Pretty much everything went as planned except that Kelly Clark did not win. In fact, after qualifying second behind Gretchen Bleiler with only one run in the pipe, she skipped her second qualifying run and did not start in the finals. Here’s what she had to say about pulling out.
“After taking a crash in semis practice yesterday I am not feeling 100% and am not going to compete in the finals tonight at the Canadian Open,” Clark said. “With many events left in the season, I need to rest up and make sure I can ride at my fullest potential in the contests to come.”
Spain’s Querald Castellet took advantage of Clark’s absence and rode away with the win. Japan’s Ryo Aono took the men’s pipe. And slopestyle was simply a continuation of the Chas Guldemond and Jamie Anderson show.
Follow the jump for more official details and complete results. [click to continue…]
Watch the Burton Canadian Open Slopestyle semi finals and Halfpipe Finals live today (February 3, 2012) beginning at 9:30 AM PST and Slopestyle finals beginning tomorrow (February 4, 2012) at 9:30 AM PST.
Watch Kelly Clark (USA), Hannah Teter (USA) Jamie Anderson (USA), Queralt Castellet (ESP), Sina Candrian (SUI), Mercedes Nicoll (CDN), Chas Guldemond (USA), Ryo Aono (JPN), Zack Stone (CDN) and Markus Malin (FIN) are just a few of the top riders planning to compete for a piece of the $72,000 prize purse.
GoPro is proud to announce the addition of Shaun White to their team of action sports stars who like to film themselves while they do what they do.
Shaun White is joining GoPro’s progressive team of snowboard athletes that include Mike Basich, Tim Humphreys, Eric Willett,Jamie Anderson, Hannah Teter and Devun Walsh.
For the honor we’re guessing GoPro is paying Shaun an ungodly amount of money, and in return they’re going to get hours of promo and some amazing footage. Not a bad trade. [click to continue…]
Burton Snowboards has apparently decided that their girls need their own special place to hangout online. (Burtoxy?) The site is called Burtongirls.com and it features a forum, contributor content, “Burton outfits,” and place to share things on Facebook and Twitter.
“With burtongirls.com we wanted to create a forum where girls could discover fun, unique and diverse content around the lifestyle and culture of our sport,” stated Donna Carpenter, President of Burton. “There are so many cool aspects to our lifestyle – from traveling and meeting people all over the world, getting to ride the best mountains on the planet and working with the best snowboarders, and burtongirls.com reflects all of that.”
The best part is it’s a place for Burton to market directly to girls without having to worry about what the boys think. Follow the jump for the official details. [click to continue…]
Kelly Clark won her tenth consecutive halfpipe contest, and Japan’s Ryo Aono (picutred left) stomped past Louie Vito to finish off at the 2011 Burton New Zealand Open. Mark McMorris and Jamie Anderson won the slopestyle comp.
Ryo Aono’s championship run started strong with a Frontside 1080 which lead into a Cab 1080, Frontside 900, Backside 900 and Frontside 1080 Double Cork. In second was Louie Vito (USA) with a Crippler, Backside 540 Mute, Frontside 1080 Double Cork, Cab 1080 Double Cork Truckdriver and Frontside 1080. Coming in third was Iouri Podladtchikov with a run that included a Cab 1080, Crippler, Backside 1260 Double McTwist and Frontside 1080.
For more official details and all the results follow the jump. [click to continue…]
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. [click to continue…]
If Burton Snowboards only made travel bags (and dropped the whole snowboard hard and softgoods thing), they would still be one of the best brands in the world for one reason: their bags are bulletproof. For people who travel all the time in all different modes, Burton has some of the most intelligently designed bags, backpacks, and camera bags in the world. If that wasn’t enough, Burton has just released 90 new bag and luggage styles into the mix.
Burton’s new bags are designed to carry everything from laptops and skateboards to snowboards and a month’s worth of clothes. Road tested by Burton’s team of pro riders who travel year-round, every new travel bag, snow pack, photo pack, transit bag or ‘BYO’ bag can weather months of planes, trains and on-the-move adventures.
And while we’re not sure anyone needs all that much help deciding which bag to buy, Burton has been nice enough to create a website to help everyone pick the right bag. It’s called Bag Check. Check it out if you’re looking for new bags. Follow the jump for the official word. [click to continue…]
On Saturday, March 12, 2011 Louie Vito kicked off the finals of the Burton US Open Snowboarding Championship halfpipe with as good a run as he can lay down. He put in three double corks and landed everything smoothly. His run scored an 84.45. It seemed a little low until Kohei Kudo, Iouri Podladtchikov, and Kazuhiro Kokubo took their runs, and then it became pretty obvious that this was no Dew Tour.
Kazu, the defending US Open champion, stole the show when he kicked off a monstrous run that included a frontside alley oop nosebone, frontside 900 melon grab, Michaelchuck nose grab, frontside double cork 1080 and a Cab 1080 melon grab. The rest of the day was spent seeing if anyone could come close.
“I’m so stoked and so happy,” said Kazuhiro Kokubo “I want to say thanks to my sponsors, family and friends, and I hope my win brings a little joy and happiness to Japan.”
No surprises in the women’s event. Kelly Clark won her fifth US Open Halfpipe title (her fourth consecutive) and was followed by Hannah Teter, with Gretchen Bleiler in third. We were very happy to see Bleiler finish a run without sitting. Good to see her back.
Follow the jump for the official word from Burton along with some results. [click to continue…]
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…]
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.
Last weekend (February 3-4, 2012), while the rest of the world was either at the Air & Style in Austria or discussing the Supernatural event in British Columbia riders gathered a Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta for the Burton Canadian Open.
