Check out the top 3 runs from the men’s superpipe finals in Tignes last night. Louie Vito snagged top spot with a barrage of double corks, while Arthur Longo was the people’s champion due to going frickin’ MASSIVE with his tasty Gallic steeze. And by being French.

1. Louie Vito

2. Arthur Longo

3. Taku Hiraoka

Despite Shaun White and Ayumu Hirano’s absence, yesterday’s superpipe finals at the X Games in Tignes went OFF. Check the full recap…

We were also expecting to see the 8 players from yesterday in the pipe tonight, but Peetu Piiroinen got replaced last minute by Taku Hiraoka. So the starting list looked like this, in order of qualification: Louie Vito, Scotty Lago, Iouri Podladtchikov, Christian Haller, Luke Mitrani, Arthur Longo, Benji Farrow and Taku Hiraoka. Peetu out. Injury at the training? We learned later from the judges that he prefered to keep his mojo for the slopestyle tomorow. Strange, but nevertheless the young Japanese rider – always the reverse order from the qualis – sent it huge on his first hit and appeared to be quite consistent, except maybe on his final hit, which was a double cork. But it’s ‘nearly local’ Arthur Longo who gave the crowd its first occasion to go wild. He started off with a massive Front 10 and manage to keep his stratospheric amplitude all the way down, sending him high and clean, even on his Front dub. His score: 92. The crowd went mental.

Luke Mitrani bailed on his last hit – double, quite gutted. Then comes I-Pod, sent it huge all the way, including his back-to-back doubles, but scores… a surprising low 82 points. Vito is another one to complete his first run solidly, with 3 dubs including back-to-back with a back hand pretty much in his pocket. He scored 84 points for that run.

On his second run, Taku also landed his double perfectly on his last hit and improved up to 78 points, into 3rd place. Another big improvement from round 1 was for Luke Mitrani. At this point we wondered what goes in I-Pod’s head: maybe something like “what can I do to improve my score?” His 4th hit gave the answer: bail as he was presumably trying a 1440. Vito’s turn: his second double sent him a bit low but he managed to keep a fair amount of speed to finish off with a huge and stylish Crippler.

Scotty Lago stepped up to improve, went double with a double grab on his first hit, and then slowed down to just carve the rest of the course. Probably still hurting from his first run’s impressive slam on the angle of the coping. A little later his fellow American rider Vito started things off with a double Crippler, went for a back-to-back double, and falls.

Hiraoka is up first for the final run, and went even bigger and better than his first run. A run consisting in three 10s, a 9 and a 12. Ouch! That scores… 86 points, second place. You could see a lot of nervousness on Longo’s face waiting in the starting box for his last run. He put down his run, huge and stylish again, until his double cork attempt where he missed the grab and finished on his ass. He was still Gold medalist at this point of the night.

I-Pod was determined to do something special last night, and then did: after his (and Shaun’s) Double McTwist 12, he sent a sick Cab 1440 double – rapidly dubbed the YOLO Flip – on his 4th hit, followed by… a coping hug and a scary slam. Smiling but clearly shocked, he started throwing his board at the pipe, before throwing everything he can into the crowd, including his board. Stoked to land this Cab 14? A trick never seen in contest. Or hiding his disappointment with this massive grin? It looked like if he had the choice between winning the event or landing this trick, he would have chosen the latter – the one that probably gives you a bigger place in the history books of snowboarding.

Lago was definitely injured and passed on his third run, so it’s the final run of the night for Vito. The last man able to take the Gold off of Arthur’s neck, and shut down the excited crowd pumping for le Français since his first run – or more precisely since the qualis. And it’s a double fest. Double Crippler first, and back-to-back (Double Michaelchuk Vito’s style), and then 2 more… But all Indies, except for the last hit. It was definitely gonna be a close call for the judges, who took something that feels like hours to finally give the Gold to the American, with a 92.66, 0.66 point better than Arthur. Merde. I mean, the crowd seems to say that, of course. Appart from papa Vito, exulting from the crowd clapping and shouting. Oh well, the closeness of the score could make Arthur feel surely a bit gutted, but he’s certainly generally stoked to be Silver, just like Taku to be Bronze. “I had no pressure at all tonight,” Taku said afterwards. Imagine: he was not even supposed to take part tonight until Peetu’s cancelation…

Vito said after his win: “The pipe is always so good here. I was a bit nervous after the first run. But I’m super stoked because this morning I woke up feeling old because I just turned 25 yesterday”.

Tomorrow 10.30 starts the Slopestyle Men’s final, followed by the women’s slope. Stay tuned!

Check the women’s superpipe final podium runs from last night in Tignes, plus the top three men’s qualification runs.

WOMEN’S FINALS

1- KELLY CLARK

2 – ELENA HIGHT

3 – ARIELLE GOLD

MEN’S ELIMINATIONS

1 – Louie Vito

2 – Scotty Lago

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

Louie Vito gets fired a bunch of random questions ahead of today’s pipe qualifiers at the Euro X Games in Tignes…

These guys sat down with Winter X Games Europe pipe contender Louie Vito and, wise in the knowledge that pro snowboarders talking about contest snowboarding ranks only moderately higher than watching paint dry on the global internet give-a-fuck-ometer, posed him pressing questions such as whether he’d prefer to fight a duck as big as a horse or a swarm of duck-sized horses. We’d definitely take on the pack of equine midgets – after all, can you imagine a pissed off duck standing taller than you and giving it the big angry duck eyes? No thanks.

Prior to the finals everyone had been raving about how Vail’s pipe was one of the best ever built, and after witnessing the finals it’d be hard to disagree. The level of riding, specifically the amplitude these guys and girls were getting, was next level. Shaun and Kelly won – which is no great surprise – but they were both given a run for their money by two kids who represent the future of men’s and women’s pipe riding: 14-year-old Ayumu Hirano and 16-year-old Arielle Gold both were arguably the people’s champions and showed that they’ll be deeply involved in writing pipe riding’s next few chapters. Props must also go to Christian Haller for the best Method of the day that, sadly, we couldn’t find a clip of. We saw it, Hitch, we saw it…

***Warning: Most of these videos contain AWFUL music. Set machines to mute.***

MEN

1 – Shaun White

2 – Ayumu Hirano

3 – Louie Vito

WOMEN

1 – Kelly Clark

2 – Hannah Teter

3 – Arielle Gold

Watch highlights of Scotty Lago, Shaun White, Louie Vito and more getting it done in the men’s superpipe semis at the Dew Tour’s iON Mountain Championships in Breckenridge.

As promised, here’s highlights of yesterday’s action in the Breck stunt ditch. Scotty Lago qualified in the top spot, ahead of Shaun White, Greg Bretz and Louie Vito. We must say, though we understand they only wanted to show the top qualifiers’ runs, it’s criminal that Kazuhiro Kokubo‘s Cab-ins and slash reverts didn’t make the cut.

Here’s the full list of dudes qualified for the finals… and if you haven’t checked it yet make sure you peep the highlights of the hypertech that was the Dew Tour men’s slopestyle semis.

1 – Scotty Lago
2 – Shaun White
3 – Greg Bretz
4 – Louie Vito
5 – Brett Esser
6 – Christian Haller
7 – Nathan Johnstone
8 – Taku Hiraoka
9 – Ayumi Hirano
10 – Markus Malin

Louie Vito. Photo: Nike

Nike will drop part 2 of their self-titled Snowboarding Project any minute now, so we took the opportunity to hit up Louie Vito, get the dirt on the edit and grill him on, amongst other things, the upcoming Olympics and if pipe triples are on the cards…

Chapter 2 is centred on the hammers that got thrown down at the Nike Chosen Sessions last winter, where the whole team rolled into Montafon for a week of sending it in the most elaborate park setup we’ve ever seen, had fun with Phantom cams in the valley and had ‘issues’ with the Austrian authorities. We had a word with Louie to find out more.

You’re best known for your pipe riding. How was it for you to be let loose on that insane park setup for a couple of weeks?

It was super fun. People only see me riding mostly half pipe stuff but I love riding everything and I can ride everything. So to have a sick park set up just for us to session was dope. Plus having a lot of the team there made it even better.

How often do you get to ride with all the other dudes on the team, and if it’s not that often how was it for you to get to hang and shred with all the crew?

I get to see a lot of the Nike team who do contests quite a bit throughout the winter. But most of them who film I don’t get to see as much. I had a good time riding with Austin Smith all week, Danny [Kass] is always fun and I got a day with Nico [Müller] too which was cool.

For you, do you think it’s important for a team to get together and hang from time to time?

I think having the team get together and riding fun features, filming and just having a good time is super important. I mean getting together for meetings is cool but I at least like riding with everyone the most. Everyone rides different so it’s easy to push yourself while having a good time.

Being that the park was so full of hits this may be hard, but did you have a certain feature you particularly enjoyed hitting?

To be honest, I liked the unique features – the half pipe wall to jump landing, the bowl set up with wall rides and rails, the jump over the lift cables, and of course doing snake runs through the curvy mini pipe. It is hard to pick just one.

Which other riders, or even sessions, particularly blew you away in Montafon?

Peetu [Piiroinen] rode well, and so did Ethan [Morgan], Kevin [Backström], and Jamie [Nicholls]. Austin and I cruised together for most of the week which was fun since I never get the chance to ride with him during the winter.

Can you give us the definitive story as to why poor Austin found himself incarcerated by the Austrian Polizei?

Well, Bobby [Meeks - Nike honcho] seemed to have forgotten to pay for Austin’s gas for his car when we were driving to check out some castles for the day. Bobby paid, got us all snacks, and the lady even came out to the car because she forgot to charge him for something. A little ways down the road there was a cop standing in the middle of the road directing traffic. The car I was in with Bobby got waved on to keep moving while Austin’s car got motioned to pull over. That’s when all the pieces came together. We had to go to the Polizei station while Bobby and Austin talked to the cops, then we had to drive BACK to the gas station and pay, and then BACK to another Polizei Station. A lot of driving in a small area and we never made it to the castles, BUT we didn’t lose Austin to jail!

Danny Kass has an amusing bit at the end of the edit being told off by an angry Austrian. No one said this interview would be easy, so sum up Danny in one word.

One word is HARD, but… Entertaining.

Switching things up now, the road to Sochi begins in ernest this season. Will you be trying to secure a spot on the US team again? If so why is the Olympics important to you?

Yeah, I will be trying again for a spot on the US Team. I have always wanted to go to the Olympics growing up. As a contest rider it’s the biggest contest, media and exposure wise, that we can do. I made the Olympics in 2010 but fell just short of my goal of getting a medal. I want an Olympic Medal.

What motivates you to continue concentrate on pipe rather than, say, moving into filming a part?

First, I love doing contests. I love the pressure and I love the fact you have to do it right then and there. Second, Danny [Kass] told me this a few years ago and it stuck with me – I have always looked up to Danny because he is someone who could ride everything, film, and go win a contest. He definitely has helped me out a lot – He told me to ride the contest train while I could. There is plenty of time to film after. And it’s true. Contests are working for me right now, my body can take the toll that it puts on you. Maybe when I’m a little older and get over riding icy half pipes I’ll go film some pow stuff. Right now I am happy with what I am doing, and in snowboarding, that’s all that matters.

How much do you hate Shaun White? But seriously, how hard is it to compete against that guy, and what do you think it would take to wrestle that gold medal off him?

Hate is a strong word, and I don’t hate Shaun. Shaun is good, real good. But he pushes people to ride better when he is at the contest. He is consistent so when he is there, you know you have to be on point. I won’t be wrestling any medal off of him, he earned his first 2 and will have to work for another one too just like everyone else.

Finally, triple corks have entered snowboarding’s kicker lexicon. Do you think such a trick is possible in the pipe, and would you even want to go there if it was?

I think it’s a super risky trick in half pipe especially having to land perpendicular to a vertical half pipe wall and a gnarly, icy coping. But never say never, it could happen. I am just going with the flow and seeing where that takes me.

Check out this gallery of some of the shots our humble editorial iPhone has snapped over this past winter, and follow us on Instagram (@onboardmag) for more of the same.

We couldn’t help but notice that Instagram was bought the other day for the princely sum of $1 billion virtual Facebook credits (or something), and once we’d finished wondering how something that makes no money could be worth so much it reminded us that we’d been meaning to share some of the shots we, ourselves, have been firing out through the photosharing social network.

‘Gramming’ has swiftly become the new buzzword of riders and media alike this winter, so make sure you follow us (@onboardmag) as we’ll be posting a bunch more on-the-ground shots as well as classic archive photos from here on in.