NZSnowboard.com - The home of New Zealand Snowboarding

8th February 2010

Calgary, Alberta - Another gorgeous day greeted riders and spectators today at Canada Olympic Park for the mens and womens slopestyle semifinal competition.

Bluebird skies illuminated the 600m long slopestyle course which was made up of a step-up saddle to down box, followed by a down-flat-down kink rail, a log jib, down rail, wall ride and three kickers, two of which were split down the middle by a channel.
 
The field of 16 ladies was made up of invited riders like Burton European Open slopestyle champion Enni Rukajrvi and halfpipe Olympians Lisa Wiik (NOR) and Cilka Sadar (SLO). Jordie Karlinski out of Aspen, Colorado started off her winning run with a Cab 180 to boardslide, followed by a 50/50 boardslide to fakie, Cab 180, frontside boardslide on the down rail, boardslide to fakie on the wall ride, busting a Cab 540 on the first kicker, frontside air on the second jump, finishing with a backside 360 mute.
 
Then it was the mens turn to drop in, 43 riders took to the course, including Canadians Charles Reid and Mark Sollors in addition to Stale Sandbech (NOR), Antti Autti (FIN), Seppe Smits (BEL), and reigning ONeill Evolution slopestyle and Air & Style champion Marko Grilc (SLO).
 
The optimal weather and stellar field of competitors made for a great contest. In the first run, Brett Esser out of Iowa impressed the judges with his technical rail skills and huge clean jumps which incorporated multiple grabs in his spins and clean transfers over the channels. But it was 17-year-old World Rookie Tour champion Roope Tonteri out of Finland that stomped his second run, taking the top spot.
 
Tonteri started out with Cab to nosepress, followed by a gap 270 lipslide, into a 360 tap over the log, followed by a backside 360 pivot, backside 540 Indy on the wallride, landing a huge Cab 900 indy on the first kicker, followed by a frontside 720 melon over the channel on the second hit, finishing with a huge backside 900 tailgrab over the lower channel.
 
The top eight ladies and top 16 men are moving on to Sundays slopestyle finals. The Canadian Open action continues tomorrow with mens and womens halfpipe semifinals and finals. Dont miss the action which starts at 12:00 p.m. EST. Tune-in to Go211.com and watch it all happen live at Canada Olympic Park.  
 
An overall male and female Burton Global Open Series Champion will be crowned at the final event, the US Open Snowboarding Championships held in Stratton, Vermont. The top three men and women will take home equal prize money, with first place winning $50,000, second place $30,000 and third place taking home $20,000.
 
On the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, current World No.2 Sina Candrian (SUI) has the possibility to edge out the current leader Sarka Pancochova (CZE). Other riders with a good chance to improve their ranks are current World No. 3 Lisa Wiik (NOR) and World No. 6 Enni Rukajrvi (FIN). On the men's side Norwegian rookie Stale Sandbech and Marko Grilc (SLO) are both in contention for the World No. 2 spot that is currently held by Swiss rider Christian Haller.
 
If you cant make it to Canada Olympic Park, watch the semifinals and finals live on Go211.com, where webcasts and highlights of the competitions will also be available for on-demand viewing once the event is over. The 2010 Canadian Open halfpipe and slopestyle action can be seen on The Score on February 28 at 4:00 p.m. EST.
 
Result
Slopestyle Semi-Finals Women
1 Jordie Karlinski           USA     NIKITA
2 Lisa Wiik                    NOR     ROXY
3 Sina Candrian             SUI       BURTON
4 Enni Rukajrvi             FIN       ROXY
5 Meri Peltonen             FIN       PROTEST
6 Breanna Stangeland    CAN     FORUM
7 Brooke Voigt               CAN     BILLABONG
8 Alexandra Duckworth   CAN     OAKLEY
 
Result
Slopestyle Semi-Finals Men
1 Roope Tonteri             FIN       BURTON
2 Brett Esser                 USA     OMATIC
3 Mark McMorris            CAN     O`NEILL
4 Ethan Morgan             GER     FORUM
5 Craig Beaulieu            CAN     CLYDE BOARDS
6 Marko Grilc                 SLO      BURTON
7 Seppe Smits               BEL      BURTON
8 Janne Korpi                FIN       KISSMARK
9 Kevin Backstrom         SWE    BURTON
10 Jon Versteeg             CAN     NOMIS
11 Trevor Jacob USA     NIKE6.0
12 Joachim Krogstie       NOR     BURTON
13 Zak Stone                 CAN     VOLCOM
14 Robby Balharry         CAN     WESTBEACH
15 Antti Autti                 FIN       NIDECKER
16 Mark Sollors             CAN     BURTON
 
Burton would like to thank WinSport Canada, Go211.com, Paul Mitchell, Amp Energy, Samsung, Travel Alberta, Tourism Calgary, Calgary Hotel Association, Alberta Lottery Fund, Snowboard Canada Magazine, Transworld Snowboarding Magazine and Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour for their support of the Canadian Open.
 







LINK:   www.ttrworldtour.com








About the Burton Global Open Series
The Burton Global Open Series events are the pinnacle snowboarding events of the season. Founded by Jake Burton, the Opens have grown from grassroots events to global spectacles attracting tens of thousands of spectators and riders from around the world. Since the beginning, the Opens have been driven by riders, for riders evolving with snowboarding and riders needs over the years. With events held in New Zealand, Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States, the Opens set the standard for snowboarding events around the globe. For more information, visit www.opensnowboarding.com.

 
About the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour
Founded by Terje Haakonsen and industry innovators in 2002, the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour is a non-profit, rider-driven organization with the mission to create the highest quality competitive snowboard environment in the world, using authenticity, accessibility and innovation as guiding principles. Since its foundation, the Swatch TTR Tour has been developing into the most respected snowboard tour worldwide featuring global grass root and key independent freestyle snowboarding events over a ten-month period from Southern to Northern Hemisphere locations.

Events are rated via a 1-through-6Star system, with points allocated accordingly, a 6Star event holds the highest (1000 Swatch TTR points). Any rider participating in these events, from up-and-coming to professional talent, earns ranking points and a position on the Swatch TTR World Ranking List. The top male and female rider at the end of the season are crowned Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.


About GO211.com
GO211.com is the leading community and video site for action sports created for and by athletes and enthusiasts. Its the place to go for behind-the-scenes videos, blogs, and photos from pro athletes and featured contributors along with other action sports fans.  GO211.com is proud to offer a broad range of exclusive content submitted directly from the athletes and is proud to host interactive live webcasts of the top events in surf, skate, snow and BMX.  The current GO211 Pro Team roster includes: Hannah Teter, Nate Yeomans, Torah Bright, Mikes Losness, Kelly Clark, Jack Mitrani, Andy Finch, Donny Robinson, Christian Hosoi, and Holly Beck, among others.

 
About WinSport Canada
For more than 21 years, WinSport Canadas disciplined business focus has successfully built upon the foundation of the 1988 Olympic legacy assets. WinSport Canada has become Canadas leader in developing and sustaining world-caliber winter sport training facilities. WinSport Canada owns and operates Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, the Bill Warren Training Centre in Canmore, the Beckie Scott High Performance Training Centre on Haig Glacier, Camp Green on Farnham Glacier and funds two-thirds of the operating costs of the Olympic Oval in Calgary. These facilities give Canadian high performance athletes the ability to become the best in the world and recreational athletes the chance to discover and develop in sport. For more information about WinSport Canada, please visit www.WinSportCanada.ca.