Jamie set up the American rule with her performance

While the ladies were still able to enjoy sunshine and comparably soft snow during their slopestyle finals this afternoon, the men had to battle it out in the darkness on a more or less frozen course, putting up a show of their own.

The ladies weren’t too bad themselves though, with Czech whirlwind Sarka Pancochova and former TTR queen Jamie Anderson (USA) fighting a fierce battle about the pole position, that was handed from one to the other almost run by run. It started with very similarly scores for their first runs in the semi finals (2 points more for Sarka’s BS 3 and gap to BS boardslide than the BS 3 Gap to Tailslide from Jamie), continuing with bails from both in their second runs, leaving Sarka in pole for the finals. With her first run in the finals Jamie managed to get herself in the lead though (with a huge BS 3 and gap to FS boardslide to 270), which Sarka answered with a massive BS 5 and switch boardslide to gap to switch boardslide in her second run, only to be outplayed by the American’s perfect BS 5 and an super clean switch boardslide to backside boardslide. Third came reigning TTR champ Enni Rukajärvi (FIN), Sina Candrian (SUI) and Aimee Fuller (GBR).

Night contests do have their very special charm - at least for the spectators who don't have take notes and/or twitter in freezing temperatures

Although the real thriller started when the sun had set over Davos and the men started action on the slopestyle course for the semis and the finals of this year’s TTR 6star slopestyle contest.

When it had been all about Switzerland yesterday, it was all about North America today, with Canadians Seb Toutant, Mark McMorris and America’s Eric Willet chasing each other scores run by run, not even heavy slams stopping them.

After winning the semis, Seb stepped it up even more in the finals, stomping one cab 12 double cork after the other. Getting knocked off the pole by Mark McMorris in the second run, who had a sensational come back with a massive Cab 12 Double Cork and FS Tailslide 450 out after slamming terribly in his first, and Eric Willet and his Switch 12 Double Cork and BS Boardslide 450 in the third couldn’t stop the teenage super hero from reclaiming the top spot with his last version of the Cab 12 Double Cork and underflip from the pole.

Hero of the day: Mark Mcmorris, who pulled himself up from a horrible slam to stomp the sickest run the contest had seen so far

Apart from the Yanks it was once again the kiddos that put on one hell of a show at this full on double cork fest, special props going out to Seppe Smits (BEL), Torgeir Bergrem (NOR), Clemens Schattschneider (AUT) and Emil Ulsletten (NOR), representing the U20 side of the rider field but throwing down like the big guns with massive BS 12.

Right now the decks are already spinning in the party tent next door and we will close the laptop on the O’Neill Evolution 2011 and celebrate another little step in the evolution of snowboarding.

Cheers

Of course this Iouri Podlatchikov, not Louri....

Writing a news piece with the whole of Switzerland partying in front of you is a bit of a challenge, but of course they have more than reason to go crazy today – the TTR 6star O’Neill Evolution pipe contest finished with an all Swiss podium, consisting of Christian “Hitsch” Haller, Iouri “I-Pod” Podlatchikov and new up and coming rookie Jan Scherrer.

Already in his first run, new talent Jan Scherrer impressed with a huge BS 9 at the very first hit and he continued riding like that. Aged sweet 16, he already got cripplers, cab 7s and 9s on lock as if he was born doing them and bagged himself a well deserved 3rd spot at this TTR 6Star event.

But also I-Pod knew how to impress today, with super fast spinning and precise riding, that kept him in top spot until the very last minutes. Especially his second run including a Crippler, Double McTwist and FS 10 got judges and spectators hyped likewise. It wasn’t meant for him today though. As after snapping his board desastering on the coping in his second run, fellow Swissman Hitsch Haller busted out BS 5, FS 10, Cab 10, FS 9 run 5 minutes before the end, overtaking I-Pod by 0.25 points, making the all Swiss podium come true and moving him up to 3rd place in the overall TTR ranking. Instead of hard feelings you only got super stoked smiles, enthusiastic hugs and combined signing of Swiss flags from the spectators.

Surprisingly the normally so super dominant Finnish shred machines couldn’t stomp the way we’re used to and so Peetu Piiroinen ended up in 4th place after he had won the semi finals this morning.

The Women’s Pipe final that went down just before didn’t have as many surprises with USA’s Kelly Clark clearly dominating the field, flying higher than anyone else and scoring full on 80 points in all of her three runs (which moved her up to TTR rank 3 as well). We’re not sure if that also had something to do with the fan club that was screaming like hell when ever she dropped but she more than surely deserved this win for her run including a BS 5, FS 7 and cab 7. She was followed by Slovenian up and coming talent Cilka Sadar and Norwegian style queen Kjersti Buaas, who wasn’t entirely happy with her runs though (“I was running out of pipe! I wanted to do some more tricks…”).

We will start mingling with the party folks now and hopefully be back tomorrow with all highlights, tricks and scores from the big slopestyle finals tomorrow – and maybe even some party gossip…

Here it is, in all its whopping glory, thanks to some dude with a camera and a TV.

Interesting to hear the discussion between Shaun and his coach, Bud Keene, at the top before dropping. “Yeah, drop the double Mick at the end… Make sure you stomp the shit out of it.” While all the coaching pep talks and ‘USA-ing’ has little to do with snowboarding in our opinion, as soon as Shaun gets in the ditch there’s no denying that he threw down a frickin’ killer pipe run on the biggest stage around… and he didn’t even need to.

What a night! Due to some very clever Olympia media dudes the Men’s Halfpipe Finals went down in the middle of the night (also referred to as ‘stupid-o-clock’) over here on this side of the big pond, but our news team of course was neither shocked nor stopped by this and set up a little media hub fuelled with beers, live stream and internet frenzy.

The main info you want now is this: Shaun White went bigger than anyone else and bagged his second Olympic gold medal, followed by reigning TTR World Champ Peetu Piiroinen in silver and Scotty Lago in third, scoring bronze.

Should you have fallen asleep somewhere in the course of the qualification to the finals or had any other reason (like getting up for work) holding you back from watching the action live, we have an epic minute-by-minute report of last night’s event for you.

But even if you watched it yourself – read it anyway, it’s just hilarious and includes expert commentary by various snowboard editors and photographers, Jenny Jones and a fair bit of web chaos craziness…

onboard.mpora.com/mens-olympic-halfpipe-minute-by-minute-report

Eiki is filming with the Pirates this season. Watch the early season edit from Sälen by Pirate Movie Production featuring Danny Larsen, Gulli Gudmundsson, Kalle Ohlson and Eiki Helgason – Awesome!

Congrats to Halldor, after his 1st place at the Qualifiers he got 5th in the Dew Tour Breckenridge Slopestyle Finals… Check the video edit by twsnow.com

Also keep up to date with the Helgasons at helgasons.com