From: Swatch TTR World Tour
Luke Mitrani (Stratton Mountain, VT) put down a huge first run to win. "This is crazy because I didn't even snowboard this summer. I just skateboarded a lot and took my mind off snowboarding, so to jump back into it is crazy to win a contest. I'm shocked. My strategy was to just focus on my riding and feed off of other people. When someone does something big it makes me want to ride even harder for myself."Pro Halfpipe Team member Greg Bretz (Anaheim) placed third behind defending champion Louie Vito (Columbus, OH) in a contest full of upping the ante, as riders put down frontside 12s and a even few back-to-back double cork 10s while afternoon shadows moved over the Copper halfpipe.The Copper Grand Prix had some major influence on the TTR Rankings. New leader of the TTR Halfpipe World Tour Ranking is Louie Vito, after coming in second here at Copper Mountain. Christian Haller, taking 5th place here, moved from the 10th to the 5th position making it into the top 5. Entering the top 10 from the 33rd position is Nathan Johnstone with his 8th place this weekend.
While many of us were sulking because the season is practically over, Norwegian shredder, Stale Sandbech was busy stomping a brand new trick. A video of the 18-year-old hitting a massive kicker in Europe just surfaced, and in it, Sandbech stomps a triple underflip 1260. Yeah, we didn't really think that was possible either, but this video from Stale's sponsors proves it.
After seeing the video, we had to know what was going through Sandbech's mind when he stomped the new trick...