The World Snowboard Tour is almost a wrap as The Arctic Challenge prepares to kick off in Oslo. This recap walks you through who’s won what so far, and contains some epic bib boarding to boot…

Now that the US Open is all wrapped up, several of the World Snowboard Tour overall rankings have been decided and we can all relax and retreat from the edge of our seats. Rookie Ayumu Hirano takes the men’s pipe crown from under everyone else’s noses and, predictably, Kelly Clark takes top honours in the ladies’ halfpipe.

In just 21 short months, snowboarding’s favourite 4 foot Japanese 14 year old has rocketed 1247 places up the World Snowboard Tour rankings, and now trumps Lago and Vito for the year. With wins in Wanaka and Laax, backed up by second places in Vail and Aspen, Hirano has had a consistently impressive record recently, and nobody can deny he’s got the amplitude to tussle Shaun White for the limelight some time soon. Just look at him hanging out up there!

Clark takes her 61st win in the halfpipe, and 3rd World Snowboard Tour title, performing when it counted most to defend her spot at the top. Hannah Teter, Elena Hight and Arielle Gold have all pushed the girls’ level to new heights but Clark remains the most solid and her points reflect that.

Sarka Pancochova has been hard at it all year in both the pipe and slopestyle events, and a 4th place last week adds neatly to the points from her second place at the X Games to make her both ladies’ slopestyle champion and ladies’ overall champion. The girl’s got style, too

Mark McMorris has barely ever been off the podium recently, out-spinning his boy Horgmo on several occasions, and now takes home the Slopestyle title. Throwing out lazy triples whenever a GoPro is pointed his way – and not afraid to show what he’s got – even in a snowstorm, McMorris gets deserved recognition for a great year.

And that just leaves the men’s overall title to be decided at the last halfpipe event next week in Oslo at the Arctic Challenge. All eyes will be on second place local hero Ståle Sandbech – currently 135 points behind Peetu Piiroinen – who will be hoping to beat the Finn and retain the title. After Sebastian Toutant pipped him to the post for the Big Air title, Sandbech will be eager to prove himself but, as we all know, Peetu is a formidable competitor when his back’s to the wall. Stay tuned for our coverage of The Arctic Challenge to see how it all pans out.

After the triple-festing madness of the dudes’ Big Air there was no letup in the slopestyle. Once again, it looked like video games need to step up as the real world riders are doing things that you’d struggle with on your Xbox. Doubles mixed with triples were the norm, and Mark McMorris walked away with the title thanks to his last run that detonated over Aspen and scored a huge 98 points. It was also nice to see that despite not even coming close and their supposed ‘beef’, Shaun White was sporting enough to congratulate Mark on his win. In the women’s, Jamie Anderson once again continued her domination of female slopestyle riding, following up tree hugging with another display of silky smooth steeze. Sochi will be stupid.

MEN

1ST – MARK MCMORRIS

2ND – MAX PARROT

3RD – SEPPE SMITS

WOMEN

1ST – JAMIE ANDERSON

2ND – SARKA PANCOCHOVA

3RD – SPENCER O’BRIEN

Jamie Anderson has more style than you and your mate Dave put together. Watch her and homies like Kjersti Buaas, Isabel Derungs, Erin Comstock and Sarka Pancochova put the beatdown on the Ms Superpark hits…

Sweet edit of what went down at the Flow Tailgate AK at Thompson Pass, Valdez and the Flow World Freeride Championships. There’s plenty of tasty lines, sick tricks, nasty bails and sketchy slides with riding from the likes of Scotty Lago, Sarka Pancochova, Mike Basich and more. Have a look.

Here are the highlights of the first 2011/12 Winter Dew Tour stop in Breckenridge, Colorado. Let’s start with slopestyle.

Winter Dew Tour Breckenridge Snowboard Slopestyle Highlights

Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle Results:
1. Gjermund Braaten – 97.75
2. Sebastien Toutant – 96.00
3. Charles Reid – 90.00
4. Chas Guldemond – 86.75
5. Mikkel Bang – 84.00
6. Sage Kotsenburg – 81.25
7. Mark Mcmorris – 75.25
8. Torstein Horgmo – 59.50
9. Eric Willett – 43.25
10. Sam Hulbert – 32.25
11. Sondre Tiller – 29.00
12. Seppe Smits – 26.0

Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Results:
1. Spencer O’Brien – 90.75
2. Enni Rukajärvi – 79.50
3. Sarka Pancochova – 72.00
4. Rebecca Torr – 64.75
5. Jamie Anderson – 59.25
6. Charlotte Van Gils – 56.50

And here’s all the halfpipe action, even though at least the men’s judging was a little controversial to say the least:

Winter Dew Tour Breckenridge Snowboard Halfpipe Highlights

Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Finals Results:
1. Shaun White – 95.00
2. Louie Vito – 92.75
3. Iouri Podlachikov – 90.00
4. Christian Haller – 88.00
5. Kohei Kudo – 86.00
6. Matt Ladley – 84.00
7. Steve Fisher – 79.75
8. Keito Kumazaki – 55.75
9. Kazuhiro Kokubo – 47.75
10. Scott Lago – 40.00
11. Luke Mitrani – 24.25
12. Danny Davis – 18.25

Women’s Snowboard Superpipe Finals Results:
1. Kelly Clark – 91.25
2. Gretchen Bleiler – 90.25
3. Xuetong Cai – 85.00
4. Maddy Schaffrick – 80.00
5. Kaitlyn Farrington – 70.00
6. Queralt Castellet 54.50

‘WAS HERE’ follows the Flow Snowboarding Team on a worldwide seek-and-destroy mission. While no stranger to the global contest podium, the Flow team now taps into their alter ego to bring you some of the year’s heaviest riding, throwing down in the streets and leaving lines in the backcountry.

Starring: Scotty Lago, Tim Humphreys, Scot Brown, Mike Basich, Sarka Pancochova, Jeremy Thompson, Brandon Reis, Nial Romanek, Ian Thorley, Andre Kuhlmann and Shane Fortier.

Filmed on location in Alaska, Austria, California, Canada, Colorado, Germany, Idaho, Japan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, and Oregon.

Young British rookie Aimee Fuller has been putting herself about on the Euro circuit the last couple of seasons and has made people sit up and take note with her solid shred skills. Check out what a day in her life looks like as she was stalked by dudes with cameras in Kaunertal. No biggy…

It was the legendary UK board test in Kaunertal last week and we had the pleasure of chit-chatting with Aimee over a beer. “What’re you doing tomorrow?” slurred our correspondent as the Stiegl took hold. “Filming this Day in the Life thing. I’ve never done one of those before…” was her reply. Well, despite being a DIL rookie it turned out pretty dope as Aimee brought it like she normally does, throwing down back rodeos that would make Tara Dakides proud. Czech ripper Sarka Pancochova‘s in the mix too, so that’s a double shot of rad that should make your want to check this out. Some solid ladyshred, ya hear?

Jamie set up the American rule with her performance

While the ladies were still able to enjoy sunshine and comparably soft snow during their slopestyle finals this afternoon, the men had to battle it out in the darkness on a more or less frozen course, putting up a show of their own.

The ladies weren’t too bad themselves though, with Czech whirlwind Sarka Pancochova and former TTR queen Jamie Anderson (USA) fighting a fierce battle about the pole position, that was handed from one to the other almost run by run. It started with very similarly scores for their first runs in the semi finals (2 points more for Sarka’s BS 3 and gap to BS boardslide than the BS 3 Gap to Tailslide from Jamie), continuing with bails from both in their second runs, leaving Sarka in pole for the finals. With her first run in the finals Jamie managed to get herself in the lead though (with a huge BS 3 and gap to FS boardslide to 270), which Sarka answered with a massive BS 5 and switch boardslide to gap to switch boardslide in her second run, only to be outplayed by the American’s perfect BS 5 and an super clean switch boardslide to backside boardslide. Third came reigning TTR champ Enni Rukajärvi (FIN), Sina Candrian (SUI) and Aimee Fuller (GBR).

Night contests do have their very special charm - at least for the spectators who don't have take notes and/or twitter in freezing temperatures

Although the real thriller started when the sun had set over Davos and the men started action on the slopestyle course for the semis and the finals of this year’s TTR 6star slopestyle contest.

When it had been all about Switzerland yesterday, it was all about North America today, with Canadians Seb Toutant, Mark McMorris and America’s Eric Willet chasing each other scores run by run, not even heavy slams stopping them.

After winning the semis, Seb stepped it up even more in the finals, stomping one cab 12 double cork after the other. Getting knocked off the pole by Mark McMorris in the second run, who had a sensational come back with a massive Cab 12 Double Cork and FS Tailslide 450 out after slamming terribly in his first, and Eric Willet and his Switch 12 Double Cork and BS Boardslide 450 in the third couldn’t stop the teenage super hero from reclaiming the top spot with his last version of the Cab 12 Double Cork and underflip from the pole.

Hero of the day: Mark Mcmorris, who pulled himself up from a horrible slam to stomp the sickest run the contest had seen so far

Apart from the Yanks it was once again the kiddos that put on one hell of a show at this full on double cork fest, special props going out to Seppe Smits (BEL), Torgeir Bergrem (NOR), Clemens Schattschneider (AUT) and Emil Ulsletten (NOR), representing the U20 side of the rider field but throwing down like the big guns with massive BS 12.

Right now the decks are already spinning in the party tent next door and we will close the laptop on the O’Neill Evolution 2011 and celebrate another little step in the evolution of snowboarding.

Cheers