The 2011 Burton New Zealand Open kicks off August 9, 2011 (which is basically today thanks to the time change) with more than 240 athletes at Cardrona Alpine Resort in Wanaka, New Zealand.
Now in its ninth year, the BNZO is offering a NZ$50,000 prize purse for top-placed riders in both events. MINI will also launch this season’s ramped up version of the Creative Use of Space Award (CUOS) that started for the first time at last year’s BGOS events. Worth a total of $85,000, this year’s CUOS will include three key elements: most creatively built slopestyle feature, most creative trick utilizing the CUOS slopestyle feature and most creative halfpipe trick.
Live online coverage of the event begins August 12, 2011 (August 11, 2011 PST) on www.opensnowboarding.com. Click here to watch it or follow the jump for all the official details including a complete schedule.WORLD CLASS RIDERS ARRIVE IN WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND FOR 2011 BURTON NEW ZEALAND OPEN
WANAKA, New Zealand (August 8, 2011) More than 240 athletes are preparing for snowboarding’s premier event in the Southern Hemisphere, the 2011 Burton New Zealand Open (BNZO), as they make their way to the Cardrona Alpine Resort in Wanaka. Presented by MINI and taking place from August 9-13, the event will give snowboarding’s top riders a chance to compete in slopestyle and halfpipe events. A live webcast will be showing all the exciting action from the final two days of the BNZO at Redbull.tv and Opensnowboarding.com
Now in its ninth year, the BNZO is offering a NZ$50,000 prize purse for top-placed riders in both events. MINI will also launch this season’s ramped up version of the Creative Use of Space Award (CUOS) that started for the first time at last year’s BGOS events. Worth a total of $85,000, this year’s CUOS will include three key elements: most creatively built slopestyle feature, most creative trick utilizing the CUOS slopestyle feature and most creative halfpipe trick. If riders didn’t have enough to look forward to, they now have the opportunity to compete for this unique prize roundup kicking off at the BNZO.
As the first event in the Burton Global Open Series and a 5star event on the TTR World Tour, the BNZO attracts a crowd of top riders from around the world to compete. On the men’s side, the confirmed list includes Canadians Mark McMorris and Charles Reid; Americans Louie Vito, Jarret Thomas, Benji Farrow, Danny Davis and Jeremy Thompson; Japanese riders Kudo Kohei, Murakami Daisuke, Ryo Aono and Taku Hiraoka; Norwegians Ulrik Badertscher, Tore Holvik, Torgier Bergrem, Gjermund Braaten, Stale Sandbech and Torstein Horgmo; BNZO’s 2010 Slopestyle Champion Christian Haller (SUI), BNZO’s 2010 Halfpipe Champion Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI), plus Manuel Pietropoli (ITA) and Marko Grilc (SLO), as well as top local riders from New Zealand and Australia, including Mitchell Brown and Scotty James.
The women’s list is fully loaded with champions and Olympians including: 2010 BNZO Halfpipe Champion, 2011 BGOS Overall Champion and three-time Olympian Kelly Clark; 2010 BNZO Slopestyle Champion Jamie Anderson, 2011 US Open Slopestyle Champion Enni Rukajärvi (FIN) and two-time Olympians Hannah Teter, Gretchen Bleiler and Elena Hight, as well as Olympians Queralt Castellet (ESP), Soko Yamaoka (JAP), Sarka Pancochova (CZE), Ursina Haller (SUI) and Cilka Sadar (SLO). Also competing are Kaitlyn Farrington (USA), Spencer O’Brien (CAN), Silvia Mittermuller (GER), and New Zealand’s own Rebecca Torr.
For the final two days of the event, viewers can watch all of these riders battle it out with an action-packed live webcast hosted on http://www.redbull.tv
and www.opensnowboarding.com Up-to-the-minute live scoring, live chat, commentator interaction and real-time ranking, among other features, will all be available when viewers tune in on August 11th and 12th in the Northern Hemisphere and on August 12th and 13th in the Southern Hemisphere.
In addition, the BNZO will offer a live scoring service, accessible with any mobile phone or web browser. For iPhone users, the Efan iPhone app is available on the App Store free of charge at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/efan/id346147348?mt=8 Or you can go to http://live.eim-solutions.com/nzo2011 for start lists, results, live scores, live standings, athlete profiles and event details as available.
The entire event goes LIVE with webcasts on http://www.redbull.tv and www.opensnowboarding.com during the following times:
New Zealand – NZST:
Friday, Aug 12
Men’s & Women’s Slopestyle Finals
9:00am – 1:00pm
Saturday, Aug 13
Men’s Halfpipe Semi-Finals
8:30am – 11:00am
Men’s & Women’s Halfpipe Finals
11:00am – 3:00pm
US – EST:
Thursday, Aug 11
Men’s & Women’s Slopestyle Finals
5:00pm – 9:00pm
Friday, Aug 12
Men’s Halfpipe Semi-Finals
4:30pm – 7:00pm
Men’s & Women’s Halfpipe Finals
7:00pm – 11:00pm
EUROPE – CET:
Thursday, Aug 11/Friday, Aug 12
Men’s & Women’s Slopestyle Finals
11:00pm – 3:00am
Friday, Aug 12/Saturday, Aug 13
Men’s Halfpipe Semi-Finals
10:30pm – 1:00am
Saturday, Aug 13
Men’s & Women’s Halfpipe Finals
1:00am – 5:00am
JAPAN – JST:
Friday, Aug 12
Men’s & Women’s Slopestyle Finals
6:00am – 10:00am
Saturday, Aug 13
Men’s Halfpipe Semi-Finals
5:30am – 8:00am
Men’s & Women’s Halfpipe Finals
8:00am – 12:00pm
