Day 1: Burton European Open
Jan 29 2007 / LAAX, SwitzerlandBurton heats up Laax at the European Open of Snowboarding in Switzerland.
The Burton European Open kicked off in fine style yesterday (Saturday 20th Jan 2006), with blinding sun, gentle winds, and an incredible slopestyle course set to test the best riders on the planet over the next few days. Throughout the week the competition will crown its Slopestyle winners, and find the next generation of rippers in the junior events midweek. From Thursday onwards, the Superpipe heats up, featuring a live broadcast on Lat34.com direct from Laax itself on the finale day - Saturday the 27th January. Stay tuned as the list of big names turning up is as impressive as one would imagine for the European Open's 8th outing.
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Men's slopestyle was the first to go, with Saturday's start-list whittled down to the best 24 riders on the day. Today was due to follow suit, with heat two of the qualis sorting out the wheat from the chaff, but due to high winds, the scheduled qualifications had to be abandoned. However, while the qualis were ditched, the actual 40 riders to go through to tomorrow's semi-finals has been decided. It's here they meet the invited list, featuring the likes of USA's Shaun White and Travis Rice. We're expecting sparks to fly.
But that's not to say it'll be a cruise for the invited riders. So far from that list of 40 there seem to be plenty of riders with the ability to upset the applecart. Perhaps chief amongst them is the Norwegian uber-charger Henning Marthinsen, a classic from the Scandinavian school of snowboarding. He doesn't shout too loudly about his riding, and actually said he thought he hadn't ridden too well, but from the runs we saw, his solid 9's and 1080 combinations should see this Olso resident at least into the finals. Other notable mentions would be Russia's Louri "IPod" Podladtchikov - a stand out rider in any circumstance, and the youngest rider to make it through the men's qualifications - 14 year old Ben Watts, winner of last year's junior event. Overall of course, the standard is super high, and with the jumps having been re-set from Saturday's competition, it's a fresh start for every rider on the course.
Ever keen to get a look at the course, the invited riders were up at the course this morning, braving the white-out conditions to check out the various lines. Most beat a hasty retreat to the nearest restaurant, where unsuspecting holidaymakers were treated to the sight of Shaun White, Marko Grilc, Mathieu Crepel, Heikki Sorsa and Antti Autti hanging out and swapping stories over some coffees. Talk was naturally about the TTR ranking list, and how the outcome from this 6-star event might change the current world championship race. For the statisticians out there, following on from his recent win at the O'Neill Evolution in Davos, Finnish ripper Antti currently leads the board, and looks set to hold his TTR World number 1 position only if he achieves a podium Slopestyle win here at the BEO. Autti could be overthrown by a win from either current TTR World number 3: Danny Davis of the USA, or current number 4 - Travis Rice, also from the US. 2006 World Champion Mathieu Crepel could move into 2nd place if he places above 7th. Markku Koski of Finland could up a few places, and Shaun White could use the BEO to break into the top ten on the ranking system for the first time this season.
In the girls event, the scheduled afternoon practice had to be completely abandoned after the winds came in, meaning all 52 riders - including the ten girls invited to rider here - have to run in the finals tomorrow. Last year's winner Natasza Zurek of Canada goes into the competition the clear favourite, but with TTR World Champion Cheryl Maas from the Netherlands in resort as well as Australia's Torah Bright, Hana Beaman of the US and the UK's Jenny Jones, it's not going to be a walk in the park. Check back tomorrow for the results....
-Chris Moran
