Elias Elhardt, shot by Roland Haschka.

The Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam 2010 finals passed off with a remarkably high riding level. After a terrific qualification at the Horsefeathers Superpark Dachstein on Saturday, the gathered snowboarder-scene witnessed a fulminate spectacle on a perfect sunny Sunday. The final of the TTR4 star contest made the audience gasp until the last rider went for the huge kickers. For the second time in a row, the “Jamps” of the 8th Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam 2010 are Elias Elhardt (GER) leading the male and Enni Rukajaervi (FIN) the female ranking.

Sunday boasted with blue skies and almost summerlike temperatures on top of the Dachstein glacier. These conditions made it difficult for some riders though to get enough speed for the massive kickers at the beginning. However, most of them adjusted their riding accordingly to the conditions, leading to innovative and stylish air maneuvers on a very high level. The day started out with the semi-finals, where the qualified riders met the invited riders for the first time and showed that they can hold the pace of the big names.

Getting ready for the Jam.

Male category: Doubles, tens and happy faces

Among the men, the first 1080s and double backflips were already shown in the semi-finals and the qualifiers challenged the invited riders heavily. Above all the Finnish riders Ville Paumola and Roope Tonteri impressed the jugdes with some technical tricks. Invited rider Ville Uotila promised already during the qualifications day that his Finnish buddies will rough up the finals. And so they did! Ville Paumola boosted himself to the 2nd place by pulling off a Cab 5, a FS 10, BS 9 on the kickers and a FS 1 – 360 off at the wall ride. Only to be beaten by one man who stood again above all: Elias Elhardt. The sympathetic German left the mouths of the crowd wide open by showing a Cab 5, a BS 10 double cork and a FS 9 on the kickers, plus a Cab 1 rock 360 off at the wallride in his 2nd run! “I’m super stoked about sticking the double cork. I didn’t intend doing that trick until the last second. It wasn’t easy with the speed, so I was doing BS 7s all day just to calibrate the speed for the timing, and at my last run I just thought: now or never!”, says really happy Elias after his victory.

The girls geared up!

At the girls competition, two riders already raised all attention in the semi-finals: Aimee Fuller from the UK and last year’s winner Enni Rukajärvi from Finland. At the finals, Enni had the better run and took the victory with an amazing Cab 5, FS 3 and BS 5 in a row! After 2009, this is the second victory for the Finnish girl at the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam. “I just have a good feeling for the park I think. It’s just so much fun riding here!”, says Enni after her victory. Amazing was also the best-trick performance by Klaudia Metlova, who has hence won a trip to the famous Balicamp. She let the audience breathless after her perfect BS 5 Rodeo, which was outstanding for a girl, also considering the incredibly huge tables of up to 20 Meters.

Flo Galler with the shot of the day. Photo: Roland Haschka.

A relaxing event for riders, friends and folks

The international significance of the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam is underlined by Enni, now taking the lead of the TTR World-Ranking with her great 1st place on the Dachstein glacier. Speaking of the whole event, the 8th edition of the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam kept what it promised and the overall mood within the rider field was very relaxed. Besides its international significance as a Swatch TTR 4 Star event, it is especially the familiar feeling which attracts the riders and which they fully enjoy when coming together here on the Dachstein at the beginning of the season. Kicking off the winter with your buddies, shredding all day long in a beautifully maintained park and having some awesome parties at night create the special atmosphere which marks the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam as such a distinct event within the international snowboarding scene.

More news and features on www.pleasurejam.com, www.facebook.com/qparksjam and www.qparks.com!

One happy Elias. Photo: Roland Haschka.

Here is the final result, the top 6 riders, men:

And here's female winner Enni Rukajärvi. Photo: Roland Haschka.

And also of course the top 3 ladies of the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam 2010:

Riders are getting ready for the first TTR event on the Northern Hemisphere that is coming up on 12th of November on the Dachstein glacier near Schladming, Austria.

With $20,000 USD up for grabs, over 160 international riders from over 20 countries are gearing up to compete in the Horsefeathers Superpark at Dachstein. Among them current Swatch TTR Tour leader, Gjermund Braaten (NOR), in attendance looking to defend his pole position. But also the likes of two-time World Rookie Fest winner, Roope Tonteri (FIN), Kevin Backström (SWE) and Seppe Smits (BEL) will be showing off their slopestyle skills.  Swiss riders Markus Keller and Stephan Maurer, who climbed the rankings last weekend with good results at the 4Star Nissan Stomp-It in Modena, Italy, will try to improve their Top 50 positions even further.

There’s bound to be some changes in the women’s TTR Tour ranking as well, with reigning champ and current World No. 2, Enni Rukajärvi (FIN) and German slopestyle specialist, Silvia Mittermueller, in No. 3 getting their shred on as well – especially with current tour leader Sina Candrian (SUI) not coming to the event…

So keep posted on for more updates and check all the news on ttrworldtour.com

Enni Rukajärvi kicked off her assault on the TTR here last year.

From the 12th to the 14th of November 2010, the whole Schladming-Dachstein region will be strictly focussed on 100% progressive freestyle shred. Yep, it’s time for the 8th annual Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam, which is once again a 4-star TTR event that will attract the international elite of snowboarding to the Horsefeathers Superpark Dachstein.

If its anything like last year you can expect more than 5000 visitors to descend on the Horsefeathers Superpark Dachstein, over 3000 party-animals at the roaring after-contest-parties in Schladming and around 160 riders from more than 20 different countries throwing down. Once more again this Swatch TTR 4Star Contest will offer one hell of a show to all comers: There’s one of the best playgrounds in Europe for the jet set of international riders, the considerable prize purse of 20.000 USD and altogether renowned ‘Jam-vibe’ in the valley and on the glacier.

More information on the registration, the Horsefeathers Superpark Dachstein, the contest setup and the last year’s events on www.pleasurejam.com or www.qparks.com! The Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam is also on Facebook: facebook.com/qparksjam.

After a terrific kick-off day loaded with action on the Dachstein glacier, the audience witnessed a fulminant spectacle on a dreamlike and sunny day. In the end, however, only one could win the contest: Splendid winner of the men’s judging was Elias Elhardt (GER) and Enni Rukajaervi (FIN) could come out on top of the ladies. But there’s also a victory to celebrate from the Austrian perspective, as Max Weickl was able to defend his brilliant third place from the qualification in the SuperFinals!

In the morning of the finals, you could already feel the tension in the air on the Dachstein Glacier. The riders who qualified on Friday competed with the invited pros at a perfectly shaped Atomic Superpark.

Sad to say that the Austrian favourite Stefan Gimpl had to cancel his run shorthanded due to a bad sore throat. So the Austrian fans feared for a local placement. But Max Weickl showed the audience how to shred and made a great 3rd place with a terrific run. He commented in his own words:
“I’m extremely happy with my placement. At first I even had to fight for the starting-place and now I’m the third! Maybe my strategy of taking it easy and not trying too complicated stuff paid in the end!”

After a rather unfortunate run in the semi-finale, the German Elias Elhardt stood on top of the victory podium. Elias could not only impress in the main-category but also in the Best-Trick-Contest with a Backside 1080 Doublecork. This trick won him a trip to the surfers paradise Balicamp! Certainly he was really stoked about the results:
“This was my first TTR World Tour Contest and I would never had counted with taking the first place! Of course, I’m the more happy about it and literally in heaven now!“

The second place at the men’s judgement was taken by Torgeir Bergrem (NOR).

The ladies-contest was ruled by Enni Rukajaervi (FIN) who really showed courage and finally convinced the judges with a strong run. Cab 540, backside 360 and frontside 360. She commented:
“The contest was awesome and the Set-up was just perfect. My style could have been better in my opinion, otherwise I’m satisfied with my performance and the result!”

The second and third places were taken by Cheryl Maas (NED) and Cilka Sadar (SLO).

The international significance of the Horsefeathers Pleasure Jam was underlined by the Czech Sarka Pancochova who was taking the lead of the TTR World-Ranking with a great 4th place on the Dachstein glacier.

All participants came together at the official riders party on Friday night at the Hohenhaus Tenne. The party was going on the whole night until Saturday morning. However the real party kickoff was on Saturday. From 16.00 o’clock there was the “Rock the Shop” Event powered by Electric at the Blue Tomato Shop Schladming. Everybody who stopped by got free glühwein and snacks and some riders dropped in directly from the mountaintop.

In the evening the legendary Pickings Fam Party took place at the Hofbauer Stollen. There were a lot of people celebrating and concluding a splendid and successful event! Hopefully you were in!

More information and the official video can be found on the Pleasure Jam Website.