From the placings in the Ultimate Boarder events it appeared to be a six way tie between Chad Shetler, Mike Morrissey, Kristian Philips, Bryce Young, and Aaron Astorga but after some tie-breaking and taking “highest placing” into account the win was split between last year’s winner Chad Shetler and Mike Morrisey. They both scored a first, a thirteenth, and a twenty-second in the three events and ended up splitting the $30,000 prize purse.
“It’s an honor to share the stage with Mike and compete alongside these other highly talented athletes,” said Chad Shetler. “I was humbled to win the event last year and it means a lot being able to repeat my performance.”
First off, Shaun White did not compete in the 28th US Open Halfpipe today. Crazy, we know. There were varying reports. Snowboard Canada tweeted that “he was exhausted.” And we’re not going to argue. We’re exhausted just from watching the grueling media marathon Shaun has been on since winning his second Olympic gold medal, and we did it all from the couch.
While it would have been nice if he had taken a little rest a week ago so we could have watched him ride Stratton, whatever Shaun wants to do now is fine with us. Go, to it. Write a book. Read some poetry. Snowboarding will still be here when you get back.
Secondly, three runs in a halfpipe final is silly. Two runs is enough to sort out the champions. As usual, there were really no significant place changes in that third run. Kelly Clark nailed her 94.7 in the first run and Kazuhiro Kokubo got his 97.17 in the second run when he stole the lead away from Louie Vito.
We often feel that something is lost in translation, but Kazu is always a gracious winner. “It was so great to win here, especially because my good friends Mikkel Bang and Charles Reid also won titles, which made my win feel even better,” said Kazuhiro Kokubo.
Kelly Clark has won the Open so many times her quotes are nearly canned. ““It’s amazing that it’s my fourth US Open halfpipe title,” said Kelly Clark. “It’s so great to come home after such a long season and win here.”
For the rest of the story, including results, follow the jump. [click to continue…]
On Friday evening, March 19, 2010 Red Bull hosted one of their 2010 Butter Cup series events at Boreal Mountain Resortat the summit top of California’s Donner Summit. Nearly 150 people jibbed for the judges trying to get “tapped in” to the 10 man finals. It looked a little like this.
It looks like Team Hosoi (made up of Rob Machado, Brandon Cocard, and Christian Hosoi) might have the Ultimate Boarder team competition all wrapped up. Machado won the surf, today Brandon Cocard (pictured above) won the team snow event, and tomorrow Christian Hosoi has a pretty good shot at the skate competition.
In the individual competition 16-year-old Mammoth ripper Trevor Jacob took it over Shane Pospisil and Todd Richards.
The 28th annual US Open Snowboarding Championships got off to a solid start today as Norway’s Mikkel Bang and Switzerland’s Sina Candrian took the Slopesytle event. Mikkel did it with a Cab 1080, switch backside 1260 indy and a frontside 1080.
“It’s my seventh year coming here to the US Open and the first time I’ve made it to the slopestyle podium,” says Mikkel Bang. “All of the top riders are here, which makes it even more special to win. This really is the perfect ending of the season for me.”
Candrian laid down a Cab 540, frontside 720 and a backside 360 in her third run.
“Today was really my day because my runs kept getting better and better,” said Sina Candrian. “The features were perfectly shaped and the course was fun to ride – it’s amazing to win here and I’m so happy that it put me in the lead for the women’s TTR title.”
Arianna Huffington likes to talk about how she gets so many amazing people to write for her for free. And apparently, it works. The latest addition to her unpaid writers’ stable: Jake Burton. His topic for the Huffington Post is the Burton US Open. Not surprisingly, he loves it.
. . . once the Olympics are done, it feels good to come home and know that the next time I see the best snowboarders in the world compete will be in Vermont, where snowboarding has a rich heritage, at the US Open, going down from March 19-21 at Stratton Mountain Resort. Compared to the Olympics, where everything is under the control of a ski federation, the Open has been run by snowboarders, for snowboarders since 1982. It is snowboarding’s oldest active competition, and year after year, it’s the home of the sport’s most progressive riding. This week at Stratton, five out of the six 2010 Olympic halfpipe medalists, including Shaun White, Peetu Piiroinen, Scotty Lago, Hannah Teter, and Kelly Clark are slated to compete.
It’s good to know that Jake still likes his event. He is not alone.
Anastasia Ashley and Gretchen Bleiler will be helping two “adventure-seeking guys. . . perform an itinerary of tasks designed to K.O. the B.O. with Old Spice,” according to a post on WalletPop.
The guys, chosens as part of Old Spice’s Fresh Collection Intern Challenge, will split up and spend four days with either Ashley in Fiji or Bleiler in Zermatt, Switzerland. There they will do silly stunts to promote Old Spice like this:
Don traditional Swiss lederhosen and tear up the mountain while snowboarding some of the world’s best snow. Attach 10 Velcro-padded sticks of Old Spice Matterhorn to the Lederhosen suspenders and hand out to 5 other skiers and snowboarders on the mountain – while yelling out “You smell like Matterhorn!!” – at the same time. Use your helmet cam (provided by Old Spice) to capture video of you in action – and reaction shots.
In Fiji Ashley will apparently hook the boy up with a lesson on how to blow a conch shell. We’ll just leave it at that.
Snowboarder Joshua Hernandez, 27, of Mammoth Lakes died from injuries he sustained after hitting a rail in a Mammoth Mountain terrain park and then crashing into a fence on Friday March 12, 2010, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jennifer Hansen says Hernandez went home but later felt extreme pain and went to the hospital. . . He was treated for internal bleeding but went into cardiac arrest. The hospital staff tried to save him but were unsuccessful.
Our thoughts are with Hernandez’s family and friends.
We’ve been wondering what Snowboard Journal co-founder Jon Foster has been up to lately. And thanks to the La Jolla Light newspaper we’re learning a little more about the photographer who made so many snowboarders famous. The Light asked Jon who he’d like to have over for a dinner party. This is what he said:
Jim Morrison; Hunter S. Thompson; Helmut Newton; Natalie Portman; the Dalai Lama; Mark Procopio; my sister Kathleen, who died in 1984; and Olivia Wilde.
Having dined with one of the people on his list we can’t say we disagree. For the rest of the interview follow the link.
A 48-year-old woman at Ontario Canada’s Beaver Valley Ski Club has died from injuries she sustained after hitting a tree while snowboarding Wednesday, March 17, 2010.
Witnesses say she was snowboarding on the hill when she left the slope and entered a wooded area where she hit a tree.
Police say the woman was wearing a helmet at the time of the collision.
