If it hadn’t been for a nasty dose of the manflu, Japanese hypergrom Ayumu Hirano would be a serious contender in the Winter X Games Europe pipe. The X Games dude know we can’t get enough of this pint sized ripper, so have knocked together this edit shining some light on the lad, along with showing hit after ridiculously high hit of him in the stunt ditch.

“Winning the Nokia Rookie Award was huge,” says Arielle. “It helped me pay for travels, which was awesome, and was a kickstart to my career.” With a win at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships 2013, and a bronze at the Winter X- Games, Arielle has graduated from Rookie snowboarder to being a full-on contender for the Sochi 2014 Olympics in just one season.

And Ayumu? Gold at the Burton High Fives in New Zealand, Silver at the X-Games, Gold at the Burton European Open and at the 2013 US Open it took Shaun White on home soil (ok, machine-shaped snow) to stop Ayumu getting the top spot in the men’s pipe. He was always destined for greatness of course – the first time he dropped into the US Open pipe in 2011, the announcer said “It doesn’t make sense how something so small could go so big,” – but right now, no-one but Ayumu knows just how big he could go.

Rookie award halfpipe winner Chloe Kim. Yes, she won this much moolah.

Which brings us neatly to the question of who won the 2013 Nokia Rookie Award. Have the judges picked more legends-in- waiting? Are young men Darcy Sharpe and Taylor Gold, and girls Chloe Kim and Brooke Voigt the names that’ll be filling up the magazines, blogs and film sections of winter 2013-14? “I feel like the other years I wasn’t being recognised,” says winner Chloe Kim (pictured, right) “But this year I’m on fire.”

Ayumu and Arielle may have set the bar high, but this years batch of Nokia Rookie Award winners are well up for the challenge of beating it. But don’t take our word for it, you decide whether they’re the next big things.

How? By checking out this short film we made at the 2013 BUSO. And yes, the entire film is shot on Nokia Lumia 920 phones.

Photos of the Nokia Rookie Award Winners attached with relevant names in the credits.

Check out www.nokia.com for more details.

Check this. Another rad look at the winners from the recent Arctic Challenge and how the overall World Snowboard Tour was decided. Contains more AYUMU, and therefore viewing is mandatory…

Now that the US Open is all wrapped up, several of the World Snowboard Tour overall rankings have been decided and we can all relax and retreat from the edge of our seats. Rookie Ayumu Hirano takes the men’s pipe crown from under everyone else’s noses and, predictably, Kelly Clark takes top honours in the ladies’ halfpipe.

In just 21 short months, snowboarding’s favourite 4 foot Japanese 14 year old has rocketed 1247 places up the World Snowboard Tour rankings, and now trumps Lago and Vito for the year. With wins in Wanaka and Laax, backed up by second places in Vail and Aspen, Hirano has had a consistently impressive record recently, and nobody can deny he’s got the amplitude to tussle Shaun White for the limelight some time soon. Just look at him hanging out up there!

Clark takes her 61st win in the halfpipe, and 3rd World Snowboard Tour title, performing when it counted most to defend her spot at the top. Hannah Teter, Elena Hight and Arielle Gold have all pushed the girls’ level to new heights but Clark remains the most solid and her points reflect that.

Sarka Pancochova has been hard at it all year in both the pipe and slopestyle events, and a 4th place last week adds neatly to the points from her second place at the X Games to make her both ladies’ slopestyle champion and ladies’ overall champion. The girl’s got style, too

Mark McMorris has barely ever been off the podium recently, out-spinning his boy Horgmo on several occasions, and now takes home the Slopestyle title. Throwing out lazy triples whenever a GoPro is pointed his way – and not afraid to show what he’s got – even in a snowstorm, McMorris gets deserved recognition for a great year.

And that just leaves the men’s overall title to be decided at the last halfpipe event next week in Oslo at the Arctic Challenge. All eyes will be on second place local hero Ståle Sandbech – currently 135 points behind Peetu Piiroinen – who will be hoping to beat the Finn and retain the title. After Sebastian Toutant pipped him to the post for the Big Air title, Sandbech will be eager to prove himself but, as we all know, Peetu is a formidable competitor when his back’s to the wall. Stay tuned for our coverage of The Arctic Challenge to see how it all pans out.

Prior to the finals everyone had been raving about how Vail’s pipe was one of the best ever built, and after witnessing the finals it’d be hard to disagree. The level of riding, specifically the amplitude these guys and girls were getting, was next level. Shaun and Kelly won – which is no great surprise – but they were both given a run for their money by two kids who represent the future of men’s and women’s pipe riding: 14-year-old Ayumu Hirano and 16-year-old Arielle Gold both were arguably the people’s champions and showed that they’ll be deeply involved in writing pipe riding’s next few chapters. Props must also go to Christian Haller for the best Method of the day that, sadly, we couldn’t find a clip of. We saw it, Hitch, we saw it…

***Warning: Most of these videos contain AWFUL music. Set machines to mute.***

MEN

1 – Shaun White

2 – Ayumu Hirano

3 – Louie Vito

WOMEN

1 – Kelly Clark

2 – Hannah Teter

3 – Arielle Gold

Ayumu Hirano. What were you doing when you were 14? Ayumu was winning the BEO with monster hits like this. All photos: Sami Tuoriniemi

It was a case of ‘the kids are alright’ today here in Laax as 16-year-old Arielle Gold and 14-year-old Ayumu Hirano bossed the super ditch to take the BEO halfpipe crowns…

After the disappointment of yesterday’s slopestyle finals having to be canned due to crappy conditions, today Mother Nature cracked a grin and – though conditions weren’t tip top – stopped blowing a gale and lifted her cloudy skirt to allow the pipe finals to go down as planned.

Arthur Longo.

The women were first to drop and, despite some snowfall and foggy conditions, put on a decent showing with a bit of a shock result to boot. Back-to-back 720s from the likes of Elena Hight and Serena Shaw were impressive, as was Elena Hight’s style, Ellery Hollingsworth‘s Michaelchuck flips and – naturally – Kelly Clark‘s monster amplitude. However, turning heads was 16-year-old American Arielle Gold, who took the early lead with a heady cocktail of style, huge hits and tech combos. She even turned it up a notch for her final run, improving on her earlier score to tighten her grip on first place, her proper poked backside airs to steezy front 5s up top standing out.

Arielle Gold gets the shower from Kelly Clark.

Kelly Clark was sat in second after 2 runs, the high scoring one being solid but with Gold in pole we were expecting her to use her experience to unleash in the last. The pressure, which she can’t have felt too often here (usually she tends to have a victory lap) was most certainly on bu unfortunately for Kelly, she slammed on the first hit leaving Gold to take the top spot. “This is a huge win for me,” said a clearly delighted Arielle. “I am pretty stoked. It’s my first 6Star title, that’s crazy!”

Matt Ladley.

After a quick reshape it was time for the men to take centre stage and as if on cue the clouds lifted and the sun beamed down setting the scene for a memorable showdown. Huge airtime, insane spins and a peppering of double corks were the order of the day from the get-go, with some dudes who’d battled through the early rounds making a good impression – namely Swiss teenagers David Hablützel and Lucien Koch. But the invited dudes were, predictably, making their experience count too. Scotty Lago had the crowd hooting for his unique approach to pipe riding, often triple-poking his spins or double nosegrabbing his frontside 900s that saw him settle into second place after the second run, but he was bumped down a spot when Iouri Podladtchikov finally managed to put the run he wanted down.

Scotty Lago.

But this final was all about 14-year-old Japanese sensation Ayumu Hirano who’d recently announced himself taking silver at the X Games. Though he technically should ride in the Junior category he was going bigger than any of the other riders, and with style for days. His second run consisted of an enormous backside air, frontside 1080 tail grab, Cab 1080 nose grab and a frontside double cork 1080 that earned him an unassailable 87.60 points and his first BEO pipe title. “The conditions were really difficult,” he said after the Champagne shower, “but I am very happy that I could show my best riding. I am super stoked”

Taylor Gold.

As they say, “Booom!” Junior Jam tomorrow. More then then.

Ayumu ist the boss.

So who is Ayumu Hirano, the mindboggling 14-year-old Japanese kid that won Silver in last weekend’s X Games Superpipe finals? The X Games were quite at a loss, too, which is why they compiled this slightly disturbing video full of quotes, questions and quacking.

Now that you’ve met him, why don’t you head over to our our event department and check out his amazing halfpipe run?

This is the men's podium.

The first annual Burton ‘High Fives’ snowboarding competition, presented by MINI, concluded today at Snow Park NZ in Wanaka, New Zealand with the climactic halfpipe finals. Burton riders, Kelly Clark (USA) and Ayumu Hirano (JPN), took home US $10,000 each for their impressive winning performances in the pipe.

This is the, err, Team podium.

It was another beautiful ‘bluebird’ day at Snow Park NZ for the halfpipe finals. Women were up first in the pipe for the exciting one-hour jam session. Kelly Clark (USA) and second place rider Queralt Castellet (ESP) took it to a whole new level in women’s pipe as they duked it out for the top spot run. In the end it was Kelly’s incredible second run that took the win with 94.60, starting with a frontside 9, backside 5, front 7, cab 7 and stalefish. Queralt’s third run was a stunning series of spins, opening with a front 5, back 9, front 9, back 5, and a frontside 10 to finish for 92.40 points. Rounding out the podium with a score of 75.40 was USA’s Kaitlyn Farrington whose solid run consisted of a backside 5, stale, crail, corked front 7, cab 7, and backside alley-oop 5.

“The girls rode really great today and Queralt and I were run for run throughout,“ said Kelly. “But in the end I was really happy with my riding and it was so much fun to be putting down 9’s and 10’s in the summertime.”

This is Ayumu Hirano.

The men’s halfpipe finals were dominated by the Japanese riders whose sky high boosts lead to the top two podium spots. Leading the charge was none other than 13-year old Ayumu Hirano (JPN), who laid down the gauntlet with his first run. In the end he was theonly rider to top his own score with a 92.40 run that consisted of a frontside air, front 10, cab 10, front double, and crazy alley-oop rodeo 5. Ayumu’s talent showed through in spades earlier this year at the Burton US Open in March where his winning score in the Junior Jam broke all records. Burtongirls.com highlighted Ayumu’s recent success in an interview at http://burtongirls.com/snowboarding/little-big-time/ Last year’s Burton NZO winner, Ryo Aono (JPN), claimed second place today with 89.60, starting his run with a front 10 lein, cab 10 melon, front 9 lein, and back 9 lein. At one point it looked like it might be a clean sweep for the Japanese riders, but Greg Bretz (USA) put down a solid run for 88.60 points, nudging Kohei Kudo (JPN) off the podium for third place. Greg’s run started with a front 10 tail, cab 10 nose, front 9 lein, back 9 tail, and a front 10 double cork.

“I am so stoked to have placed first today in my third run of the jam at the Burton High Fives,” said Hirano. “I am now ready to go even bigger in my next competition.”

The amazing week of competition started with a non-traditional approach for a snowboarding event as riders showed off some of their unknown talents in unique Kiwi-influenced, off-snow team challenges at Oxbow Adventures, taking place at Ferguson Lodge, and the MINI Countryman Winter Driving Challenge. Riders were grouped into 12 Teams of five to compete in fun and rugged outdoor activities like skeet shooting, ATV racing and knife throwing, to name a few. Heading into the individual snowboarding events, team ‘Low Fives’, consisting of Roger Kleivdal, Kaitlyn Farrington, Scotty Lago, Kyle Mack, and team captain Kelly Clark, had taken a commanding lead in the team challenges. The ‘Bench Warmers’ were in second and went on to achieve solid results on snow, but it wasn’t quite enough to beat the Low Fives team whose strong snowboarding scores rose them to the top. The Low Fives gang took home the trophy and US $10,000 to split between them.

And this is Kelly Clark.

“The Burton High Fives’ creative approach to a snowboarding event was a lot of fun to be a part of,” said Kelly. “My strategy in team selection was to pick great riders with hidden talents like Scotty Lago with shooting and Kaitlyn Farrington with driving. That then set us up to do what we do best – snowboarding.”

Prize money today totalled US $35,000 for the Halfpipe, with an additional US $10,000 going to the winning Low Fives team. The 2012 Burton High Fives has dished out a total prize purse of US $80,000 – the largest to date in New Zealand snow sports history.

The halfpipe awards ceremony was as unique as the Burton High Fives itself, complete with boardgiveaways and live sheep. It was followed by the High Fives Sunset Sessions on the sun-drenched deck at the Woolshed at Snow Park NZ, featuring Dudstown Soundsystem. The entertainment will continue later this evening with the High Fives Closing Party at Opium Bar in Wanaka, also featuring Dudstown Soundsystem.

And finally, this is the women's podium.

For fans that missed it, the live webcast of the Burton High Fives can be viewed on demand at opensnowboarding.com. The 2012 Burton High Fives is the first event in the Burton Global Event Series and is a 5star event on the World Snowboard Tour. A special thanks to High Five partners MINI, Nokia, Red Bull, Snow Park NZ, Jagermeister, Juice TV, Skinny Mobile, The Edge, Stoke Lager, and Mighty Campervans.

The Burton US Open has long been THE contest to get noticed at.

In the 1990s, it was the contest that symbolised Terje’s absolute domination of competitive snowboarding. The US Open is also where a then-unknown 14 year-old called Kazuhiro ‘Kazu’ Kokubo burst onto the scene back in 2003. And in 2009, it was the contest that saw Chas Guldemond turn up unannounced, blow away the field and usher in a new era of slopestyle riding.

Nokia Rookie Award winner Ayumu Hirano

In short, the list of careers launched at the Burton US Open is long and illustrious. The event has always been completely open to anybody with the skills to step up and make a name for themselves alongside the best snowboarders in the world.

It all helps to explain why at the 2012 event, Nokia introduced the Nokia Rookie Award: a $5,000 prize and Nokia Lumia 800 awarded to the breakthrough male and female talent at this year’s half pipe competition.

Nokia Rookie Award winner Arielle Gold

So how do you determine a ‘breakthrough’ rider? The winners were chosen by an Awards Committee, and presented by current US Open judge Satu Järvelä, whose own wins at the 1995 and 1996 USO half pipe events helped push women’s snowboarding to the next level.

The Committee looked at each competitor’s TTR ranking and scores, rated how progressive their riding was, and examined how far they’d come through the competition.

In the end, two particularly worthy winners were chosen, and Nokia is extremely proud to announce that Ayumu Hirano from Japan and Arielle Gold from the US are the 2012 winners of the Nokia Rookie Award. Get used to those names. If history repeats itself, we’ll be hearing a lot more from them in the coming years.

Another entry into the ever-growing list of freakishly talented young bucks is this Japanese nipper, Ayumu Hirano. Check the 12-year-old Japanese ripper poaching the US Open pipe and frickin’ sending it. As the Burton guys say: if you’re gonna poach the pipe at the Open you’ve gotta follow the unwritten rule – GO BIG. Ayumu Hirano certainly did.

This kid is going places, believe. We remember seeing a 14-year-old Kazuhiro Kokubo back in the day and Ayumu seems to be on the same track. Remember the name.