Following hot on the heels of news that the Oakley Stylewars is set to hit Australia, the Burton Global Open Series (BGOS) has announced that the prestigious Nippon Open Snowboarding Championships will now become the first Asian Open Snowboarding Championships, and will hit the Alts Bandai Snow Resort in Japan next year. 2009 is going to be huge!

"Since 1994, the Nippon Open has had a tremendous influence on the competitive snowboard scene in Japan, bringing a world-class competition to Japanese professional and amateur riders, while attracting top international snowboarders to the region," said Liam Griffin, Events Director at Burton Snowboards. "With competitive snowboarding gaining momentum in China and Korea, we felt it was time to expand the Nippon Open into the Asian Open Snowboarding Championships, attracting more riders from growing snowboarding communities throughout Asia."