Mark McMorris sniffs the sweet scent of victory in NZ. Photos: Pablo Azocar

Slopestyle finals were the focus of attention at the Burton NZ Open in the wee hours of our morning, with Mark McMorris bagging first for the guys and Jamie Anderson doing the same for the gals. Read on for the what-went-on…

With Cardrona resort basking in bluebird conditions, 16 guys and 8 girls put on a progressive show of slopestyle riding. Ominously foreshadowing what we might expect now this gig is an Olympic sport, Canadian Sebastien Toutant pulled back to back to back doubles and New Zealand’s Shelly Gotlieb attempted the first women’s double in competition. Imagine the state it’ll be in come 2014… back to back triples? Quads? Aaaaanyway…

Seb Toutant not doing a double cork. OMG. WTF.

Canada’s Mark McMorris‘s second run was the one that grabbed the cash, with it going down like this: Fullcab Stall, Cab 270 Frontboard to fakie, Halfcab 50-50 to Backside 360, Backside 1080 Double Cork Mute, Frontside 900 Melon to a Cab 1260 Nosegrab. Not far behind was compatriot Sebastien Toutant with his Cab 540 Tailtap, Front Blunt 270 out, Tailslide 270 out, Backside 1080 Double Cork Mute, Frontside 1080 Double Cork Melon, to a Double Backside Rodeo 1080 Truckdriver. Third place was eagerly gobbled up by Norseman Stale Sandbech whose run consisted of a Backside 540 Tailtap, Hardway Cab 270 to Frontboard, Frontboard 450 out, Cab 900 Stalefish, Frontside 1080 Indy to a Backside 1260 Mute.

In the women’s slopestyle, Jamie Anderson made it a fourpeat – her fourth straight New Zealand Open slopestyle title was earned with a Switch Backside 180 Tailtap; Front Blunt to fakie; Halfcab 5-0 to Backside 180; Switch Backside 540 Indy; Frontside 360 Lein; to a Backside 540 Mute.

Jamie Anderson is the Bauss.

Second went to Kjersti Buaas who held it down with a Frontside 360 Nosetap, 50-50 on the double kink, 50-50 to Backside 180, Cab 540, Frontside 720 to a Frontside 360 Stalefish.

The TTR World Tour has introduced an all-new ranking system that now ranks riders according to discipline. With his win today, Mark McMorris has advanced to World No. 4 in the men’s TTR Slopestyle World Tour Rankings and Jamie Anderson has bolstered her leader position in the women’s TTR Slopestyle Tour Rankings with her victory today.

Womenly slopestyle winners.

The live action at the Burton New Zealand Open culminates tomorrow (or real late tonight in Euroland) with the blue ribband event, the halfpipe.

Remember you can watch the Burton NZ Open live here on Onboardmag.com. Just click that link for the specific times and, of course, the live stream.

Manly slopestyle winners.

Zack Black. Photo: Pablo Azocar.

The action at the 2011 Burton New Zealand Open on day two was focussed on what went down in the 22-foot Olympic sized halfpipe.  Another perfect day made for epic conditions in the stunt ditch as 56 men and 26 women battled it out for advancement to the semi-finals. Those that made the cut sleep safe in the knowledge they’ll be going head to head against the invited halfpipe heavy hitters, like Danny Davis (USA), Queralt Castellet (ESP), Hannah Teter (USA), Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI) and Kelly Clark (USA) in the semi-finals on Friday and Saturday.

Starting the day off, Men’s pre-qualifiers were split into two exciting heats where the top 25 men advanced to the qualifiers later in the day.  Kazuumi Fujita (JPN) and Brett Esser (USA) stayed strong throughout pre-qualifiers and qualifiers as they were both top five in their first heats and continued on to the top two seats in the qualifiers.  Esser dominated the day coming out in first place overall with a strong second run that scored 81.58 points.  Starting with a Frontside 1080 Tail Grab, he then moved into a Cab 720 Lien, Frontside 900 Tail Grab and Backside 900.  Fujita was not far behind in second place with a second run that scored him 80.98 points.  He earned the high score with a Crippler, Backside 540, Frontside 720, Cab 720 and Frontside 900.  In third place was another strong Japanese rider, Ikkou Anai, who scored 80.70 points in his last run of the day.  Others that made the cut today were Tore Holvik (NOR), Sato Shuhei (JPN) and Dylan Bidez (USA).

[If the thought of reading more sends you spazzing, here's video highlights from last year to provide light relief from the mental horror of following words with your eyes...]

The women’s halfpipe qualifiers kept the action in the air as 26 women competed for 5 spots that will advance to Friday’s semi-finals.  Japanese riders killed it in the pipe today with Haruna Matsumoto winning first and Hikaru Oe closing out the top three.  Matsumoto’s second run earned her first place with a scoring run of 83.65 and included a Frontside Air, Method Air, Frontside 540, Backside 540 and Frontside 720.  In second place was New Zealand’s own Rebecca Sinclair who scored 82.53 points in her second run with a Frontside 720 Melon Grab, Cab 360, Frontside 540, Backside 540, Stalefish and Method Air.  Rounding out the top 5 today was Xuetong Cai (CHN) and Holly Crawford (AUS).

Based on feedback from global coaches and team managers earlier in the week, the SLS system was used in pipe qualifiers for the first time ever with a modified system where two judges (rather than one, used previously) looked at each hit in the pipe.

The 2011 BNZO marks the first stop on the prestigious Burton Global Open Series and is also a 5Star event on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour. Full details and updates are available via www.opensnowboarding.com and semi-finals and finals of the event will be webcast live here on on onboardmag.com

As the kick-off to the Burton Global Open Series, the BNZO will get underway on Tuesday, August 9th with official training, followed by slopestyle pre-qualifiers and qualifiers and the same for halfpipe the next day, August 10th.

On Thursday, August 11th, things will get down to business with the slopestyle semi-finals where the top 8 women and 16 men will advance to the finals on Friday August 12th. Next up are the halfpipe semi-finals and finals with the women’s contest set for Friday, August 12th followed by the finals on Saturday, August 13th, while the men will battle it out all in one day on Saturday.

For more info and the live webcast go to opensnowboarding.com

Now that the TTR’s new Live Scoring system’s been put into practice at this season’s first major event, you get a look at how it works in the field. Check it out as the judges explain how 3 triples doesn’t necessarily equal gold, plus some sick new angles of the banger runs. Keep an eye out for 14-year-old mentalist Taku Hiraoka’s insane height on his front 9. This kid’s one to watch…