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

This week GoPro brought together a bunch of their heavy hitting international team in Laax for 5 days of chilled out shred and afternoons spent nerding off learning the possibilites of the new Hero3 camera. Check the rad gallery of selfies and a lowdown of the haps…

Would I like to spend 5 days with GoPro riders Sage Kotsenburg, Eric Willett, Jamie Anderson, Iouri Podladtchikov, Ralph Backstrom, Elena High, Xavier de Le Rue and Hannah Teter while getting schooled on how to use the magical box of tricks that is GoPro’s Hero3? The fact that it was being held in Laax – right up there in my list of ‘Most Awesome Resorts In Europe’ – only hastened my reply in the affermative. Having said that, even if they’d held it on a dryslope in Bognor Regis the chance to hang with that crew of bosses and tinker with the GoPro would have been too hard to pass up.

Ralph Backstrom, still smelling of Champagne from his winning of the whole damned Freeride World Tour a couple days before, was already there by the time I rolled in, while the rest of the crew, who’d been crushing the Euro X Games, cruised into town on the 12-hour party bus a little later accompanied by a bunch of dudes who boast a knowledge of what those little black and silver boxes can do that borders on the extreme.

This was to become apparent the next morning when we met up for the first of many clinics on how to work the Hero3. Now, previously I’d pretty much only ever hit Go and Stop, so to get the lowdown on what that camera can actually do, and how to do it, was an eye-opener. Videographers I know have expressed bafflement at the amount of sheer tech they can cram in and the quality of the output the Hero3 produces, and we’ve all marvelled at the Hero3 promo video, but to truly get the most out of the camera you really need to learn the modes, the software, the different ways of mounting it and so on.

Reeling with a mind full of ’1440p for POV’, ’30 shots in 2 seconds’, ‘timelapse mode’, ’4K capability’, ’720p shoots at 120fps and can be slowed down to 1/4 speed’, it was interesting to see how into it all the riders were. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as it offers them the chance to provide a unique angle on their riding and to pump out a bunch of content without even needing to wait for the filmer to drag his ass out of bed. You had Iouri strapping himself into a back brace with a pole jutting out the side and grilling the tech dudes on what was possible and how to achieve shots he’d been dreaming up, Elena having a bizzarre extension grafted on to her helmet and Hannah being wowed by the app that connects using WiFi so you get a live view of what the camera sees.

Ordinarily such technically-focussed nerd-offs would have sent many to sleep, but the media specialists they brought in from the US were just a bunch of laid back shredders who managed to strike the right balance of information and bro down-ery so it never felt like being at school. Of course, it wasn’t just about the nerd room and when up on the hill the guys and girls cut loose as they filmed and shot themselves, follow-cammed each other, while us media types failed miserably at bagging anything more than a Finnish faceshot. The riders earn their coin for good reason and bagged a bunch of bangers lapping Laax’s epic freestyle setup – Eric and Sage even managed to pass the camera between them mid-air, which is so insane that when you doubtless see it in a GoPro ad you’ll probably think it’s faked, while Ralph and Xavier sent it off the booters before heading off for some steep action.

Undoubtedly the highlight was the last day when the weather really turned it on and we were able to stay on the hill late for a sunset session that will have produced a heap of sick footage, the crew all smiles and high fives reflecting on this few days of deserved wind-down after a hectic season of travelling, filming and contests.

Yes, I was fed well and they bought me a couple of drinks, and, no, I have not tried any of the competition, but the fact is that the GoPro is an incredible bit of kit that allows everyone – from these cats on the team to Peter Punter – to create a ton of super high quality photos and videos. Are there any faults? My camera froze up from time to time (to fix just take out the battery and put it back in again), the software, while very good, is not the most intuitive, to get the best result you need to learn the modes and the post-production software, and they’re not cheap – the Hero3 Black edition with the WiFi remote is in the region of €450 – but if you’re into shooting yourself or your homies shredding, surfing, skating or whatever, it’s an investment you won’t regret.

We’re trying to get an edit of the trip dialled, but in the meantime peep this one from the DC Finland team for an example of what this box of tricks can do..

With any luck the Slopestyle will go down today in Tignes at the Winter X Games Europe, so our man on the ground canvassed a bunch of pros and punter to see who they were tipping for the win. Check it.

As with yesterday’s pipe predictions, opinion is divided between a few of the heavy hitters – predominantly Torstein Horgmo and Mark McMorris – and once again we’ll step up to offer our own educated guess. For men, we’ll go for Torstein taking the win – as Vito says, his steeze on rails could play a big part – ahead of Marc McMorris and Max Parrot. As far as women go, it’s hard to look beyond Jamie Anderson to edge this, though we reckon Spencer O’Brien will run her close with Enni Rukajärvi rounding out the podium. Will we be right? Who do you think will have what it takes? Shout out below or Tweet using the hashtag #xgamesnow

Our man on the ground from the Mpora mothership was cruising the X Games event site yesterday, hitting up a mix of riders and punters to see who the bookie’s favourite is to take out the superpipe title. Check who their money’s on…

As you’ll see, opinions are divided and… what the hell – we’ll throw our hat in the ring too. For men’s superpipe we’ll weigh in with Iouri Podladtchikov to win, with Louie Vito and Scotty Lago rounding out the podium. And seeing as there’s also women’s pipe – today in fact – we’ll call that too: Kelly Clark will be after revenge on Euro soil after coming up short at the BEO, so she’ll have what it takes to just edge out Arielle Gold, with Gretchen Bleiler taking third.

Who do you think will win? Let us know on Twitter, making sure you use #xgamesnow and you’ll also be entered to win an Onboard subscription and a whole heap of shred gear too.

And in case you missed our earlier X Games post, here’s the full rider list plus the schedule for the event. Times are in CET.

HALFPIPE

Men

1. Arthur Longo, FRA
2. Janne Korpi, FIN
3. Jan Scherrer, SUI
4.Benji Farrow, USA
5.Christian Haller, SUI
6.Aluan Riccardi, FRA
7.Taku Hiraoka, JPN
8.Nathan Johnstone, AUS
9.Taylor Gold, USA
10.Scotty James, AUS
11.Scotty Lago, USA
12.Markus Malin, FIN
13.Luke Mitrani, USA
14.Iouri Podladtchikov, SUI
15.Louie Vito, USA
16. Peetu Piiroinen (FIN)

Women

1.Gretchen Bleiler, USA
2.Maddy Schaffrick, USA
3.Hannah Teter, USA
4.Kelly Clark, USA
5.Kaitlyn Farrington, USA
6.Arielle Gold, USA
7.Ellery Hollingsworth, AUS
8.Elena Hight, USA

SLOPESTYLE

Men
Ulrik Badertscher (NOR)
Gjermund Braaten (NOR)
Chas Guldemond (USA)
Torstein Horgmo (NOR)
Yuki Kadono (JPN)
Sage Kotsenburg (USA)
Mark McMorris (CAN)
Aleksander Ostreng (NOR)
Maxence Parrot (CAN)
Peetu Piiroinen (FIN)
Ståle Sandbech (NOR)
Seppe Smits (BEL)
Roope Tonteri (FIN)
Sebastien Toutant (CAN)
Eric Willett (USA)
Jamie Nicholls (GBR)

Women

Jamie Anderson (USA)
Sina Candrian (SUI)
Aimee Fuller (IRL)
Silje Norendal (NOR)
Spencer O’Brien (CAN)
Kjersti Oestgaard Buaas (NOR)
Sarka Pancochova (CZE)
Enni Rukajärvi (FIN)

And here’s the competition schedule for the whole event:

Wednesday 20th March 2013

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

Thursday, 21st March 2013

- 10:30 am – noon: Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle eliminations
- 1:00 – 2:15 pm: Men’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

Eric Willett. Switch backside 1260 to winning. Photos: Thomas Copsey

In the place where it all began back in 1994, 25-year-old American Eric Willett scored his first major career win as he sent a switch backside 12 to place ahead of Seb Toutant, Alek Østreng and Mark McMorris.

After last night’s homage to the Air&Style’s past glories, Saturday’s spectacle was all about competitive snowboarding’s here and now. As anyone who’s watched the contest circuit this season will know, the level of progressive, technical kicker riding has engaged its booster rockets and reached escape velocity with double corks now a stock trick and an ever-lengthening list of people swanning past the burly bouncer on the club named Triple Cork.

Seppe Smits.

But although several riders landed the current trick du jour throughout the contest, it wasn’t the deciding factor here. Hang about, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Last year’s event was characterised by bulletproof conditions whereas here the opposite was the case. Throughout the afternoon and evening snow had been falling continually meaning both the run in, take-off and landing were challengingly slow and soft. This resulted in more than a couple of instances where riders got bucked leaving the lip and ratcheted back their rotation to something mellow like a 7 or 9, rather than the anticipated double 10, 12, or 1440. Hey, at least it means these kids are actually human.

Alek Østreng.

Rounds 1 and 2 proceeded without any major upset – save for the elimination of Club Triple’s Maxence Parrot at the hands of Clemens Schattschneider (who, it must be noted, landed a front double 10 that in mammalian genitalia terms could be classed as ‘whale cock’) and the early matchup of last year’s winner Peetu Piiroinen and last year’s World Snowboard Tour winner Stale Sandbech resulting in Peetu’s monster pop being outdone by Stale’s well stomped back 14 triple and up-down jibs on the rail section.

Stale Sandbech.

While, make no mistake, the earlier rounds had seen some heavy riding, it was in the Round 3, the Semis or whatever you want to call it where the riding really ratcheted up a notch; arguably – well not arguably, factually really – the level was higher here in the final. Seppe Smits had been sending it to the moon all evening, stomping monster cab doublish 12s with his unique slant on the trick, but was perhaps judged a little harshly against Eric Willet and had to head for an early bath. Air&Style Beijing champ Yuki Kadono went for the triple dip again but couldn’t find his landing gear and had to settle for the score on his Cab 12, which was not enough to stop Seb Toutant’s wired Cab double 12s advancing. Alek Østreng vs Roope Tonteri was characterised by an uncharacteristic amount of slams before Alek put one down that counted, but arguably the heat of the night was Stale vs McMorris where the two, fresh from blowing minds at the X Games, traded flawless triples and tech jibbing with McMorris’s slightly superior execution and better rail combo – Cab 270 boardslide – edging this one in his favour and netting him 96 points – the highest score of the event.

Mark McMorris.

So it was into the final chapter of this historic edition. Dudes had 3 runs with the best one counting, the only caveat was that they couldn’t try the same trick more than twice. Either as a result of the relentless snowfall or tired legs, try as he might Mark McMorris couldn’t put down the triple again and ended up in fourth, looking none-too pleased with himself and Østreng’s back 12s were decent but perhaps imperfect so he settled for third. Eric Willett had taken the early lead, his switch back 12 put down with the reassuring thwack of a perfect landing but, due to the format of having the first place rider drop first for the last jump, ha had a nervy moment waiting to see what Seb Toutant would pull from his deep wizard’s sleeve. Having already posted a couple of his ol’ faithful Cab 12 dubs he had to mix it up and, opting not to triple the cork fantastic (we found out later he thought the jump was “too small” for that), went for a double rodeo but arsed out. That was that. Eric Willett had secured his first ever 6-Star World Snowboard Tour win, and the consensus was one of stoke that he had done so. The guy’s got one of the biggest smiles in the game and was hyped to have cme out on top at this memorable edition of an already prestigious event.

If you’re wondering why Mark McMorris has two shots, it’s because he pulled a textbook Method. YES!

You’d be forgiven for thinking that was the Air&Style done for this year, but you’d be wrong. To follow up this party they’ll be heading across the pond to Mexico and, as the MC let slip, Brazil too, before dropping back in on Beijing in December, so there’s no laurel-resting from these guys that’s for sure. But for the 20-year anniversary that was a wrap. We had style, we had stunts, we had a crowd that couldn’t have been more hyped. We had one hell of a show. Happy Birthday Air&Style.

Tune in shortly for full video recaps and a gallery.

Peep some insane slopestyle action from the likes of Torstein Horgmo, Seb Toutant, Roope Tonteri and Chas Guldemond.

We don’t get to hear too much about it this side of the pond, but the Dew Tour is kind of a big deal. Currently a slew of the planet’s best bib boarders are ensconced in Breckenridge where they’re throwing down the madness that passes for competitive snowboarding these days in slope style, pipe and big air. Hey, the prize money or TV coverage must be good as Shaun’s even competing.

Anyway, men’s Slopestyle Semis went down a couple days ago and the riding was white hot. Torstein Horgmo qualified first by crushing the whole shebang with his über tech hangdog style ahead of dudes like Max Parrot, Chas Guldemond, Roope Tonteri, Mark McMorris and Sven Thorgren to name a few. Yesterday was women’s Slopestyle semis, where Jamie Anderson scooped the highest score, and men’s pipe semis, which saw Scotty Lago qualify ahead of a certain S. White. Interesting. Also interesting was Kazu’s second run, in which mid-way through he pulled a slash to revert and then still managed to boost himself way overhead on the next hit. One of the raddest things we’ve seen at a pipe comp in recent years.

As soon as more videos are released we’ll whack em up. Till then, here’s the PR blurb and results from yesterday:

South Lake Tahoe’s Jamie Anderson’s strong first run put her in the top spot going into tomorrow’s final from women’s slopestyle. Anderson threw down solid tricks in her first run such as a switch back 540, a back 180 and Cab 540 gave her a first run score of a 94.25. Anderson’s first run score of a 94.24 was the highest score out of all the riders for the day. Trailing close behind Jamie Anderson was Germany’s Silvia Mittermueller with a 93.00, and Enni Rukajärvi in third with a 92.00.

Seppe Smits, photo: Markus Deutinger

From March 28^th to 31^st, the Quiksilver Spring Battle celebrated its 10^th Anniversary at Absolut Park Flachauwinkl in Austria. For the very first 5Star TTR Event of the TTR World Snowboard Tour 2012/2013 some of the world´s best snowboarders travelled to Absolut Park Flachauwinkl to go for the heavy total prize purse of 50.000 US Dollar and up to 850 points for the TTR Big Air Tour Ranking 2012/2013. For the second time in a row, previous year´s winner Seppe Smits from Belgium took first place on the podium. Finnish rider Nuutti Niemelä became second before the American Eric Willett. Clemens Schattschneider was the best Austrian rider who made it up to the 5^th place.

Jan Necas

For ten years the Quiksilver Spring Battle has made a reputation as one of the most popular snowboarding events in Europe. An accomplished combination of the premium setup at the perfectly shaped Absolut Park with an innovative video judging system has been thrilling riders and spectators at this year´s 5 Star TTR Big Air snowboard competition. In the Qualification round on Thursday, all riders were showing off on the perfectly shaped 22 metre Big Air kicker, even if the weather conditions were getting worse due to strong winds. With the actual start list it was hardly surprising that double corks and 1260´s have been stomped even in the first round. The best ten competitors advanced to the subsequent Semi Finals. Together with ten invited riders out of the TTR Top 10 World Tour Ranking, they kept on pushing it to the limits, ignoring the upcoming storm in the Semis. The Finals were supposed to go down on Friday, 31^st of March but had to be in the true sense of the word blown off in last-minute. The ten best Semi Finalists were automatically nominated for the final Video Judging on Friday Night. They had the opportunity to pick their favorite run for the Video Juding, which was conducted on a video screen from different viewing angles.

Skate action. Photo: Markus Rohrbacher

International Podium and local Superstars in the top 10

Again, previous year´s winner Seppe Smits could not be beaten. Despite tough conditions due to strong winds, the Belgian convinced the judges and audience stomping a clean Cab 1260 Mute Grab over the Big Air kicker. Seppe won the Quiksilver Spring Battle for the second time in a row. Beside honour and glory, he took home 15.000 Euro prize money and 850 TTR points counting towards the 2012/2013 season. Nuutti Niemelä from Finnland was close on his heels and became second with the same trick, a Cab 1260 Mute Grab for which he was rewarded with 9.000 Euros. The American Eric Willett took 3rd place on the podium with his Frontside Doublecork 1080 Mute Grab, that brought him in 5.000 Euros of prize money. Finnish rider Ville Paumola missed the podium, but raked in 2.000 Euros for the 4^th place. Clemens Schattschneider was the best Austrian rider in the final round, reaching 5^th position. He took home 1.500 Euros as well as Markku Koski from Finland for his 6^th rank.

Another Austrian snowboarder, Michael Macho, became 7^th before Max Buri (SUI), Jan Necas (CZE) and Sven Thorgren SWE). They all got rewarded with 1.000 Euros each for their spot in the Top ten of the Quiksilver Spring Battle 2012.

After the prize giving, FM4/Texta DJ Dan took the tiller for the FM4 Club Aftershow-Party at  the ceremonial hall of Flachau. Riders and party people celebrated the 10th Spring Battle Anniversary properly until the break of dawn.

The prizegiving.

Several winners and three awards at the Skateboarding „Cash for Trick“ Sessions

On Wednesday, 28^th of March 2012, the Quiksilver Spring Battle 2012 showcased finest transition skateboarding at the Chillhouse on 1600 metres above sea level. 26 skateboarders from all over Europe were sending it for the Skate Jam. Most of the time up to five guys rode the miniramp coincidentally, intending to grab for some notes out of the 1500 Euros total prize pot. There were many winners but Andy Scott, Philipp Schuster and Dustin Vonach took home the awards for as “most impressive riders” of the day.

Asymbol Art Show of the Art Of Flight collection

Snowboarding legend Travis Rice and renowned artist Mike Parillo brought their Asymbol Art Show with the Art Of Flight collection for the Quiksilver Spring Battle to Flachauwinkl.

Riders' Night.

Ten years of Spring Battle – a flashback

The very first Spring Battle was taking place in 2003. The Aesthetiker Andreas “Mone” Monsberger took home the glorious trophy. In 2004, it was the Slovenian snowboard star Marko Grilc who won the Spring Battle, before Steve Gruber, another legend rider of the Aesthetiker crew, took over the lead in 2005. The following two years were under the sign of the scandinavians: Sweden´s Martin Sandberg won in 2006 and Ville Uotila from Finland was on top of the podium in 2007. The German “Pirate” Lars Oesterle claimed victory in 2008 and Jakko Ruha took back home all honour to Finland in 2009. Swedish young gun Kevin Backstroem won the competition in 2010, before the Belgian super talent Seppe Smits wrapped up the Quiksilver Spring Battle successfully in 2011.

All infos and rider profiles on:

www.ttrworldtour.com und www.snowboardingresults.com.

All infos on the Quiksilver Spring Battle:

www.absolutpark.com

www.facebook.com/quiksilverspringbattle

www.quiksilver-europe.com

As we hopefully conveyed in our Wängl Tängl 2012 report, the 10-year anniversary edition was the tits. Watch the video highlights of all the hammers from the finals…

And before it got called off due to a couple of horror slams, the skateboarding was not too shabby either. Here’s the best trick highlights

Shaun White just showed the world that he in fact does have what it takes to compete in the über-hucking world of contemporary slopestyle snowboarding by winning the Winter X Games in Tignes. Mark McMorris came second and Eric Willett rounded out the podium. Check the videos of the top 3 runs…

No sooner had we posted the videos of last night’s Winter X Games Europe halfpipe finals – won by you know who – than the men’s slopestyle finals began, thus scuppering our plans to analyse yesterday’s action. In brief, Shaun’s win was fine by us because while Louie Vito did four doubles and a front 12, Shaun just went SO big on all his tricks – the backside air and the front 5 were dismissed by many but they were BOOMING – so we’re happy to see amplitude rewarded hansomely.

2ND – MARK MCMORRIS

So to today’s haps. It was the first slopestyle contest White had entered since 2009 and there’s been a lot of chat about if he’s got what it takes to compete in this discipline now that the level of riding has bootstrapped itself up to maddening levels of technicality. When he was slated to ride the Aspen X Games slope but pulled out with ‘injury’, only to win the pipe a few days later, many (including ourselves) were scoffing that he’d pussied out. Well, looks like we were wrong as from the first run today he didn’t look out of place at all (apart from his getup and, it must be said, his horrific addiction to boot grabs) and posted a 95 point score that no one, apart from himself, could beat. It was his second run that nabbed him the highest score of 97 points, mixing in a gap cab 270 boardslide, cab 5 hop up to back lip-to-fakie, switch backside double 10, cab double 12, back double 12 and finishing off with a fakie to forwards boardslide.

3RD – ERIC WILLETT

He was aided by the inability of many riders to land a clean run and, sure, a couple dudes (notably Ståle Sandbech) were harshly scored, but – and this comes from a group of people who find much to dislike about Shaun White – in our opinion he fully deserved both his wins, despite the judges getting their jazz hands going a little to easily for him. He’s certainly, for our money, not the best snowboarder on the planet but if there’s a better competitive snowboarder around we’ve yet to see them.

Watch the women’s podium Winter X Games Europe slopestyle runs here. Jamie Anderson is a frickin’ boss.

This is Seb Toots' "Waiting to see the score" look.

Men’s Slopestyle eliminations have just wrapped up over in Tignes at the Winter X Games Europe 2012, and we’ve got the top 3 ranking runs for ya. Seb Toutant posted the highest score, followed by Ståle Sandbech and Eric Willett. Watch their runs…

First of all we must say that the level of slopestyle competitions is officially insane. We remember joking a couple years back that should it become an Olympic discipline kids would be throwing runs full of doubles. Well, that’s the case now for many riders. Also, the noise that top rail makes when spanked is epic – like a giant jib gong.

1ST – SEB TOUTANT

2ND – STÅLE SANDBECH

3RD – ERIC WILLETT

Here’s the full list of results. The top 8 dudes are through to the finals:

1 Sebastien Toutant 93.33
2 Ståle Sandbech 83.66
3 Eric Willett 81.00
4 Shaun White 79.33
5 Mark McMorris 78.00
6 Chas Guldemond 77.00
7 Jamie Nicholls 75.00
8 Aleksander Oestreng 70.00

————————————
9 Roope Tonteri 65.33
10 Justin Morgan 63.00
11 Antoine Truchon 51.33
12 Sage Kotsenburg 42.33
13 Torgeir Bergrem 41.33
14 Emil Ulsletten 40.33
15 Eric Beauchemin 39.00
16 Seppe Smits 34.33
17 Pat Burgener 25.66
18 Gjermund Braaten 20.00
19 Danny Davis 18.33
20 Mathieu Crepel 15.33