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…

Thomas Franc

While we’re still trying to recover from all the cheese and schnapps at the traditional fondue dinner last night, then riders already ripped the pipe semi finals this morning.

Look forward to seeing Peetu Piiroinen, Ilkka-Eemeli Laari, Christian Haller, Markus Malin, Markus Keller, Iouri Podlatchivok, Jan Scherrer, Benji Farrow, Kosuke Hosokawa and Manuel Pietropoli giving their very best in the finals around 1pm this afternoon!

Yesterday the men’s slopestyle qualification went down as well, with Tor Lundstrom, Matthias Vogt, Ville Uotila, Thomas Franc, Ethan Morgan, Scott Moline, Clemens
Schattschneider, Niklas Mattsson, Ville  Paumola, Emil Ulsletten, Eric Willett, Torgeir Bergrem, Gian-Luca Cavigelli, Robby Balharry and Aleksander Ostreng securing spots for the semi finals tomorrow afternoon.

We gotta go watch the pipe finals now, check back for more news later!

Once again the first contest of the year, the O’Neill Evolution kicked off with the Women’s Pipe Qualifiers today.

Under wonderful winter sun, 37 girls battled each other to bag one of the eight slots to participate in the semi finals on Wednesday and ride side by side with the likes of Kjersti Buaas or Silvia Mittermüller. Norwegian Linn Haug and her FS 5 Mc Twist gained her the pole position, followed by French lasses Clémence Grimal und Anne-Sophie Pellissier.

Check back for more info soon