A good clean rodeo is surely second only to a method when it comes to style. Those who can do them know it makes them kings of the world for about a second a half. Those of us who can’t are forced to marvel at the neat simplicity of both spinning and flipping at the same time, without dizzying us. And whatever kind of snowboarding floats your boat, the same applies: throw a rodeo over a pillow, out of a pipe, round a tree, off a wall, even in the dark, and the stoke will beam across your face all day. Burton know this too. So naturally they’ve cut and pasted an orgy of them together with the kind of reckless abandon usually displayed by small children filling a bag of pick and mix right to the brim. Let Peetu Piironien, Mikkel Bang, Marko Grilc, John Jackson, Danny Davis and their chums do all the work. All you have to do is press play, and your eyes will widen for two whole minutes. You know you want to.

One of the heaviest riders in the game today, John Jackson has just left Forum and signed on the dotted line with Burton Snowboards. Or as some wag on Twitter said, “John Jackson left Burton to sign for Burton.”

Yep, the boy with the wildest hair in snowboarding will be repping Burton’s hard and softgoods as he sends himself over gaps that would eat lesser men. It’s a kinda interesting move as Burton own Forum so the how that all fits together we’re unsure – a bit like when Mat Crepel went from Gnu to Rossi… Here’s the PR chatter anyhoo.

As the grand finale to Burton’s annual fall meeting today, the company announced that pro snowboarder John Jackson will now ride for Burton, representing both hardgoods and softgoods. Burton employees, team riders and industry guests were the first to hear the news, breaking out in cheers and applause all around as John joined his fellow Burton pro riders on stage.

Welcome to Burton, John!

In addition to all the heavy lines, huge booter action and double cork tickers that will grab your attention, there’s also some neat face shot slow-mos at the end. Danny Davis’ one is particularly awesome.

You can find out the Euro premiere dates in our earlier Standing Sideways post.

This just got us mad stoked. Some Snow Porn from Burton’s theliftline.tv with Nicolas Müller, Stephan Maurer and Kazuhiro Kokubo getting it done in the NZ backcountry.

That method by Müller is the nuts, and those pow butters… so fun. Roll on winter.

Burton’s forthcoming shred flick looks like it’s gonna be pretty tasty if the teasers for Standing Sideways are anything to go by. So check this out, whack the dates in your iThing and prepare to send it at the premiere partys going down across Europe…

With serious cases of sick airness being reported around the globe, Burton Snowboards announced it is in full prep mode to host the world premiere of its new snowboard film, Standing Sideways, where else but in the ‘mile high’ city of Denver, Colorado on September 15th.

The very first showing of Burton’s new movie will take place in Denver at the legendary Ogden Theatre. It will be a jam-packed night of snowboarding’s best, starting with a red carpet lounge arrival of Burton riders as well as Burton Founder and CEO Jake Burton and some surprise special guests.

Right after the Denver premiere, some of the riders, including Mark Sollors, Danny Davis, Mikkel Bang, Mark McMorris, Kazu Kokubo, Jussi Oksanen and Terje Haakonsen, will head over to Europe where they will start the European leg of the tour in Antwerp, Belgium. The Burton Team will travel through Europe with a Standing Sideways tour bus to hit cities across the continent. Tour dates and details are below:

Saturday, Sept. 17th, 2011: Antwerp (Belgium)
Monday, Sept. 19th, 2011: Barcelona (Spain)
Tuesday, Sept. 20th, 2011: Annecy (France)
Thursday, Sept. 22nd, 2011: Milan (Italy)
Friday, Sept. 23rd, 2011: Innsbruck (Austria)
Saturday, Sept. 24th, 2011: freestyle.ch Zürich (Switzerland)
Tuesday, Sept. 27th, 2011: Prague (Czech Republic)
Wednesday, Sept. 28th, 2011: Munich (Germany)
Thursday, Sept. 29th, 2011: Warsaw (Poland)
Saturday, Oct. 1st, 2011: Moscow (Russia)

“I think I speak for all the guys on the team when I say how stoked we are to be a part of this movie,” said Burton pro rider Jeremy Jones. “It’s sick that Burton wanted to do a film again that doesn’t take itself too seriously. More than anything else, this movie just really makes you want to go snowboarding. Definitely check it out when it comes your way.”

Details for each Standing Sideways world movie tour stop can be found at www.burton.com/movie

Mark McMorris feeling the burn of the vignetting in this epic screengrab...

Right this is awesome. Yeah it’s a wrapup of the video highlights from the pipe and slopestyle at the Burton NZ Open, but even better… VOICEOVER GUY IS BACK!

Don’t ask how, don’t ask why, but somehow the times we were given for the live stream of the Burton NZ Open we were trumpeting about last weekend all went to bollix. Ok, do ask – we’re sorry to report we have no idea what happened: we were given times that we were told that the action was to kick off and it seems that this info was shady to say the least.

Whatever, all we can do is apologise profusely for our mistake on someone else’s part and as a weak way of trying to make amends present you with highlights from the pipe and slope, where Mark McMorris, Jamie Anderson, Ryo Aono and Kelly Clark ripped most awesomely.

SLOPESTYLE WRAPUP

HALFPIPE WRAPUP

Burton have been having a few issues with their latest team movie’s name in the UK where our Mothership is based, hence we’re so damned late with posting this. Oh well, as our French ed would say putain sa race, but it is resolved now so we can present this exclusively late teaser of Standing Sideways (along with a bit of mugging about the Storm Warning shop thang they got going on tomorrow.)

So on the off-chance that you haven’t seen it yet, or wish to reacquaint yourself with it, then here you go…

Tyler Flanagan at the BNZO Slopestyle. Photo: Pablo Azocar.

The sun blazed down on the 2011 Burton New Zealand Open making for a perfect day of Men’s and Women’s Slopestyle Semi-finals. 32 men and 18 women were culled down to 16 and 8 as they faced each other down on the challenging course that included MINI’s Creative Use of Space feature, a double cannon over a gap jump.

The women were up first with an exciting semi-finals showdown where we saw Charlotte Van Gils (NED) come out on top in first place with an impressive score of 87.33. Her run consisted of a Frontside 360 Nosetap, 50-50 to Noseslide, 50-50 Nosegrab, Backside 360 Melon, Frontside 360 Indy to Frontside 720 NoGrab. Right on her heels was local favourite, Shelly Gotlieb (NZL) scoring a 81 on her second run that included a Frontside 360 Nosetap, Backside 50-50 to Backside Lipslide, Boardslide to Fakie, Cab 540 NoGrab, Backflip Melon and Backside 360 Melon. In third was Jamie Anderson (USA) with a score of 78. The top 8 that made it today will advance to the exciting slopestyle finale on Friday August 12th.

Following the ladies, the men kept things cooking as GoPro enthusiast Tim Humphreys (USA) took first place with an outstanding score of 91.33 in his second run of the day. His winning run started out with a Cab Miller Flip leading into a GapCab 50-50, 50-50 Backside 360, Frontside 900 Tail, Switch Backside 720 and Cab 1080 Double Cork. Stale Sandbech (NOR) was close behind with a first run that included a Backside 540 Tailtap, Gap Hardway Frontside 270, Frontboard 450 Out, Cab 900 Melon, Backside 1080 and Frontside 1080 which earned him 91 points. Seppe Smits (BEL) made the top three with a second run of 89.83 while other top riders that made the cut included Sebastian Toutant (CAN), Tyler Flanagan (USA), Christian Haller (SUI), Mark McMorris (CAN) and Gjermund Braaten (NOR).

Women’s and Men’s Slopestyle Finals will be going down at Cardrona Alpine Resort tomorrow Friday, August 12th (well, actually tonight at 11pm CET) followed by the Men’s and Women’s Halfpipe Finals on Saturday, August 13th.

Here’s the full list of men’s and women’s Slopestyle finalists…

Slopestyle Finals Women: Miyabi Onitsuka, Jordie Karlinski, Tomoko Kikuchi, Silje Norendal, Kjersti Buaas, Jamie Anderson, Shelly Gotlieb and Charlotte van Gils.

Slopestyle Finals Men: Christian Haller, Aleksander Østreng, Simen Neraker, Ulrik Badertscher, Roope Tonteri, Fredrik Austbø, Mark McMorris, Gjermund Braaten, Tyler Flanagan, Torgeir Bergrem, Sebastien Toutant, Charles Reid, Brandon Reis, Seppe Smits, Ståle Sandbech and Tim Humphries

You can watch all the action from the Burton NZ Open pipe and slopestyle finals live by clicking that there link. It all kicks off around 11pm CET.

The Burton NZ Open is rocking out down under and you can watch the Semis and Finals of the halfpipe and slopestyle unfold right here on this live stream from 11pm CET.

Ok, if you’re in Europe like us then you’ll have to get the beers in and make a night of it as the stream will be live pretty late on Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights/early the next mornings. In fact, off the bat, here are the dates and times for various different live streams of the Burton NZ Open in various locales…

EUROPE – CET

Thursday, Aug 11/Friday, Aug 12
Men’s & Women’s Slopestyle Finals
11:00pm – 3:00am

Friday, Aug 12/Saturday, Aug 13
Men’s Halfpipe Semi-Finals
10:30pm – 1:00am

Saturday, Aug 13
Men’s & Women’s Halfpipe Finals
1:00am – 5:00am

New Zealand – NZST

Friday, Aug 12
Men’s & Women’s Slopestyle Finals
9:00am – 1:00pm

Saturday, Aug 13

Men’s Halfpipe Semi-Finals

8:30am – 11:00am

Men’s & Women’s Halfpipe Finals
11:00am – 3:00pm

US – EST

Thursday, Aug 11
Men’s & Women’s Slopestyle Finals
5:00pm – 9:00pm

Friday, Aug 12
Men’s Halfpipe Semi-Finals
4:30pm – 7:00pm

Men’s & Women’s Halfpipe Finals
7:00pm – 11:00pm

So set your watches and prepare yourselves for the hammers in this, the ninth edition of the BNZO. It’s also a 5-Star TTR event and the first stop on the Burton Global Open Series tour, where the riders list looks like a who’s who of contestular awesome riders. Look at this cut/paste list! Canadians Mark McMorris and Charles Reid; Americans Louie Vito, Jarret Thomas, Benji Farrow, Danny Davis and Jeremy Thompson; Japanese riders Kudo Kohei, Murakami Daisuke, Ryo Aono and Taku Hiraoka; Norwegians Ulrik Badertscher, Tore Holvik, Torgier Bergrem, Gjermund Braaten, Stale Sandbech and Torstein Horgmo; BNZO’s 2010 Slopestyle Champion Christian Haller (SUI), BNZO’s 2010 Halfpipe Champion Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI), plus Manuel Pietropoli (ITA) and Marko Grilc (SLO), as well as top local riders from New Zealand and Australia, including Mitchell Brown and Scotty James.

Wowzers! There’s girls too! Cut/paste again! 2010 BNZO Halfpipe Champion, 2011 BGOS Overall Champion and three-time Olympian Kelly Clark; 2010 BNZO Slopestyle Champion Jamie Anderson, 2011 US Open Slopestyle Champion Enni Rukajärvi (FIN) and two-time Olympians Hannah Teter, Gretchen Bleiler and Elena Hight, as well as Olympians Queralt Castellet (ESP), Soko Yamaoka (JAP), Sarka Pancochova (CZE), Ursina Haller (SUI) and Cilka Sadar (SLO). Also competing are Kaitlyn Farrington (USA), Spencer O’Brien (CAN), Silvia Mittermuller (GER), and New Zealand’s own Rebecca Torr.

In addition to the live streaming that you can get balls deep into right here, the BNZO will offer a live scoring service, accessible with any mobile phone or web browser. For iPhone users, the download the Efan iPhone app free from the App Store, or you can go to this place on the internet for start lists, results, live scores, live standings, athlete profiles and event details as available.