
9 Johann Baisamy FRA Billabong
10 Jye Kearney AUS Burton


Check back for more results and other random crap from the 2009 Burton New Zealand Open.

Okay, so I'm a few days late on this, but 1) it took me a while to regain movement in my extremities after freezing my ass off at the event; 2) I'm a cheap bastard and booked a hotel room without wireless access; 3) I spent all my money on proper slices that I can't get in L.A., a trip up to the Empire State Building's observation deck, and maybe a Guinness or two, so I had to skip the internet cafe, and 4) I was in New York City, bitch! I'm not going to kill time plinking away on a keyboard when I can be immersing myself in that incredible city, even if it is in the winter. Anyway, here are some more pics from the event - check out the rest here.

When the New York Times features a snowboarding event, you'd be crazy to not take notice. Granted, the event is in the Big Apple, but it's still going to be insane. As the centerpiece of the NYC Parks Department's Winter Jam NYC, a two-day event scheduled for Feb. 5 and 7, Snow Park Technologies's Frank Wells and Mike Bettera have built a 90-foot structure that features a huge booter to an 80 foot long spine (see photo).
In East River Park on the Lower East Side, construction has already begun on the Snowscraper, a structure that officials are calling the largest ever built for a special event in the New York City parks. It is being built by a sporting events company called Aura360 and financed by Red Bull, the Austria-based energy drink maker known for its marketing around extreme sports.
In case it doesn't actually snow, no worries. The snowmaking for the Winter Jam has also already begun. Presumably, the ramp can also accommodate actual, as opposed to manufactured, snow. With a purse of $100k the big guns are coming out to get down in the Big Apple. The confirmed riders are Shaun White, Travis Rice, Pat Moore, Eero Ettala, Dustin Craven, Kevin Pearce, Mikkel Bang, Danny Davis, Kohei Kubo, Kazuhiro Kakubo, Terje Haakonsen, Andreas Wiig, Torstein Horgmo, Jake Blauvelt, Greg Bretz, Bjorn Leines and JJ Thomas.