Peetu Piiroinen. Photo: Marc Weiler

Despite difficult weather conditions (it basically poured down all day) the snowboard action of the freestyle.ch kicked off today. And even though many an industry insider was sure to know that things would not go ahead at all the level of riding was surprisingly high. In fact, most riders presented themselves in great form. Two give you an example, 12 out of 15 riders showed a double cork in their technical run, and most of them stomped it perfectly.

Once again it was Peetu Piiroinen (FIN) who dominated the qualification. He showed his signature consistency combined with style and amplitude and came in first after showing a perfect double cork 10 and a back rodeo 7. Local hero Iouri Podladtchikov came in second. His double cork in his last run secured him a spot in tomorrow’s semifinals. Third spot took the Canadian youngster Seb Toots and Stale Sandbech (NOR) came in fourth. Christian Haller was the only rider who made it into the finals without showing a double cork. It was quite obvious that in conditions like these his front 10 tail grab was almost impossible to land.

Iouri Podladtchikov. Photo: Marc Weiler

Now it is all about the second night of parties and tomorrow’s semi finals and finals…

Ranking Snowboard Big Air Qualification

These riders qualified for tomorrow’s semifinals:

1 Peetu Piiroinen FIN
2 Iouri Podladtchikov SUI
3 Sebastien Toutant CAN
4 Stale Sandbech NOR
5 Christian Haller SUI
6 Elias Elhardt GER
7 Gjermund Braaten NOR
8 Marko Grilc SLO