As if having the entire snowboard world watching wasn't nail biting enough, Ullr God of Snow made things even tougher for Slopestyle competitiors at the US Open at Stratton, Vermont on Friday afternoon...
The bulletproof course and high winds kept some big names out of the Slopestyle running on Friday; Torah Bright failed to get through to finals, where usually solid pros failed to get speed, including Spencer O'Brien and Cheryl Maas, coming short with their spins to stack on the knuckle, causing a few injuries and a lot of fear - despite Snow Park Technologies building a super fun course. Even Norwegian Roxy rider Kjersti Buass, used to icy terrain at home, was dubious about entering, but, her last minute decision to take part paid off in the best-of-three-run finals: she won first at Slopestyle, and $20 000, frontside 720 with mute grab on the first kicker of her first run (the only 7 landed by a lady on the day), clean frontside 360 and boned backside 180, .
Tahoe phenom Jamie Anderson wasn't feeling the course - used to Californian sunshine and soft snow - but still managed to stay solid and coming second with some gap to boardslides on the rails, a frontside 540 and cab 5, and backside 180 with lien grab. Britain's own Jenny Jones also stomped some clean runs with frontside 360s, backside threes and big airs to come third, despite being in agony having broken her coccyx during training - when most people would've taken a rain check.
As for the men's there were no surprises in first, as Shaun White topped the podium having arrived in Vermont at 10pm the night before, then last minute decides to join the semi finals winning on his first run. Then comes top in finals on his first run, with machine like execution, courtesy of a 270 on to boardslide on the top box, nosepress to backside 180, cab 900, backside 900, switch backside 900 and frontside 1080 for his first run. $20 000 for a few runs? Just your average day at the office for Mr White...
The rest of the men's was more unusual: with Tim Humphries winning second - his first US Open podium win, followed by Canada's Charles Reid with a huge 1080 on the last, largest kicker, having started out in pre-qualifiers, then won qualifiers, sneaked into second behind Shaun in semi-finals. How stoked must he be?!?
For videos of the US Open Slopestyle finals and more go to www.go211.com/burton/usopen or full reports and photos go to opensnowboarding.com
