Burton US Open 2010 - Results, Photos, Videos
HALFPIPE
Source: snowboardermag.com
Stratton Mountain, Vermont played host to what might be the best pipe contest in years. If not the best, at least it was the most progressive. Under sunny skies and minimal wind, 16 men and 8 women took to a slushy pipe that required more maintenance than a fat girl with diabetes and a separation complex. Seriously though, the crew that kept this pipe intact deserves praise. They had their hands full as the day progressed and the temperature rose. Thousands of people turned out for the Men’s and Women’s pipe finals, and they were not disappointed. Neither was I.
The women went first, and after semi-finals, 8 were chosen to move on to the big show. With the unexplainable absence of Gretchen Bleiler, Kelly Clark was clearly the favorite, but there were a few women in the field who held the fortitude to give her a serious run for her money. Steamboat Springs local and the youngest girl in the competition, Maddy Schaffrick qualified in second place behind Clark, but in the finals, she couldn’t put a podium run together. However, this girl is the future face of competitive women’s halfpipe snowboarding. Switch backside spins mixed with insane combos will soon blend with amplitude and young Maddy will more than likely be a force to be reckoned with. Aside from Maddy, Kelly Marren landed a few backside nines but couldn’t quite find her board with her hand. Regardless, she put together some impressive runs. Kaitlyn Farrington finally landed herself a podium appearance at the Open with a second place finish. Kaitlyn goes huge and rides like Torah. Technical, big and with tons of style. Worth mentioning Hannah Teter, another favorite to take down Clark on her home hill, who qualified for finals yet failed to show for any of her runs. I’m sure the message boards were lighting up on webcasts the world over. Ellery Hollingsworth rounded out the podium with an impressive run and a well-deserved third place finish. And yes, it was Kelly Clark’s run consisting of back-to-back sevens and an overhead front nine that creamed the competition. After Kelly’s first run she had it in the bag, but that didn’t prevent her from attempting a massive front ten in her victory lap. Kelly Clark rules, and she gained the respect of everyone in attendance by the day’s end.
As for the men, it’s almost impossible to put into words exactly what happened. First of all, the seemingly unbeatable Shaun White opted out of the contest. He was on the start list, yet when it came time to drop, White failed to do so. Apparently, the Vancouver gold medalist wasn’t feeling well and chose not to ride, thus opening the door to a slew of contestants to walk away with US Open hardware. The 16 men battled it out for over an hour, kicked off by Iouri Podladtchikov’s first run which consisted of two double corks, one of which has only been landed by Shaun himself–the double McTwist 1260–dubbed by mainstream media as “the most dangerous trick in snowboarding.” The crowd went nuts and Ipod’s 90-plus score forced the remaining riders to step it up, and they certainly did. It was Louie Vito’s birthday, yet the tiny dancer treated the spectators to a present when he unveiled his new double cork that is yet to be named. Louie landed three doubles in his run and took the lead, but it was Kazuhiro Kokubo’s second run that would topple Vito’s lead and he would hold on to the win, even though Ipod landed a run of his own with three doubles. Rumors immediately started circulating about Ipod’s run being scored low, but we’re not judges and we’re not in the booth, so we must trust that they know something that we don’t. Regardless, all three of the men on the podium turned yet another page in the evolution of competitive pipe riding and I’m not 100% convinced that if Shaun did compete today that he would’ve won.
BURTON US OPEN HALFPIPE VIDEO - CLICK HERE
US Open Halfpipe Results:
March 20, 2010
Stratton Mountain, VT
Men:
1 Kazuhiro Kokubo JPN
2 Louie Vito USA
3 Iouri Podladtchikov SUI
4 Markus Malin FIN
5 Janne Korpi FIN
6 Scotty Lago USA
7 Tore Holvik NOR
8 Christian Haller SUI
9 Manuel Pietropoli ITA
10 Ross Baker USA
11 Brett Esser USA
12 Peetu Piiroinen FIN
13 Ben Watts USA
14 Luke Mitrani USA
15 Scotty Pike USA
16 Matt Ladley USA
Women:
1 Kelly Clark USA
2 Kaitlyn Farrington USA
3 Ellery Hollingsworth USA
4 Hannah Teter USA
5 Rana Okada JPN
6 Elena Hight USA
7 Kelly Marren USA
8 Madeline Schaffrick USA
PHOTOS
The men’s podium - IPod, Kazu, Louie
The women’s podium - Ellery, Kelly, Kaitlyn
Biggest Air - Kelly & Scotty
Best Trick - Ellery & Peetu
TTR World Champion - Peetu piiroinen
Go Bigger!
Kelly Clark
Kazuhiro Kokubo
Louie Vito
Iouri Podladtchikov
Peetu Piiroinen
Peetu Piiroinen
SLOPESTYLE
Source: snowboardermag.com
On Friday February 19th, 2009 the Stratton Mountains Sun Bowl zone finally lived up to its name as the 28th annual US Open got under way. It is amazing that after nearly three decades Stratton still hosts an event which many believe is the most prestigious contest in snowboarding. Amazing! I say this because going to Stratton is akin to embarking on one big scavenger hunt where cell phone service and internet access are most elusive. Easier to locate are dread locks, mud, and old bitter skiers. The thing about having such nice weather at the open is it helps you focus on how shitty everything else about Stratton is. Enough of my gripes with Stratton because this article is supposed to be about today’s slopestyle which I must admit was outstanding.
Third place for the ladies was won by Jamie Anderson. The South Lake shred could have taken the top spot after stomping a bs 5 on the first booter to sw bs 5 on the second but the third hit 720 didn’t turn out well enough to bump her up. New Zealander Shelly Gotleid linked up a cab 5 to back flip to take second and Swiss sensation SIna Candrian took top honors with a cab 5 to fs 7 at the top of the course.
Third for the dudes side of the card was Sebastien Toutant. After incurring an injury at the Air & Style in December Seb sat out much of the season waiting till Stratton and the Open to come off the bench which he did in a big way. Seb is one of the most technical slopestyle riders on the scene and his performance at Stratton was true to form as he chucked double Rippey flips and 1080 Murphy flips.
Ulrik Badertscher took second at Stratton with another dizzying display of double corkedness. What put Ulrik ahead of most of the field was his stunt off of the canon ball jib at the bottom of the course. While others were content to flat spin and backside rodeo off of this unique jib Ulrik chucked a double front flip a la Ben Hinkley off the top.
Mikkel “nickel bag” Bang easily won the open slopestyle with a run that included everything from 1260’’s to late backside 180 double poke shifty’s off of the canon. Right from run one Mikkel Bang had it in the bag.
BURTON US OPEN SLOPESTYLE VIDEO - CLICK HERE
US Open Slopestyle Results:
Stratton Mountian, Vermont
March 19, 2010
Men:
1 Mikkel Bang
2 Ulrik Badertscher
3 Sebastien Toutant
4 Stale Sandbech
5 Chas Guldemond
6 Peetu Piiroinen
7 Tyler Flanagan
8 Janne Korpi
9 Nicholas Julius
10 Jeremy Thompson
11 Jason Dubois
12 Gjermund Braaten
13 Charles Reid
14 Marko Grilc
15 Mark McMorris
16 Tore Holvik
Women:
1 Sina Candrian
2 Shelly Gotlieb
3 Jamie Anderson
4 Enni Rukajrvi
5 Lisa Wiik
6 Janna Weatherby
7 Spencer O?Brien
8 Sarka Pancochova
9 Elin Tortorice
10 Jordie Karlinski
11 Heather Baroody
12 Kiley Kennedy
13 Kara Rennie
14 Chanelle Sladics
15 Kjersti Ostgaard Buaas
16 Joanna Dzierzawski
17 Claudia Avon
PHOTOS
The men’s podium - Sebastien, Mikkel, Ulrik
The women’s podium - Jamie, Sina, Shelly
Ulrik Badertscher
Ulrik Badertscher
Ulrik Badertscher
Sebastien Toutant
Sebastien Toutant
Peetu Piiroinen
Mikkel Bang
Chas Guldemond
Charles Reid
Chanelle Sladics
I Ride for Kevin and Danny.
RAIL JAM
Source: snowboardermag.com
The last US Open Rail jam took place in 2005, and half a decade later, Burton decided to bring it back for an all-time night session with a twist. That twist came in the form of SPT Parks’ custom setup. The course was composed of tranny and lexan mashed together to create a plethora of options for all of this evening’s contestants. For years, it seems as if the organizers of the Open have been struggling to make this contest different, but that’s not to throw blame in any certain direction. When you host a contest at the same mountain for over a quarter of a decade, it gets hard to switch things up, and with the resurrection of the legendary US Open Rail Jam, it seems as if Burton and the entire events crew have succeeded by bringing back a crowd favorite that was won by Eddie Wall and Leanne Pelosi a half a decade ago.
With beautiful weather gracing the East Coast this weekend, the crowd turnout was remarkable, and fortunately, the riding was there to keep the spectators stoked. With a stacked field and a prime setup, the Rail Jam participants went to town. Riley Nickerson, Johnny Lazzareschi, Forest Bailey, Chanelle Sladics, Charles Reid, Chas Guldemond, Luke Haddock, Kael Hill, Sam Hulbert, Brandon Reis, Tim Humphreys, Jamie Anderson, Kade Madsen, Sarka Pancochova, Chris Rotax, Frank April Shaun Murphy and a handful of others went off on SPT Parks’ insane setup. It was a Rail Jam, sure, but it looked more like a mini park packed with transition, boxes, wallrides and rails. It truly was a playground, and the riding complimented one of the best setups the US Open has ever seen.
The days of “the rail kid” are over. These days, kids can ride it all. There are hardly designations labeling different riders. Simply put, they can all ride it all. Jumps, transition, rails, whatever, they can take it to it. The mayhem was underway around 7:15 and ended around 8:45 and it was absolute madness. Johnny Lazz started off strong with some odd transfers and hardway rail tricks while Forest Bailey immediately flexed his technical rail prowess and unexplainable Northwest skate style (he’s from Vermont). Jamie Anderson was hands-down the winner from the get-go and Shaun Murphy and Tim Humphreys battled it out for one of the top five spots in the jam session. Meanwhile, Chas Guldemond and Charles Reid took to a huckfest of sorts on the quarterpipe. Brandon Reis and Sam Hulbert followed each other around the setup with some BFF boardslides (seriously, they’re attached at the hip, but at least they don’t roll their pants up over their boots anymore). Sarka Pancochova and Chanelle Sladics lapped and hiked until they slowed down a bit as Jamie pulled away into the lead. I must say that the hardest charging award goes to hairball Kael Hill, who, every time the cameras turned in his direction, he was hopping around the course like a horny rabbit. All in all, it was simply nuts, and recapping the action almost seems futile.
In the end, it was Charles Reid’s amplitude and Jamie Anderson’s consistency that put them atop the rest of their peers, and at 9:25, it was said and done. Nearly half-a-decade later, the US Open Rail Jam was entered into the equation yet again, and if it stays in the cards for next year, it’s sure to be bigger and badder than ever before.
BURTON US OPEN RAIL JAM VIDEO - CLICK HERE
US Open Rail Jam Results:
Men:
1. Charles Reid
2. Tim Humphreys
3. Shaun Murphy
Best Trick: Luke Haddock
Women:
1. Jamie Anderson
2. Sarka Pancochova
3. Chanelle Sladics
Best Trick: Sarka Pancochova
PHOTOS
The men’s podium - Shaun, Charles, Tim
The women’s podium - Sarka, Channelle, Jamie
Best Trick Awards - Sarka & Luke
Charles Reid
Multiplayer
Luke Haddock
Luke Haddock
Jamie Anderson
Jamie Anderson
Forest Bailey
Forest Bailey
Chanelle Sladics
Chanelle Sladics
Chas Guldemond
Official TTR Video can be watched on the news feed HERE.