American rider, Eric Willett, took the first 5Star Big Air title of the 2011/12 TTR World Tour season at the second annual Billabong Ante Up competition held atop Whistler Mountain in Canada. The sun was hidden behind the clouds for most of the day, but riders put on a great performance for the crowd of spectators at the top of the mountain where Sebastien Toutant (CAN) came in a close second behind Willett and Dash Kamp (USA) took home third place.

Eric Willett on his way to first at the Billabong Ante Up. Photos: Matt Forsythe.

The Ante Up started out with a qualifying round of 30 snowboarders in the early afternoon that was whittled down to 10 men for the finals. The start list was packed full of riders who are usually super consistent on big air kickers like Seppe Smits (BEL), Chas Guldemond (USA), Gjermund Braaten (NOR) and Roope Tonteri (FIN) but they just couldn’t seem to put their landing gear down on the 90-foot gap jump. This opened the door for Eric Willett who took numerous podium spots at Big Air and Slopestyle competitions last season and for Sebastien Toutant who won the Ante Up last year. Eric Willett landed a smooth switch backside double cork 1260 to take $20,000 USD for his win today. Sebastien Toutant was awarded $12,500 USD for landing a Cab double cork 1260 and Dash Kamp walked away with a cool $8,000 for his backside double cork 1080.

Seb Toutant.

Willett is already looking forward to the Southern Hemisphere leg of the tour and had this to say about his win: “I’m stoked. It’s always weird to come out here in July and do a competition in the middle of summer, but it’s really fun and crucial to come out for the start of the season and get those points especially with the new ranking system to get the big air points. I’m pumped to head down to New Zealand with this confidence booster.”

All 32 riders who competed at the Ante Up earned ranking points that will count towards the all-new TTR Big Air Tour Ranking list and will also count towards the TTR Overall Tour Ranking list, as well.

Ante Up podium.

With the 5Star Ante Up wrapped up and winter on the rise in the Southern Hemisphere, riders will soon make the trek down to New Zealand for the 5Sar Burton New Zealand Open where the first slopestyle and halfpipe results will be registered for the TTR Slopestyle Tour Ranking list and the TTR Halfpipe Tour Ranking list. Riders will also have the opportunity to hit the 4Star Billabong Bro Down (ss), also taking place in New Zealand, and the 4Star Stylewars (ss) event going down in Australia.

For those of you who just like the bangers, here they are…

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The first 5-star TTR event of the new season will be the Billabong Ante Up contest. It takes place from 26 to 30 June, 2010 in Whistler Blackcomb during the Camp of Champions. Further down you’ll find the names of invited riders, and boy does this look promising!

Please apologise the dowdy looks – it isn’t our fault…

More information on www.billabong.com/anteup.