NZsnowboard.com

28th August 2007

The NZ Snowboard Team has just returned home after a successful trip to
Perisher Blue in Australia for the 2nd stop of the Burton Global Series -
the Australian Open.

A change of scenery was welcomed by the team who have been training and
competing hard in NZ over recent weeks.  Sunny skies, warm weather, snowgums
and kangaroos were in abundance at the Kosciusko National Park.

First up was the slopestyle competition held in challenging soft and slow
conditions.  On a course of 2 rails followed by 4 jumps where speed and
precision were required; small errors proved disastrous and few riders were
able to complete full-runs.  Despite some technical and creative riding from
Stef Zeestraten and James Hamilton in training, only Mitch Brown and Jake
Koia made the cut to the top-16 finishing up 14th and 11th respectively.

In the halfpipe, it was a more positive story with outstanding performances
from Juliane Bray and Mitch Brown.  Backing up his win at the NZ Open with
an aggressive first run, Mitch placed 3rd behind two-time Australian Open
champion Louie Vito (2nd) of the US and US Olympic snowboard team member
Andy Finch (1st).  Mitch has been on the podium every weekend for the last 3
weeks now, is currently sitting in 2nd place by a whisker behind Mason
Aguirre on the Global Open series, and is ranked 7th on the TTR world tour.
In the women's event, Juliane Bray displayed a return to good form placing
3rd behind Liz Beerman (2nd) of the US and 2002 Olympic gold medalist Kelly
Clark (1st) also of the US.  Ju demonstrated power and fluidity in her
riding, and was happy to stomp one of the most technical runs of the day.

The team is in good spirits going into the next major event of the season
the FIS World Cup at Cardrona on the 31st of August and 1st of September.

For full results, reports and photos from the Australian Open checkout
www.ttrworldtour.com
 

Tom Willmott
Head Coach NZ Snowboard Team