Bobby Brown held this grab all day long in his dub 10's. photo: Dan Carr (www.dancarrphotography.com)

Words & photos by Dan Carr

Every August an increasing proportion of the skiing community makes the migration south of the Equator to Wanaka, New Zealand. With so many of the top pros in town, the competition scene here has been heating up over the last couple of years and the word about town was that this year's New Zealand Freeski Open could very well play host to the most impressive slopestyle competition ever witnessed. The vibe amongst the competitors was unique, everybody was stoked to be skiing with each other again, and stoked on the course that Cardona had laid down for them.

Starting off with a couple of flat-down rails, into a pair of parallel up rails, followed by three jumps of increasing size; it wasn’t the longest course but it was beautifully prepared.

The women’s competition went down first on day ine and Dania Assaly took home first with a solid run ending with a 900 on the money booter at the bottom of the course. This years X Games slope winner, Anna Segal, came in second with her 180, switch 5 and flat 3 combo on the bottom three jumps. Third place went to Eva-Maria Patscheider from Austria who added the podium finish to her third place at this year’s European Open.

Women's Results

1) Dania Assally - 89.4
2) Anna Segal - 85.8
3) Eva-Maria Patscheider - 82.8
4) Chiho Takao - 63.0
5) Arianna Tricomi - 56.6
6) Shuri Terada - 51.6
7) Sofie Windstedt - 17.6
8) Julie Benard - 17.4

Twelve riders were pre-qualified for the men’s finals but a further eight would need to be selected from the 51 strong field in the qualifiers. Unfortunately the weather had other plans though and notorious “Cardrona fog” came in quick and thick. All 50 riders successfully completed their first runs but following this the judges had a tough time seeing the whole course.

Riders and judges persevered with the conditions, sending someone every time a gap in the clouds appeared. At the end of the day though, not every rider managed to complete both qualifying runs so the decision was made to bump the finals to the next day and to give all riders a rebate on their second qualifying run the next morning.

Wanaka woke to a cloudless sky the next morning and the delay to the finals had only served to heighten people’s expectations. When training began in the morning it was obvious that the crowd wouldn’t be disappointed as a continuous train of double variations was sent over the final jump. Today, spinning both ways and throwing a dub was not going to guarantee you anything. In fact, 19 of the 22 finalists threw some sort of double variation on the final jump and only a couple of guys were not ambidextrously spinning in every direction. A little time away from the competition scene seemed to have done the world of good and it was great to see everyone having such a good time in a relaxed atmosphere.

When the scores were tallied up Bobby Brown came out on top closely followed by Wallish who put down an almost identical run apart from the top rail feature. Bobby went with the switch 450 disaster and Wallish went for the blind swap, pretzl. The top 3 all finished off their runs with perfect double cork 12's.

This really was one of the most impressive displays yet seen by the freeskiing community. “The slopestyle course was awesome. I loved it,” said Brown. “It was the best competition I’ve been in for a long time, the event had a great feel to it.” The evolution of slopestyle skiing continues then and whilst the podium finishers all used the double cork 12 as their weapon, it was also good to see some innovation amongst other riders, throwing in new grabs or even entirely new axis' into their doubles. Elias Ambuhl and Matt Margetts in particular brought something different to the final jump in the line. And a quick shout needs to go out to Matt Phillipi and Andri Ambuhl. Both guys skied super hard but had nasty falls. Heal fast my friends.

Men's Results

1) Bobby Brown - 93.0
2) Tom Wallish - 90.0
3) Henrik Harlaut - 86.6
4) Matt Margetts - 83.0
5) Russ Henshaw - 81.0
6) Jossi Wells - 78.2
7) Per Christian Fosse - 75.4
8) AJ Kemppainen - 74.4
9) Elias Ambühl - 70.6
10) Mike Hornbeck - 67.4
11) Jaime Puigdengoles - 62.2
12) Ian Cosco - 55.0
13) Bene Mayr - 53.2
14) John Spriggs - 50.8
15) Byron Wells - 49.4
16) Matt Soundy - 45.4
17) Andri Ambühl - 39.2
18) Gus Kenworthy - 25.0
19) Leigh Powis - 22.0
20) Kentaro Tsuda - 15.0

Courtesy of Yobeat.com

Back in the 90's there was this ongoing feud between skiers and snowboarders. I never understood it to be very serious, but at some resorts and hills they took it very seriously--- giving in to full out brawls that required police intervention and joining "resort gangs" and stupid shit like that. In my opinion it gave all of us a bad rap. Still to this day I get people (who don't ski or snowboard) who ask me about the feud between snowboarders and skiers, or better yet, if I hate skiing (I'm a snowboarder). Inevitably these are the same people who ask me if I've ever met that "flying tomato guy"... in reference to Shaun White.

This has led me to the conclusion that people who don't know much about skiing or snowboarding believe only two truths about the ski and snowboard industry. That the flying tomato is the only professional snowboarder worth watching around, and that skiers and snowboarders hate each other.

Of course this is just plain dumb. There are plenty of good riders besides Shaun, and we've always had our differences, but at the end of the day we're all out on the same hill together having fun. Over the past few years I've become friends with more skiers and I've stupidly assumed that the whole "Skiers vs Snowboarders" feud had died down. Everyone had matured past it. We can live in harmony...

And just when I thought we were all playing nicely...

Yobeat.com, one of GrindTV's favorite snowboarding websites, posted this article by High Cascade Snowboard Camp owner Preston Strout. In a nutshell, Preston prepared to spend a day on ski's and listed 10 reasons why he "finds freeskiers wacky". If you have a good sense of humor the article is a must read, whether you are a snowboarder or a skier.

Well, apparently word got out on the world wide web (more specifically a link to the freeskiier bashing article was posted on our sister freeskiing website, Newschoolers.com) about the skier bashing article Preston wrote. What followed was some of the most hilarious comment backlash I have ever been privy to read.

Some of my favorite standout comments are:

"I just recently won $20,000 dollars in a contest. Oh shit, I'm a skier! Yeah f*ck you." Posted by (supposedly) Tom Wallisch (Pro Skier)

User HuckaPotamus' rebuttal "Top 10 Reasons Why I find Snowboarding Wacky." with a couple personal favorite reasons numbers two and seven:
2.) One-footed tricks look goofy. Stop it, you look like a kiteboarder.
7.) Split-boards? Really? You sawed your board in half? Buy a pair of ski's already.

"I think the internet stole everyone's sense of humor." posted by CptShenanigans

"My mom snowboards." posted by Snowboarding is Old School

After 70 or so comments on this particular article, ESPN Ski Blogger John Symms took it upon himself to write his own witty rebuttal here. Symms commented to each of Strouts "Why I find freeskiers wacky" in a clever and classy manor.

And it didn't stop there. Strout most recently came out with his own chance of redemption here (back over at yobeat.com), where he addresses the question "Why do they even care?" and points out his reasoning for posting the skier bashing article in the first place:
"A.) I never thought they'd see it. I didn't think [skiers] read [snowboarders] websites.
B.) I wasn't aware freeskiers had no sense of humor. (I actually thought they were probably pretty funny since they all dress like clowns.)
C.) I had no idea they were so emotional."

Oh man. This is why the internet rules. Nothing like this could have happened before! What would the "resort gangs" have done? Pass nasty notes back and forth on the Breckenridge chairlift? Write something about how "gay" snowboarders are on the wall above the urinals in the lodge?

Kudo's to Strout at Yobeat.com and Symms at ESPN for keeping the "poking fun" in good taste, and thanks to all of the over zealous commenters for loads of entertainment. I'm still trying to figure out why all those skiers were on the snowboarding website in the first place (it begs the question... do many snowboarders go onto the freeskiing communities and bad-mouth their stuff?), and I'll never get the over-usage of foul language in comments- but this has been as entertaining as watching a heated tennis tournament.

Snowboard history was made this past weekend on the south island of New Zealand at a tiny valley resort called Cardrona during the first major Snowboard competition of the year... the 2009 Burton New Zealand Open. For the first time in competition riders were attempting the double cork 1080 spins. And they were landing them.

Much of this progression lends itself to the fact that these top riders are all vying for a coveted spot on the Olympic Snowboard Halfpipe team. Only four team spots will be given to the males for the United States, and with over a dozen American riders all skillful and qualified to make the team, many consider the race to get on the U.S. Olympic Snowboarding Halfpipe team much more interesting and competitive than the actual Olympic Competition itself.

Check out Shaun White's winning run from New Zealand with back to back double corks.



And then check out Luke Mitrani's double cork that landed him in the 2nd place position on the podium.

Men's podium. Sam Smoothy (2nd), Geoff Small (1st), Jérémie Heitz (3rd). photo: Camilla Stoddart

You wouldn't have wanted to wait in line for the bar either. Smart Vito.

Wow, I feel like such a prat "reporting" this, but here goes. It is confirmed that Snowboarding's own Louie Vito will be on this fall's season of "Dancing With the Stars".

Some fun facts about this situation:

• Todd Richards, snowboard legend and owner of Vito's board sponsor company O'Matic Snowboards, broke the news to the industry via Twitter this morning.
• According to Louie's "Official Website" (www.louievito.com), Louie CAN'T dance
• Also according to his website, Louie has never even seen the show
• The show premiers live on September 21st.
• Louie is asking his fans for all the support he can get. "Please vote and vote often"

Admittedly I just requested tickets to the "live taping" in L.A. Looks like there is a wait-list, but either way you can be sure you'll hear more on this.

Also, big props to Vito for landing the first ever frontside double-cork 1080 in competition this past weekend at the Burton New Zealand Open during Semi's. Louie had the top score going into Finals but was ousted by Shaun White's back-to-back double-corks.

Luke Mitrani at the Burton New Zealand Halfpipe Finals (P) Phil Erickson

New Zealand’s largest snowboarding event, the Burton New Zealand Open Snowboarding Championships, came to a close today after four intense days of competition. Part of the Burton Global Open Series and the Swatch Ticket To Ride World Snowboard Tour, the 7th Annual New Zealand Open showcased some the world’s top snowboarders competing in halfpipe and slopestyle competitions for over NZ$50,000 in prize money.



Hundreds of competitors from all over the world flocked to Cardrona Alpine Resort to compete, and action got underway on Wednesday with men’s and women’s slopestyle pre-qualifications and qualifications. Men’s and women’s halfpipe qualifications went down on Thursday, followed by men’s and women’s slopestyle semifinal and finals on Friday with Jamie Anderson (USA) and Sebastien Toutant (CAN) riding away with the top spots worth $6,000 each.



Saturday saw a field of 40 men and 21 women compete for the halfpipe titles worth NZ$6,000. In the women’s competition Kelly Clark and Jiayu Liu battled it out in semifinals with huge amplitude and clean spins, while Elizabeth Beerman just bumped Kiwi Kendall Brown from advancing on to final. Louie Vito placed first in the men’s semifinal competition, followed closely by Luke Mitrani in second and Shaun White in third.



Halfpipe finals consisted of three runs each for men and women, with the women first to drop. The Asian contingent finished strong taking four of the top eight spots in the women’s finals, with Zhifeng Sun from China taking third. Her winning run featured an impressive frontside 900. Jiayu Liu (CHN) rode away with second with a run that featured back-to-back 720s and back-to-back 540s. But it was Kelly Clark that pulled it out with a whopping score of 83.67. Her winning run started with a massive frontside air followed by a backside 540 indy, into a frontside 720 tailgrab, followed by a Cab 720, finishing with a frontside 540 indy. Clark had this to say of her win, “I felt really good today; I got to try new things. I like progressing, and when you ride against a solid group of competitors it pushes me to do more. I’m happy that I did well for my first contest of the summer, especially going in to an Olympic year.”



History was made today during the men’s halfpipe finals. The best and most progressive riding ever witnessed went down, the crowd and judges were blown away by the double cork and spin combinations they were seeing. Kazuhiro Kokubo finished in third with a run that featured a huge McTwist, a frontside 900 tailgrab, an alleyoop chuck nose grab, and a frontside 1080 indy. Luke Mitrani took second with a run that included a double inverted 900 melon, a frontside 720 indy, a Cab 720 mute and a frontside 900 tailgrab. But it was Shaun White who was able to come from behind in semifinals to win the $6,000 top spot. His winning run started with a frontside lien air, to backside 900 melon, followed by a frontside 1080 stalefish, into a Cab double cork 1080 stalefish, to frontside double cork 900. No one was more pleased with the win than White himself, as he had this to say of his victory, “I’m proud to win today. This was the heaviest event that I have ever been in. That’s saying a lot, as I have been in a lot of these. ”



With the Burton New Zealand Open finished, the next stop in the BGOS is the European Open, taking place January 9-16, 2010 in Laax, Switzerland. The European Open is the second stop on the 2009-2010 Burton Global Open Series. Jamie Anderson and Mason Aguirre are currently in the lead for the Burton Global Open Series Championship titles and a piece of the $200,000 prize purse.



With his third result of the 09/10 season, Mason Aguirre takes over the top position on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour followed by Sebastien Toutant in second and Charles Reid in third. Jamie Anderson maintains her lead of the women's ranking. With only two results on her account so far, 08/09 Swatch TTR World Champion Kelly Clark moves into world no. 7 with her victory in New Zealand.
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Jamie Anderson at the New Zealand Burton Open Slopestyle 09 (P) Phil Erickson

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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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Snow fiends, rejoice….if you live in California, you shall see snow in the month of September. If you’re like me…you’re antsy as shit. Summer is dying down, then comes that pointless season, Fall, where all you do is run around your house in your outerwear, watch last season’s snow videos/this year’s teasers, and stalk outside video premieres just to simply live vicariously through the screen.

Well – I’m not promising winter early but I am promising a crap ton of snow dumped on to Venice Beach, CA on September 6th. Have the snow gods answered my prayers and brought snowflakes to Los Angeles, you ask? Hate to break it to ya but…no. It’s the 3rd Annual Supergirl Jam – an all female action sports competition presented by ASA Entertainment aiming to inspire and recognize all the bad ass chicks out there. The Supergirl Jam is represented by a Host Committee of 4 “actionistas” (is that a word?) that act as spokespersons for the event and is made up of Lauren Perkins, the 2008 Supergirl Jam Skate Champ, Chanelle Sladics, world class snowboarder, 7 time X Games Gold Medalist, Fabiola da Silva, and surfer Kassia Meador.

It begins this weekend, August 15-16th in Oceanside, CA where the surf portion of the contest goes down, the Supergirl Pro Junior. From there, it cruises up to Tehachapi, CA (props to you if you know where that even is, I just Google mapped it) to Woodward West (North America’s leading action sports camp) where they will host the Supergirl Pro-Am Jam skate street competition where the top female amateur skater will advance to the last stop in Venice Beach, CA. Here comes the part about the massive amounts of snow.

On September 6th in Venice Beach, a few steps away from Muscle Beach mind you, 80,000 pounds of snow will be dumped on the beach for the women’s snowboard rail jam. Also, temporary ramps will be brought in specifically for the SuperGirl skate competition that will also be taking place. Top athletes will be swarming the scene including the likes of Chanelle Sladics, Raewyn Reid, Desiree Melancon, and Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins. This day is going to be a good day. I’m going to get my fix of snow in September, I get to keep my summer tan, and I get to check out some Muscle Beach eye candy (hah).

Basically, if you’re in the area, stop by and show these ladies support. It’s going to be rad. C’mon; it’s the best of both seasonal worlds! What have you got to lose? I know you’re itching for winter, even if it’s only for a day.

Supergirl Jam Event page: 3rd Annual Supergirl Jam

It may seem like Finnish born Eero Ettala has it all... the opening and closing movie parts in three legendary Mack Dawg movies, a clothing line with Oakley, a Nitro Snowboards pro model, beautiful blonde locks, a triple backflip, a hot scandinavian girlfriend... you get the point.

Well, there's three more things Eero wants to add to that a-list. A TV show, a webisode series, and a movie following him and his friends as they shred the globe. With the help of Oakley, Eero spent the 2008/2009 season with a camera glued on him at all times. The Finnish product (pun intended) is "Tracking Eero" a multi-media mission thats just started to leak onto the scene.

"So, for me, this once in a lifetime opportunity has been made up of traveling to Russia, Japan, Canada, and all over Europe to ride with guys like Nicolas Muller, Danny Kass, Torstein Horgmo, Kevin Pearce, and Eiki Helgason to name a few. Along the way we have seen new things together, eaten some horrible food, had some of the best moments along with some of the most frustrating, talked about sharting, landed new tricks, fell on old tricks, built crazy features, found amazing natural features, flown in helicopters, crashed snowmobiles, laughed, cried and hugged. Well, I never cried but some people did." Eero says of the opportunity.

Check out the trailer and some webisodes of "Tracking Eero" here on Eero's Athlete Profile and for more info on TV airings check out www.trackingeero.com

That's a girl. Jamie Anderson. She doesn't really ride pipe, but she showed up last year to the NZ Open pipe and won it. Some girls have all the luck. Photo courtesy of Burton

Photos by Phil Erickson courtesy of Burton

"Cracker of a day". That's New Zealand slang for "It's a really nice day here". I learned it this morning when the kiwi PR girl sent me an email letting me know the exciting news for the days Halfpipe Qualification rounds. The previous day's Slopestyle qualifications had been held under absolute crap weather, so you can understand how it was exciting news when the weather took an unexpected turn for the better.

So bluebird it was, and subsequently some decent riding got dolled out. Over 100 riders had to vie for a spot in the top 10 men and 5 women that would move onto Saturday's main event- Halfpipe Semi-Finals and Halfpipe Finals.

To keep it somewhat short (You can check the Burton Global Open Series website if you want to make it long) it was little Norweigen Stale "Style" Sandbech who showed everyone how it's done. His run consisted of back to back 7's, a couple 540's and a massive backside air tailgrab. (Stale's tailgrabs are insane. Hopefully someone, somewhere got a photo of that.)

Fun trivia fact for you. Stale Standbech is the little brother of Frode Sandbech, one of Transworld Snowboarding Magazine's talented Senior Photographers. Stale does everything BUT ride his brothers successful coattails. When you are lucky enough to see the kid ride in person you'll understand how. Keep an eye out for that one.

In an interesting turn of international affairs, only one American squeaked thru qualifications today. Coming in 10th was Steamboat Springs, CO native Taylor Gold. With a start list of 100 riders, even 10th is pretty damn impressive.

So, these top 10 Men move on to face the likes of pre-qualified halfpipe riders Danny Davis, Shaun White, Danny Kass, Scotty Lago, Luke Mitrani, Mason Aguirre and more. (No pressure guys.) Congrats on making it through.

The girls had a better day today with the weather abiding. U.S. rider Clair Bidez took it for the women. The five ladies who made it thru today are up against the legendary Kelly Clark and new-to-pipe-but-kills-it Jamie Anderson. Jamie actually won the pipe event last year, and I do believe it was the first professional pipe contest she has ever entered, although Jamie is a long-time and well-known dominatrix when it comes to Slopestyle. Girl goes big.

RESULTS:

Halfpipe Qualifications Men
1 Stale Sandbech NOR Oslo Oakley
2 Tore Holvik NOR Geilo Sweet
3 Johann Baisamy FRA Neuvecelle Billabong
4 Dimi Jong NED Den Haag O’Neill
5 Kleivdal Roger NOR Geilo Sweet
6 Stewart Ben NZL Whaangamata O'Neill
7 Christian Haller SUI Zernez Burton
8 Steve Krijbolder NED Zoetermeer O'Neill
9 Shuhei Sato JPN Asahikawa Gray
10 Taylor Gold USA Steamboat Springs Burton


Halfpipe Qualifications Women
1 Clair Bidez USA Minturn Nikita
2 Ryoko Iijima JPN Saitamaken Moss
3 Silvia Mittermueller GER München Oakley
4 Ursina Haller SUI Zernez K2
5 Naho Mizuki JPN Inuyama Aichi Ride

Come back later and we'll fill you in. The good stuff is yet to come. (Finals, they are really what matter at the 2009 Burton New Zealand Open anyway.)