NZsnowboard.com

5th December 2007

Kevin Pearce (USA) nailed a cab 1260 to win his first Nokia Air & Style at the Olympic Stadium in Munich Germany on Saturday night (December 1).

Over 28,000 spectators crammed the arena to watch 16 of the globe?s best snowboarders do their thing at the 15th edition of the world famous event, which also featured a rookie snowboarding contest and a stunning freestyle snowmobile competition (FSX).

It was the biggest party in town as bands 30 Seconds To Mars, The Hives and Sean Paul provided the music to a show broadcasted around the world via Freecaster.tv and on the Braun giant screens to everyone in the stadium.

Pearce?s 12? was big enough to beat last year?s rookie winner Mikkel Bang (NOR) into second with Norwegian Horgmo in third, and local favourite David Benedek, fourth.

Horgmo so nearly made a frontside 1080 on his last jump but can be satisfied with being unofficial king of the jibbers, knocking out neat 50/50s over the Braun butter-box.

Seventeen-year-old Bang caused a major upset by beating defending champion and former Winter X-Games winner, Travis Rice (USA), in the first round. He executed a super-stylish backside 1080 to move into the second round where he saw off Eero Ettala (FIN).

The super final, with Pearce, Bang, Horgmo and Benedek battling it out for the main ?Ring of Glory? prize, was the highlight of the night. Benedek barely landed a jump cleanly all night, but when he did, his scores were massive. On his final effort, he just missed out on making a 1260, to the desperate roar of the crowd.

But it was Pearce?s night, and the 2006 Artic Challenge and Toyota Big Air winner stomped a huge backside 1080 on his first jump in the final, before ripping out the 12 on his last run.

Rookie winner was Tim Humphreys (USA) whose cab 1080 with a nose grab beat Austrian Werner Stock (AUT) and Mason Aguirre (USA).

The FMX competition was a massive hit with the audience. Daniel Bodin (SWE) was first, with some clean backflips and superman seat grabs. Second place was X-Games champion Chris Burandt and third was Norwegian Stian Pederson.

Drawing a collective ?ouch? from everyone watching was Stian Pederson (NOR), whose aborted backflip resulted in a nasty crash with his ski-doo landing on top of him. Luckily the accident looked much worse than it actually was, and Pederson was able to walk away from it.



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