All photos: Sebi Madlener

Last weekend the March Madness found its culminating final. The whole event was so exciting, we had to delete about a hundred exclamation marks from the original press release. But then, what can you expect from an event that calls itself madness…

After the “Ralley to Madness” on February 13 last weekend the final event of the “March Madness” took place in the snowpark Lenzerheide in Graubünden and attracted a lot of riders as well as many fans and spectators. The setup consisted of a downrail, a 14 meters kicker, a kinked box and a big kicker with a 16 meter table. For the qualification the organizers chose the best-of-two format: The two runs were held in the categories men (over 18 years), girls and rookies (under 18 years). The five best men of the qualification runs met the five winners of the Ralley to Madness (13.2.) in the finals. At the rookies and girls, four riders each competed in the final round.

Before the big showdown and after the qualification runs the riders changed to the medium line where the rookies judging took place! The three winners (Klijnsma Marc, Nicolin Balzer and Matthias Harder – all from Switzerland) were stoked about their gift prizes and Beach Mountain vouchers.

In the rookies finals on the proline, the 15-year-old Joel Staub stood out with a stunning performance (50-50, Frontside 3 Melon, Frontside Noseslide, Backside 7) and won the first place. The impressed jury didn’t hesitate to give the special gift, a Nitro Board, as well as 150 Swiss Francs to the young talent. Jonas Bösinger (14 years) from Rickenbach came in second and Leandro Eigensatz (15 years) from Oberarth took the third.

“The girls rally left our mouths remained open” said QParks-organizer Stephen Pressler. Due to her consistent performance the 22-year-old Isabel Derungs could not just win the qualification but also the first place in the finals and 300 Swiss Francs. Her clean combination of Frontside 3, Backside 3 and a solid Frontside 50-50 to Frontside Boardslide moved her past second and third Vivien Gnehm and Carla Somaini and brought her a pair of Nitro bindings.

In the Men’s category the final was just as exciting with a high level of riding among the last ten riders. In the end the 25-year old Robin Jäggi took the first rank, followed by Julian Fürsinger (19 years from Stans) and Stefan Ackeret (20 J.) from Winterthur.

Yet another highlight was the Goodies-for-Trix-Session held on a downrail and a downbox. Many snowboarders met near the chill-area to shred the obstacles. The best performances were awarded with goodies from Beach Mountain and Lenzerheide t-shirts! Special guest and pro rider Marc André Tarte came right from Canada to work as video host and as always he stirred up the crowd!

After the prize giving at 4 p.m. almost every rider showed up at the Obertor Bar at 10 p.m., where the DJ duo Radioaktiv kept things going wild all night long!

More infos, pictures and videos on www.lenzerheide.com!