Canada’s biggest snowboard contest, the World Snowboard Tour 5-Star Monster Energy Shred Show finished off with a bang Saturday night as Max Parrot stomps the triple dipper.

Canadian Max Parrot who was an X-Games silver medalist in slopestyle earlier this year stomped a backside triple cork 12 to beat out the competition. “I was kinda nervous, I tried it in practice and didn’t land it, but with the pressure and the good crowd, everything came around and I stomped it perfectly so I was pretty happy!” said a triumphant Max just after receiving his winning cheque and crown.

The field of competitors didn’t make it easy for him though. The 10-man final was stacked with talent like last year’s winner Darcy Sharpe, The Shred Show Slopestyle winner Emil Ulsletten, and a host of perennial jump slayers like Sage Kotsenburg and Eric Willett. Ultimately though it was American Justin Morgan who ended up in third spot with his switch backside double cork 1080 and Kim Rune Hansen from Norway took second with a switch back 12. The level of riding was the best Canada has ever seen and The Monster Energy Shred Show continues to grow in stature in the international contest scene.

The slopestyle podium.

Last Friday marked the wrap up of the Monster Energy Shred Show Slopestyle, the first Canadian 5Star World Snowboard Tour event of the 2013-2014 season. Weather made it difficult for riders to fully utilize the massive Slopestyle course located in the Blackcomb terrain park. As the day went on, the weather cleared up enough for riders to throw down some impressive runs to try and claim the $15000 top prize.

With an 84.50 it was Norway’s Emil Ulsletten who was atop the podium. His run consisted of a blunt 270 on the down rail, 50/50 frontside 360 with a tuck knee grab on the step down, a frontside double 10 on the first kicker, a backside 360, and a back 9 to cab double 9 on the last feature. Ulsletten Qualified in 10th place with a 68.8; just sneaking into the finals.

In second was Eric Willett from the USA with an 83.33. Willett’s run consisted of a front 270 on the down rail, a boardslide front 270 on the Pole, a front double 10 to front board to fakie out on the rail, and a switch- back 9 to back 7 on the last jump.
Willett won the 6Star Billabong Air & Style Innsbruck earlier this season.

Tyler Nicholson from Ontario, Canada was able to round off the podium. He did a Gap front board on the down flat down, a nose tail 450 off, a cab double 10 on the first jump, a switch tail 450 on the up rail. On the second jump he did a back 10 double to a front 10 on the last jump. His run scored him a 78.33.

The Snowboarding Action will continue tomorrow night in the heart of the village with the Monster Energy Shred Show Big Air. Accompanied with live music on the main stage, this event will no doubt have the largest crowd of the festival. Make sure to watch the live scoring at http://live.eim-solutions.com/mss2013

Emil Ulsletten: “ The jumps and rails were really, really good, but the weather made it tough to complete a whole run, it was really fun. I am really really happy! This year has not been the best for me for contests, I needed this one!”

Eric Willett: “The Slopestyle course was good, we definitely had to deal with some interesting weather all day but it worked out, finals turned out really good, it was a bit slushy but that’s that springtime is all about. I am stoked on my run and am glad I ended up on the podium. “

Tyler Nicholson: “This slope contest is by far the best I have ever entered, just because of the organization was so good, it was more based on what the rider’s wanted, they were willing to switch it up if we didn’t like it. The course is just unreal, the jumps were so good and the rails were Gnarly.”

SLOPESTYLE RESULTS:
1. Emil Ulsletten 84.50
2. Eric Willett 83.33
3. Tyler Nicholson 78.33
4. Spencer Link 73.50
5. Maxence Parrot 72.50
6. Eric Beauchemin 66.83
7. Brett Moody 58.83
8. Jeremy Thompson 46.33
9. Jon Versteeg 37.17
10. Charles Reid 15.00

Beside the 5Star Slope event was also held a Big Air competition, and here’s the podium.

BIG AIR RESULTS: 

1. Maxence parrot

2. Kim Rune HAnsen

3. Justin Morgan

To follow the World Snowboard Tour 2013-2014 season visit: www.worldsnowboardtour.com

The World Rookie Fest has been grooming snowboarding’s future stars for global domination for many years now. Guys that are now at the top of the game – like Peetu Piiroinen, Gjermund Braaten and Ståle Sandbech – have announced themselves by winning the WRF as groms and ahead of this season’s World Rookie Finals in Ischgl this edit looks at the impact it had on their careers.

The best rookies from all over the world are landing today in Ischgl, Austria, for the 2013 Volkl World Rookie Finals where the annual World Rookie Champion titles will be awarded. It is a great honor to join this legendary event, where all the rising stars challenge, and if you look at last years results from this event, you will notice that all the past seasons winners, today are among the invited riders at the 2013 Europe X-Games in Tignes.

The Black Yeti visited the 2013 X-Games in Tignes driving his brand new Jeep Wrangler and talked with some of the “past Rookie Fest riders” about the development of their snowboard carrier. Some of them competed in past edition of the World Rookie Fest and now are in the 10 top positions of the TTR World Snowboard Ranking and join world class events.

“If not for the World Rookie Fest I don’t think I would be here” sayed Gjermund Braaten, formed World Rookie Champion in 2006, from the rider lounge at the X-Games in Tignes. “Go to the Rookie Fest, do good, and if you end in the top 3 then you gonna be a star!” ended Gjermund.

These are some of past years World Rookie Champions and winner of the World Rookie Tour events competed at the 2013 Euro X Games:

Peetu Piiroinen (World Rookie Champion 2004)
Christian Haller (World Rookie Champion 2006)
Ulrik Badertscher (winner at the World Rookie Fest in Livigno 2006)
Gjermund Braaten (World Rookie Champion 2008)
Yuki Kadono (2nd place World Rookie Finals 2012)
Staale Sandbech (grom winner at the World Rookie Fest in Livigno 2009)
Seppe Smits (many partecipation at World Rookie Tour events)
Roope Tonteri (2 times World Rookie Champion in 2010 and 2011)
Sarka Pancochova (winner at the World Rookie Fest in Livigno 2008)

Charles Reid

Riders from all over the World flocked to Andorra this weekend for the ninth Edition of the Grandvalira Total Fight. This year the Total Fight upgraded to 5 stars on the World Snowboard Tour making it one of the season’s most anticipated slopestyle events.

[Qualification highlights - Finals video to follow.]

This year’s slopestyle started off with a rail zone which consisted of a choice between a 6 metre rail or a rail king, followed by a down box with a 5 metre gap or a wallride, followed by the line of three kickers. All the riders had to show their best skills on the varying spring conditions to win the final prize.

Eric Willett

The weather was temperamental for today’s finals; a mixture of snow, rain, wind and sun accompanied the riders throughout the day. The 24 finalists were pitched against each other in pairs, with only two rounds to prove their skills and knock out their rivals. The pairing, which depended on the previous day’s scores, went as such: Janne Korpi against Seth Hill, Tor Lundstrom against Brage Richenberg, Jon Versteeg against Eric Willett, Jeremy Thompson against Charles Reid, Marco Grigis against Aleksi Partanen, Simon Gruber against Ville Uotila, Tyler Nicholson against Spencer Link, Ian Thorley against Eric Beauchemin, Peter Horak against Mans Hedberg, Robby Balharry against Nuuti Niemela, Kevin Backstrom against Simen Neraker and Kevin Kok against Markku Koski. The 12 riders who made it to the final were: Seth Hill, Brage Richenberg, Eric Willett, Charles Reid, Aleksi Partanen, Ville Uotila, Tyler Nicholson, Eric Beauchemin, Mans Hedberg, Nuuti Niemela, Kevin Backstrom and Kevin Kok.

Seth Hill

Thanks to mother nature’s shaky mood today, the weather got wilder and wilder making the visibilty close to zero, meaning that, despite the shapers hard work, the slopestyle was getting slower and the finalists couldn’t make it to the jumps. Just as it looked like the weather was getting her way and ending the Total Fight prematurely, the sun came out and the competition continued. Unfortunately, the tardiness meant that the judging system had to be changed and the 12 finalists only had two rounds to win the competition.

Kevin Backstrom

This year’s hands down Grandvalira Total Fight 2013 winner was the Canadian Charles Reid, who won with a spectacular round which started off with a Gap Front 270 Front Board followed by a Gap Front Boad to Fakie, Cab Double Cork Mute 900 and sweetly polished off with a Back Rodeo 5 Melon.

The American Willett came close to the Canadian with a round that started off with a Front 270 Front Board followed by a Front Board, Front Mute and finished by a Back Rodeo 5 Melon. Swedish star Kevin Backstrom came third with a solid run: a Gap Front Lip followed by a Backside 50-50 Front 180 Off, Cab 900 Melon and finished by a Back 720 Mute.

Charles Reid

22-year-old Charles Reid, a resident of Mont-Tremblant (Quebec, Canada) said:

“It feels pretty good to get up on the podium and win first prize, even more so when it’s a TTR event like this. I didn’t expect to win the competition but I had a lot of confidence in my tricks. The circuit was incredible, you could get a lot of speed, it was really good. I’ll be back next year for sure!”

The first fifteen winners shared 40.000 € of cash between them. The first three won 15.000 €, 10.000 € and 5.000 € respectively.

Winners podium

RESULTS

NAME / COUNTRY / SPONSOR / HIGHEST SCORE

1 – Charles Reid / CAN / Oakley / 84.67
2 – Eric Willett / USA / Vans / 82.33
3 – Kevin Backstrom / SWE / Nike / 73.33
4 – Eric Beauchemin / USA / DC / 69.00
5 – Tyler Nicholson / CAN / Lib Tech / 65.00
6 – Nuuti Niemela / FIN / Smith / 58.67
7 – Aleksi Partanen / FIN / Koli / 55.00
8 – Ville Uotila / FIN / Dye / 52.33
9 – Kevin Kok / ITA / Burn / 46.00
10 – Seth Hill / USA / Sims / 39.67
11 – Brage Richenberg / NOR / Sabotage / 31.67
12 – Mans Hedberg / SWE / DC / 28.33

1. Silje Norendal

2. Jamie Anderson

3. Kjersti Buaas

Last night Iouri Podladchikov dropped the world’s first Cab double cork 1440 in a halfpipe as his fourth hit in the X Games finals in Tignes. That’s a whole lot of spinning and flipping all at once. And he was so happy to have come out of it alive that he forgot to land in the pipe for the last hit, crashing down from the coping before throwing his board into the crowd in celebration. The crash cost him his place on the podium, but he probably didn’t notice that either.  

1. Sebastien Toutant

2. Mark McMorris

3. Peetu Piiroinen

Check out the top 3 runs from the men’s superpipe finals in Tignes last night. Louie Vito snagged top spot with a barrage of double corks, while Arthur Longo was the people’s champion due to going frickin’ MASSIVE with his tasty Gallic steeze. And by being French.

1. Louie Vito

2. Arthur Longo

3. Taku Hiraoka

The recently crowned Slopestyle TTR champion qualified first on the X Games Tignes slopestyle. Chas Guldemond and Jamie Nicholls are out.

As predicted yesterday, the sun was back this morning on the French resort, just in time to give the slopestyle riders the perfect conditions they could expect. And despite the (arguably) medium size of the course, some pretty sweet action went down. The set up: a first set of 2 rails, followed by another set of 3 rails including a big flat/down in the middle, then 3 kinda perfect jumps, and finally another set of 3 rails.

First to mark his territory, Torstein Horgmo, who was saying yesterday he had no expectations whatsoever for his last contest of the season, qualified in first position: switch BS 9, BS 10 double and Front 10 double on the 3 main features of the course, Cab 270 450 off, switch front tailslide 270 on the rail. His first run scored a shiny 92 points, bang. Unlike the ski qualis earlier, most of the favorite went through, except for Roope Tonteri – despite a solid run including a massive 9 and a Back 14. Guldemond though, didn’t manage to put down a really clean run. And Jamie Nicholls could also find reasons to argue about his elimination – Switch Back 9, Back 9 and Cab 10. Finally, Mark McMorris seemed to not really force his talent until the last run, when the Cab Double under and double cork 1260 got stomped perfectly.

Torstein will have the privilege to start last for the final tomorrow morning at 10.30 CET. And here are the results of the qualis:

1. Torstein Horgmo  - 92 points

2. Mark McMorris – 90

3. Seb Toots – 89.33

4. Peetu Piiroinen – 85

5. Eric Willett – 84.33

6. Germund Braaten – 81.66

7. Sage Kostenburg – 78.66

8. Stale Sandbech – 75

Rest of the program:

Thursday, 21st March 2013

- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Men’s Ski Slopestyle final

- 3:00 pm: Women’s Ski Slopestyle final

- 6:30 – 7:45 pm: Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe final
- 8:30 – 10 pm: Men’s Ski Ski SuperPipe eliminations

Friday, 22nd March 2013

- 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle final
- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final
- 6:30 – 7:45: Men’s Ski SuperPipe final
- 8:30 – 9:45 pm: Women’s Ski SuperPipe final

Check the women’s superpipe final podium runs from last night in Tignes, plus the top three men’s qualification runs.

WOMEN’S FINALS

1- KELLY CLARK

2 – ELENA HIGHT

3 – ARIELLE GOLD

MEN’S ELIMINATIONS

1 – Louie Vito

2 – Scotty Lago