Sirvio Cervello FS5.

A wide mix of French and Spanish riders attended the 3rd edition of El Bambino in Font-Romeu, Pyrenees…

Balloonization.

And after two years at a second place which could have costed him the nickname of ‘Poulidor of snowboarding’, Julien Vilmin managed to win this slopestyle competition with style. Expression session on the slope was the format, with a bonus for those who hit the ‘After box’. Local legend Mathieu Justafré won the best trick by miles with a tasty Switch Back 9… But the variety of tricks from Julien, plus the ballsy frontflips pretty much on every obstacle, got him the crown. Big up to the young Paula, only 12 years old, who landed several Back 3 at the bottom of the landing…

Santi Espanda on the main table.

Nico Filiater, Frontboard on da box.

Final results Men:

1- Julien Vilmin

2- Sirio Cervello (also best trick on the box)

3- Mathieu Justafré

4- Santiago Espada Lopez

5- Adria Ferrer Coll

And the girls:

1- Paula Marcia Prieto

2- Melina Sanchez (best trick on the box)

3- Maeva Flory

The podium.

Right after the prize giving ceremony started la soirée, Draw Your Party at the Ermitage Cafe, with a live from Odillon who electricized the audience. The Mazcor crew, organizers of this balloonesque event, want to thank the shapers, DC, Monster, Eastpak, Volcom, Electric,Altiservice Font-Romeu, 10.80, Sector 3 and Horsefeather, and announce the coming out of the video soon on elbambinosnowboard.com.

Photos: Max B.

Mathieu Crepel sending it for the poney - all photos: Clement Chouleur

For the 9th time now, the TTR 4Star Poney Session went down in the St Lary snow park in the French Pyrénnées, March 19th-22nd 2011.

Winner of the infamous session is Pyrénnées local and French legend Mathieu Crepel,  next to Sweden’s Isak Björnström who came second, fellow Frenchmen Jean Jaques (JJ) Roux in third.

The format of the event was a fun jam session and the final saw ten riders take two runs, with hundreds of people cheering on in the sunny and slushy spring-time conditions. It was a treat for the spectators to see Mathieu competing in his home region, since he has taken a step back from the competitive snowboarding circuit, focusing on riding powder in the recent years. He was stoked after the event saying, “It was awesome as usual. I had a perfect day with my good friends and the park was amazing! I rode every line of the slope, I tried new tricks and I landed a Cab Double Under, in the Perfect Jump. I’m stoked to finally get the Pony Title! This event really is worth it’s 4 TTR stars and I’ll be there for sure for the 10th anniversary next year! ” Mathieu’s winning run included a half cab boardslide 270 out on the pole jam, a switch back 900 on the big air, a sweet frontside 1080.

Out of the many Swedish riders competing, it was Isak Björnström who grabbed the second place leaving JJ Roux (FRA) in third. This season has been a good one for Isak, as he has been competing at other European 4Star events, and getting up on the podium at each and every one of them. He took a first place at the 4Star Sony Ericsson Snowboard Fest in Slovakia and a second place at the 4Star Engadinsnow in Switzerland. With his second place at the Pony Session he moved up considerably in the Swatch TTR Tour Ranking. Even though the TTR Tour Champions have been crowned, there are several 1-4Star events coming up on the TTR Tour, where riders like Isak still have the opportunity to collect results in order to determine their Season-End Bonus Points, which will be carried over to the 2011/12 season.