The infamous Air&Style, one of the oldest events in TTR history - and apparently too big for the FIS... or too popular? Scotty Lago sending it, photo by Sami Tuoriniemi

There is a new development in the furore between the TTR and the FIS today. It concerns a lack of agreement on the part of the FIS to form a joint qualification system with the TTR for the 2014 Olympic snowboard events of halfpipe and slopestyle.

At an meeting of the FIS Council on Monday, the TTR tabled a proposal for a joint qualification system for the 2014 Games. Its main tender was to establish a qualification system in which the top FIS World Cup events would be coupled with top TTR events to form a joint “Olympic Qualification System” that in the words of the TTR would be “widely supported by the riders, the nations and the global Snowboard Community.”

The response from the secretary general of the FIS, Sarah Lewis, fell well short of finding a satisfactory solution. According to her letter to Reto Lamm, the president of the TTR, the FIS would be willing to allow member National Associations to register lower level TTR events in their calendar, therefore allowing riders to gain FIS points towards an Olympic qualification. But what they didn’t agree on was the inclusion of elite TTR events, stating that “a process needs to begin at a lower level than the top events in order to build trust and understanding between the organisations and persons involved.” She ended her letter by saying that further discussion would occur post 2014 to access how the system worked and if any further amendments to the agreement should be made.

The route by which minor events on the TTR schedule can earn riders qualification points to the Olympics already exists and therefore the FIS’s position towards a joint qualification system remains unchanged. This is unacceptable to the TTR as riders will be unable to balance their competitive calendar satisfactorily if they are to compete in both TTR and FIS events that can gain them entry into the games. Leaving elite level TTR events outside of the Olympic qualification system, would create a fractured competitive scene that is not beneficial to riders or the sport.

As it stands Reto has written to the FIS explaining the organisations dissatisfaction at the outcome of the recent FIS Council meeting, stating that it will be business as usual at the TTR, until the FIS comes back with a more agreeable solution.

Lets hope that the FIS realise their folly and acknowledge that for the good of snowboarding and the welfare of the top riders involved it would be best if they could find a common ground with snowboarding’s core representative organisation.

An artist's impression of the Sochi Olympics snowboard Slopestyle.

With Slopestyle now included for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, there had been talk of a Brave New World of dialogue between the TTR, FIS and IOC, the establishment of a Task Force to tackle the issues both sides have. While this certainly happened, it seems the FIS and IOC listened patiently while inside going “Yeah yeah yeah, whatever,” and then doing things their own way. It shouldn’t come as much surprise really…

News came yesterday that the IOC had approved the qualification process for snowboard halfpipe and slopestyle (and other ‘ski’ disciplines) for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Despite a Task Force being established to facilitate dialogue between interested parties (TTR, FIS, atheletes, judges etc) who were to submit their recommendations in October, the FIS, it appears, have instead decided to fast track the decision, with the end result being the qualification process appears near identical to that for Vancouver 2010. This great piece on the situation by ESPN’s Melissa Larsen has all the details, but in a nutshel this quote sums things up pretty well:

“This indicates the FIS executive committee chose to disregard the work of a joint task force that was established in May by members of FIS Snowboarding, FIS national associations, athletes, judges and the TTR to address the Olympic qualification processes for snowboarding.”

So it looks like once again, if the riders want to jump through the hoops, they’ll really have to jump through the hoops to earn their spots… adding considerably to an already hectic contest season and almost certainly to the detriment of some events that could actually be said to have snowboarding’s best interests at heart.

While we can certainly understand, for example, the IOC’s issues with the fact that some of the major TTR events are in essence Invite Only, (and associated with brands who aren’t Coke, McDonalds et al who line the OG pockets, perhaps?), this would have to our mind fallen in the ‘issues to discuss and resolve’. Alas, no. As a result it’s likely riders who’ll feel the sharp end of the decision as they will have to be hitting up FIS slopestyle comps – an area of which they have precious little expertise compared to the TTR-sanctioned events who’ve been running such gigs for nigh on a decade.

The TTR are obviously bummed:

“The TTR is greatly disappointed by the recent decisions made by the FIS in their meetings in Korea regarding field size, quotas and the qualification process for Sochi 2014. These decisions were made on an accelerated timeline without taking into account the interests of athletes and the sport of snowboarding. Despite TTR making every effort to work with the FIS both within the Freestyle Snowboard Task Force and independently, the FIS remains unwilling to accept any input regarding the Olympics. TTR however, remains open to future discussion with the FIS and will continue to work toward having an impact on the 2014 Olympics.”

As the ESPN article hints at, there does seem to be the outside chance they won’t completely rule out more discussion and fine-tuning – perhaps finding a way to permit the ‘Open’ TTR events to count. We are not holding our breath.

Some wag got on the Der Untergang bandwagon, which it is fair to say sums up most snowboarders’ feelings about the situation…

The late John Archibald Wheeler, apparently a big shot in theoretical physics, once said: “Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.” And it is also what makes us come up with a new This Week in Snowboarding every week. Smart-people shit and snowboarding, kablam! Once again here are the highlights from this week’s snowboarding, drawn from our own site and other places that are actually good.

The urine samples gave some reasons for concern.

SATURDAY

No Joke seems to be a decent movie from Canada. But hands down, Share the Wealth looks even better. And Jeremy Jones charging down one gnar of a line doesn’t look too bad, either. 60s surf rock in a teaser is always a plus: Be Happy teaser. The Videograss crew have fun between their shots. And a Polish dude attempts to snowboard the Nanga Parbat.

SUNDAY

The angry man brings us the full Afterbang movie. Don’t forget about the epic speed snowboarder Darren Powell. Speaking of which, the Helgasons have a go at it, too.

These days some pros need a cheat sheet for their lifestyle.

MONDAY

Seb Toots has won the Billabong Ante Up contest, as this video documents. And Matts Kulisek did something scary at the same event. Watch this clip and this teaser and join the Les2Alpes summer camps. Watch that teaser and go to Japan. The Ästhetiker rip some summer pow in Hintertux. YES Snowboards bag an award. Annie Boulanger is a rad chick. (By the way, the surf in Iceland looks sick!) The 2018 Winter Olympics host race is down to three.

TUESDAY

Videograss release their epic Bon Voyage teaser, and FODT release the equally classy The Arena teaser. And there’s more teasers: Bald-E-Gal, The Völkl team can’t surf. And Tamworth sees some good riding, too.

WEDNESDAY

The teaser for 9191, the Gigi movie, is out, and it looks oh so good. The German 21Inch teaser pops up on our site. The kids make the flakes fly at HCSC session #1. The What’s Up teaser hails from Quebec. Sandbox hit up the DC Mountain Lab. Meet “the Andreas Wiig of the Andes“. Check out this awesome Burton x Tron collabo, because you’re all probably a hipster.

How can you make alpine riding look better? Throw a splashy photoshop filter on it!

THURSDAY

Watch bHappy‘s mellow last day at Northstar (warning, includes some skiing). The Cardona park down under looks gooood. The Japanese Catch Me teaser is good stuff. If you have a lot of time, watch this long German edit, or this equally long True Color clip. Speaking of Germans, their Playboard magazine turned 15 (congrats!). Kazu is the man! But do you know Charlie Idda? While we have been awarded the ‘Do Nothing Award’ several times Hannah Teter might be in for VH1′s ‘Do Something’ version. The first week of summer camp in Val Senales was a success. The pow in Brighton, too. And there will be a big air event in Las farking Vegas!

FRIDAY

The first of Think Thank’s first Right Brain Left Brain mini teasers is out. The Dew Hut Jam hails with a clip from Australia. Fluofun post a lot of next season’s board information on their site. Unfortunately, it’s all in French. Watch Andy Wright‘s 08/09 slideshow. And it is so hot in Vermont right now, you can have BBQs. Indoors.

That’s all for this week, folks. Enjoy your weekend, and don’t drink too much!

Here it is, in all its whopping glory, thanks to some dude with a camera and a TV.

Interesting to hear the discussion between Shaun and his coach, Bud Keene, at the top before dropping. “Yeah, drop the double Mick at the end… Make sure you stomp the shit out of it.” While all the coaching pep talks and ‘USA-ing’ has little to do with snowboarding in our opinion, as soon as Shaun gets in the ditch there’s no denying that he threw down a frickin’ killer pipe run on the biggest stage around… and he didn’t even need to.

Not THAT perverted. Teter has an underwear brand that donates proceeds to charity. Photo: Danny Burrows.

Onboard editor in chief Danny Burrows was on the ground at Cypress Mountain to watch the women’s pipe contest and fired this report over the wire…

Torah Bright did Australia proud yesterday by winning gold in the women’s halfpipe contest at Cypress Mountain, beating what was perhaps the strongest
field of female pipe rippers yet seen in a women’s contest.

By placing first in the qualifications Torah secured a place in the finals along with previous Olympic medalists Kelly Clark and Hannah Teter, X Games
winner Gretchen Bleiler and two relatively unknown riders Sun Zhifeng and the Spaniard Queralt Castellet.

Qualifying results

Sun and her Chinese teammate Jiayu Liu are part of a select group of former martial artists and gymnasts who were plucked from state run sports schools
to ride snowboards five years ago. That said, their riding certainly doesn’t look forced, combining amplitude with tight spins, solid grabs and ample servings of style.

Joining the six riders who qualified for the finals would be the top six women from the semis. 17 year-old Liu stuck an amazing first run that secured her an early lead which was not broken until the second round when Australian Holly Crawford blazed an incredible run that included sweet sevens with plenty of amplitude. The US rider Elena Hight, who was the first girl to land a 9 in competition, was also riding well, opening her run with a huge 9 that would also earn her a spot in the finals. The girls to proceed to the finals were Crawford, Liu, Mercedes Nicoll, Hight, Sophie Rodriguez and Ursina Haller.

Semis results

Perhaps the saddest story of this competition was that of Queralt Castellet who had placed second in the qualifying rounds and on the night was perhaps
Torah’s greatest challenge for gold. Just before the semis, while practicing, she caught an edge on her final 5 and knocked herself out for over a minute. Once she had regained consciousness she wanted to carry on but race officials insisted that she was taken to hospital for observation. Apparently she was so annoyed that she managed to make the ambulance drive back to the contest site before eventually succumbing to reason.

Torah’s lead going into the finals came crashing down when she overcooked a switch back 7 on her second hit leaving the top three spots in the hands of Teter, Liu and Rodriguez of France whose run included an opening 9 and back to back 7s and 5s. Kelly Clark, Hight, Haller and Bleiller also fell leaving them with much work to be done in their second run.

Now in last place the pressure was on Torah to perform. And she did: Back 3, switch 7 mctwist, back 5, air to fakie and then a final cork cab 7 to close. The crowd went wild as, with a look of disbelief, she came to a halt at the base of the pipe. This was now the run that everyone would have to chase. Bleiler blew her chances of a medal on the coping as did Hight who was unable to finish a run in which she spun back to back nines, while Kelly Clark put in a final run which put her into bronze just behind Teter with 6 riders to go. Rodgriguez went for a 10 on her first hit, which would have been a first in women’s pipe, but went down hard leaving Liu to make her play for a medal and Teter, who was already in second behind Tora, still wanting gold.

Liu who came through the semis in second place had been riding hard all night and was certainly a challenge to the top three. Unfortunately, a fault on the flat cost her speed in a run that would have certainly earned her silver but left her in fourth. Teter was the final challenger to Torah’s score of 45 and you could have
heard a pin drop as she dropped in. Her Method, front 9, back 5, front 3, cab 7 and frontside air weren’t enough though and the stadium erupted to shouts of “Aussi, Aussi, Aussi! Oi, Oi, Oi!” as a score of 42.4 flashed up on the board.

Finals results

Torah would be the first Australian in history to win gold at the Winter Olympics. It was expected that she might pull her double cork in the contest – she was the only contestant to have them – but in the end her style and amplitude and ample bag of tricks were enough to secure her the most sought after medal.

Torah topping the podium. Photo: Burrows.

Congratulations to all!

Torah chilling in the Onboard office. Photo: Sami Tuoriniemi.

Hannah Teter Takes Silver, Kelly Clark Bronze at the Vancouver Games.

We’d like to start this with an apology. While we fully intended to do a minute-by-minute report on the women’s pipe riding, we had technical difficulties that prevented this from happening. And when we say ‘technical difficulties’, we mean that being awake for 24 hours the day before and drinking for 12 of those hours left us bent and broken and desperately needing sleep. Once again, apologies.

And it looks like we missed a banger, too, as Australian Torah Bright overcame a fall in her first final run to post a score of 45.0 points out of 50 in her second to take the gold medal and live up to our assertion that she’s the most technical women’s pipe rider in the world right now. There was never any question of Torah’s ability to put down tricks that many guys, let alone girls, struggle with – like backside 3 to switch back 7 combos – but we were unsure if she’d be able to send it like Americans Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler. Well, Torah answered that last night.

We did manage to catch the qualifiers before our brains shut down and while there were a few upsets (Kjersti Buaas – bronze at the last Games failed to advance), most of the big hitters made it through as expected, with Torah qualifying first with a banger that bagged her 45.8 points. We also got a look at the much-hyped Chinese team for the first time, and while they looked solid, we didn’t reckon they’d got enough to challenge the podium unless they were holding back something special for the finals. The biggest surprise was Spain’s Queralt Castellet - we have to hold our hands up and admit we’d never heard of her – who had an absolute barn-stormer of a first run and qualified in third. Her first his backside 5 would have seriously embarrassed some of the guys.

Here’s how the qualis broke down…

As with the guys, the top 6 women booked a ticket straight to the Finals while the girls in the next 12 spots had to duke it out in the Semis for a shot at the big time.

In the Semis, China’s Liu Jiayu looked to be heading into the finals in first with a solid run that gave her 41.1 points. Aussie Holly Crawford, who won the BEO a couple years back, had other ideas and stomped a smooth and stylish run with big straight airs and back to back (front to cab) 7s and a front 5 that she managed to get the grab on at the second attempt and wang out nicely. She’s got great style, that Holly, and was rewarded with 41.7 points.

So, the finals rolled round and as in the men’s pipe final many riders seemed to be struggling with the sandbox that the flat-bottom was becoming. Falls or sketched runs were common. American Gretchen Bleiler who, after her sick run at the X-Games, we reckoned was a good bet for the podium at least came a cropper on both her runs and ended up last, while girls like Holly Crawford and Zhifeng Sun couldn’t repeat the performance levels of their earlier runs.

Jiayu Liu posted an early high score thanks to her beefy method to front 5, back 5, front 7 to cab 7 combo, only to be pegged back when Hannah Teter, gold medallist at the last Olympics, stomped her run and showed she wasn’t gonna let go of the Letterman spot easily. We were expecting big things as Kelly Clark dropped but her first run was sketched, and then Torah Bright took her go and fell too, on her switch back 7. After years of training, heaps of qualifying contest and the like, waiting for their second runs must have been intense.

From what we’ve seen, the only girls who could touch Teter were Torah and Clark, so when Torah dropped in (as she was in dead last after her first run fall, she had to go first in the second round) and managed to stick her run to bag 45 points everyone erupted but she then had the unenviable position of waiting for everyone else to come down. Kelly launched into her trademarked monster frontside hit, but the landings on her spins weren’t perfect and while she posted 42.2 points it was only enough for bronze and Liu couldn’t improve on her first run’s score so all eyes were on Teter… who sketched out on one of her tricks and couldn’t improve on her first score. Game, set and match to Torah Bright.

Mad props, Torah! Backside 3, switch backside 7 McTwist, backside 5, air to fakie and cab 7 is one hell of a run, and she did it all with decent height too. BANG-A-TRON.

The pipe, left, and boardercross a couple days ago. Photo: Thierry Kunz.

[Refresh for latest from around 21.30 Euro time.]

Hello, good evening and welcome to our live coverage of today/tonight/to-stupid-early-in-the-morning’s men’s Olympic pipe contest.

This is it. After four years of ignoring us, the world swings its critical eye on the halfpipe at Cypress Mountain. Riders have been going nuts on the run in to tonight’s gig, pushing the sport to ridiculous heights in less than a year, and we’re in place, beer in hand to see the greatest show on earth unfold. Except that some rocket scientist thought it was a good idea to hold a pipe event by the seaside… Actually, though shapers’ sphincters had been quivering a couple of days ago when rain was threatening to crumble the walls, latest reports state it’s colder, firmer and riders are finally able to shred to more like their full potential. We’ll know the real deal soon enough…

And to celebrate, we’ve had the equally genius idea to post run-by-run (the minute-by-minute might not turn out to be strictly true) updates on what goes down in the U-Jump for those whose internet is from 1999, for those who have no TVs and for those who prefer to read. Seriously, who’s dumb idea was it to have us up till 6am Euro side?

The qualifiers are set to kick off at 13.05 local time, making it 22.05 in Central Europe, so we’ll be ramping up shortly before then with – hopefully – some input from our man on the ground. You can also try checking out DC main man Thierry Kunz and his buddy Romain’s Facebook blog for some fun little tidbits. The semis are set for 17.15 in Vancouver, and the finals follow on at 19.15. We’re 9 hours ahead so you do the math. Ok, 02.15 and 04.15 at the asscrack of Friday morning.

Let’s have some hard facts now, eh.

PIPE FACTS

Location: Cypress Mountain, about 40 minutes by car from Vancouver.

Crowd capacity: 8,000 (probably less now as they had to cancel a bunch of tickets…)

Wall height: 6.5m (22ft) | Width: 19.5m (64ft) | Start Elevation: 1003m | Finish Elevation: 952m | Vertical: 51m | Slope Length: 160m | Grade: 18 degrees

Qualified Riders

Heat 1:

ZENG Xiaoye (CHN), ZEBROWSKI Gary (FRA), VITO Louie (USA), KORPI Janne (FIN), WHITE Shaun (USA), AONO Ryo (JPN), CREPEL Mathieu (FRA), KELLER Markus (SUI), KILNER Ben (GBR), KIM Ho-Jun (KOR), VERGES Ruben (ESP), HAMILTON James (NZL), KLEIVDAL Roger-S (NOR), MATES Ben (NZL), SANDBECH Staale (NOR), RICCIARDI Aluan (FRA), PIETROPOLI Manuel (ITA), VAN DER WAL, Dolf (NL), HALLER Christian (SUI), LIGOCKI Michal (POL).

Heat 2:

BATCHELOR Jeff (CAN), LONGO Arthur (FRA), MALIN Markus (FIN), MARTIN Brad (CAN), MURAKAMI Daisuke (JPN), LAMOUREUX Justin (CAN), PODLADTCHIKOV Iouri (SUI), KOKUBO Kazuhiro (JPN), BERGER Sergio (SUI), KUDO Kohei (JPN), SHI Wancheng (CHN), JAMES Scott (CHN), SCHMIDT Christophe (GER), BRETZ Gregory (USA), HOLVIK Tore-V. (NOR), KOSKI Markku (FIN), PIIROINEN Peetu (FIN), LAGO Scotty (USA), BROWN Mitchell (NZL), AUSTBO Fredrik (NOR).

Wow, feel pretty Austrian after all that last-name-firsting.

While it has been tempting to just write “Everyone went snowboarding and Shaun White won” and get an early night, cats have been training hard and deserve to have their riding written about before Shaun White wins. That’s what the mainstream will tell you anyway. Our call? Erm, Shaun will win. With back-to-back double cork 10s, the double McTwist 12 (that the newly self-christened Red Zeppelin has dubbed ‘The Tomahawk‘), and a couple more doubles he’s yet to drop it would be a shock more shocking that that girl in Crying Game having a wanger if he didn’t end up crying in the red, white and blue when all’s done.

But if there’s a couple of riders who can give him a run, or at least have him looking over his shoulder, we’d say Swiss rock star Iouri Podladtchikov, Finnish gnarler Peetu Piiroinen, and dancing boy Louie Vito certainly have enough in the can to make it tight at the top. Then there’s the more unknown quantity of the Chinese and Japanese (yeah Kazu) Does snowboarding have the potential to be like football and be ‘a funny old game’ with ‘runs not ridden on paper’?

We’ll see in a few hours then, eh.

Until then, check out what some of the riders who’ll be strapping shortly have to say about pipe riding, the olympics, progression and more. We’ll be back around 21.30 Euro time.

More Snowboarding >>

21.48

Our man on the ground has been in touch. Onboard Ed in Chief Danny Burrows is in Canada, though not quite at Cypress yet, at the behest of some people who we’re not supposed to mention because of some Olympic red tape-type thing. Anyway, this is what he fired in about the mood over there…

Canada this morning woke to a sore head brought on by local girl Maelle Ricker’s victory in the women’s boardercross and it seems that their collective drinking may have ushered in fair weather for today¹s showdown, with cooler temperatures and clear skies gracing Cypress so hopefully we will be in for an epic contest.

Here in Vancouver, at the Winter Olympics, the rumour mills surrounding snowboarding have been whirring like wind turbines in a force 10 gale: apparently the pipe has some serious issues with holes and questionable vert and until yesterday the venue of Cypress Mountain was cursed by warm weather and rain. It’s far from the conditions that the riders have been used to for the past four years of competing and training.

What is true though is that the state of the pipe may open the road to gold that if you subscribe to the zealous confidence of the American contingent here has been wholly reserved for Shaun and his collection of doubles. He remains the sole member of the pipe fraternity here that has landed a double in practice the first and only in the Cypress pipe so far – and may still have a ‘spoon bender’ of a trick up his sleeve for today’s event according to sources close to him but in football parlance its not over until the fat lady sings. He is after all pitted against the world’s best riders.

He also tried to fire us over a picture but as anyone who knows him will attest, our Dan’s not the most au fait with cutting edge technology. We listened to what he was saying and have represented it graphically below instead…

21.58

People in the crowd are cheering like drongos and ringing cowbells every time a camera is pointed anyway near them. Didn’t anyone tell them downhill skiing’s on a different mountain?

22.05

China’s Xiaoye Zeng has the honour of kicking this shindig off. Let’s see what he’s got. Don’t wanna be a dick but part of me’s hoping not much as his name is a bitch to type.

22.07

Zeng gets the ‘you’re good’ from the marshall, and drops to pull a fs air, bs 9, f7 catching coping, mctwist, and something at the bottom. Not the best.

22.09

25 year old Gary Zebrowski up next. fs9. mc, fs7, cab 10, huge frontside air. Decent run from the Frenchman and despite what the doomers were saying, he had pretty good height.

22.12

Louie Vito gives us the first double cork of the day. And then another. First hit Double 10 into cab double to arse. Gt away with it though, but Sami here was screaming ‘scary as fuck!’. He just said “My butt hurts”> Epic

22.14

Good run from Finnish duder Janne Korpi. Got lost in his run somewhat but there was a smooth front 10 to cab 10 in there with god height. “Duude’, says Sami at the 26.5 score. He’s Finnish.

22.16

Shaun. Here we go… Huuuuge backside air. double 10, cab 10, fs 5, back 9. Bang. Warm up run though, for sure.

22.18

45.8 for Shaun. That should be him through. Damn, Shaun frickin’ booted that first hit.

22.18

Japan’s Ryo Aono up next. Big fs tailbone, to bs 9, fs 10, cab 7, fs 9. The boy had some travel for sure n that back 9 and bags 33.2 points.

22.20

Mat Crepel’s got a nice moustache, that’s for sure. Launching with a fs 10, scabbed something and then we lost it cause he dropped the double cork 10 and launched a beefy switch frontside air into switch backside 9. He will have been marked down for the scuffed rentry but still gets 30 odd points

22.23

Keller kicks off with a big, uberstyled front 9 but lands way deep on the tranny which pretty much means his run was over. But still got in his epic air to fakie and a attempted double.

22.25

KIIIIIIIIIIILNER. Do it for BRITAIN Ben! His run was a bs air, fs 10, haakon, fs 9 and lost speed. Damn. Next one mate.

22.26

Some chap goes small on the first hit and almost falls. Oh My GOD, he says at the bottom. Indeed. Don’t think we’ll see Kim Ho Jung in the finals.

22.28

Cab 7, Haakon and frontside spin to fall sums up Spain’s Ruben Vergas’s first pop at the pipe.

22.30

Kiwi James Hamilton drops in, goes for the front 10 and sits down on the trannie. Another try for you, mate.

22.32

Roger Kleivdal’s got the lick on occasion. Has he here? fs air, corked bs 9, fs 7, switch double cork to trannie up the arse was his run. Is that a proper Murray Walkering?

22.22

Ban Mates from Oz drops fs 9, inverted bs 5, air fakie, haakon, inverted fs 7 and then tells us all his name is Ben. An Ok run there, Ben. 28.3 points.

22.33

The biggest air to fakie in the world kicks off Staale Sandbech’s run. Unfortunately he folded himself on the coping on his next hit . Gnarly. He’s Ok though.

22.43

Aluan Riccardi from France looked like he was hanging on for dear life a bit there, but went big and had some big spins and ends with 25 odd points.

22.36

Manuel Pietrpoli has a nice method to kick off, into fs 9, bs9 and then a slam.

We’re having a slight technical difficulty in our media hub, but are back in time to see an orange clad man fall on his last hit. Dolf Van Der Vaaal it was.

22.39

Method,  front 10 to ass and that was it for Christian Haller’s first run. Must be said, quite a few people have fell so far. Is that the pipe? sami reckons he saw a chunk of it fall off.

22.40

Poland’s Michal Ligocki drops in and intomethod, fs9, bs 9 and a slam. After the first runs of heat 1, it’s Shaun White in first, Ryo Ryono second and Mat Crepel third.

22.42

Some smartarse is playing ‘Under Pressure’ over the speakers as China’s Xiaoye Zeng readys for his second run and looks to up his game. melon bs 9, fs 7, Haakon 7, front 9. He might have upped his points, but we don’t reckon that will be enough to make top 6. What do we know, eh? Into third he goes.

22.46

Zebrowski run 2. Fs 9, bs 5, fs 10, cab 10 to scrubber. That won’t beat his first score.

22.48

Louie Vito looks to avoid ass pain again. fs double 10 cab double 10, stale, bs 5, and something at the bottom. “He doesn’t go that big” someone here said. But 41.8 will see him through. “That’s for you Kevin”

22.49

Lot’s of “Voi VITTU” here as Janne Korpi’s run ends in a double cork slam.

22.50

Shaun White. Big bs air and then front double cork to… shock horror. SLAM. Whatever, he’s through to the finals.

22.52

Currently 3rd, Ryo Aono drops in for a cocktail of fs airs, bs 9s, fs 10s, cab 10s and fs 9s. Solid run. He’s in. 43.1 and into second. With no double corks. Oooooh.

22.54

Crepel and his tash. Front 10 to slam. That’s not good for the Frenchman, but he’s in 5th still.

22.55

The purists favourite, Markus Keller drops in hoping to improve. Pulling a fs9, bs 5, air fakie, haakon, double cork 10 but sketches out and that, sadly, might be curtains for the Swiss

22.56

Ben Kilner. Bs fs 10, haakon, fs 9, bs 5. Bit of sketchiness on the front 10 but 32.1 sees him into 6th.

22.58

Sorry, missed the Korean dude’s run as the Finn next t me was bitching about the judging on Korpi’s first run.

23.00

Ruben Vergas. fs 7 corked, haakon, fs 9, method, front 10 to slam. 19.5 and definitely not in the finals

23.02

Fs 10, haakon, lien, bs 5, fs corked 9 was what James Hamilton has to offer from his second run. 28 points.

23.03

Kleivdal again. Fs air, bs 9, fs7, double cork to slamerooney. It wasn’t my fault this time, honest.

23.04

Oz’s Ben Mates. Fs9, bs 5, air fakie, haakon, fs 7. It’s rad seeing air fakies. Nice work Mates.

23.06

Here comes Staale again. He seems to be fine after his evil loking encounter with the coping. Smaller air fakie, some stuff coz we got excited but pretty big and spinny, but arsed out on his double cork. Risky business. He’d probably have been through if he;d landed something there.

23.08

Fs air, bs 9, double 10, haakon, fs9 sums up a solid run from France’s Aluan Riccardi. 37.9 points. Bang.

Missed another run, but it seems Manuel Pietropoli slammed as he scored 5.2. Either that or the judges were reading this MBM.

23.11

We know the man in orange is the Netherlad’s Dolf Van Der Waal. Of course it is. Fricking orange innit. Method, fs 10, cab 10 butt check. Damn

23.12

Method, huge front 10 and a fall. Christian Haller ain’t having much luck here.

23.13

Poland’s Michal Logocki Supermans his first hit and ends up falling 2 hits later.

And that’s that for Heat 1 of the qualifiers. Shaun White, Ryo Ayono, Louie Vito go straight to the finals, Aluan Riccardi, Xiaoye Zeng, Mathieu Crepel, Ben Kilner, Gary Zebrowski, and Ben Mates are through to the semi finals. A bit of a wait now till heat 2 so we’ll post our thoughts of the first heat’s riding in a beer err couple minutes.

… glug

… glug

What did we notice? Well, one thing’s for sure. Shaun White posted the highest score of Heat 1 without even breaking a sweat. And he went bigger than everyone else. His run was sick, but no back to back doubles? No McGingerHawk? No never-before-seen tricks? You’re just playin’, aintcha Shauny boy.

The snow looks sugary and bumpy and many riders seemed to be clearly struggling – there was more falls than we can remember from a major pipe contest, and while the throwing of double corks that many riders thought necessary may have had something to do with the number of falls, it ain’t the perfectly groomed rad tube.

Yeah, the double corks. A few riders seemed to have a full on, hell for leather, all or bust mentality with that trick when in reality maybe a more measured approach would have served them better. Ryo Aono got second with not a whiff of the double cork’s flange and Kilner, Zebrowski and Ben Mates get to have another  bite of the cherry in the Semis, again by flicking the double the Vs.

Staale Sandbech’s air to fakie was the balls of Satan. And that means good, by the way. It was fucking huge and you must see it somewhere, somehow.

I am British and thus have been going nuts for Ben Kilner. Excuse the shameless bias for one particular rider but I would be so stoked if he made the cut for the finals, known the boy since he was 13. Would love to hear what Ed Leigh had to say on the BBC. If he makes it I will name my firstborn boy Ben. It might be the middle name, but will be there and that’s a promise. COME ON KILNER!

23.52

Canadian Jeff Batchelor gets Heat 2 started with the crowd pumped. Method, fs5 to knuckle a bit some other stuff and then a nasty slam. Damn, that kicked off quick

23.53

Cab 10, lien, mctwist, front double cork, switch alley oop backside rodeo. Bit sketchy landing on the double but that was pretty solid from Arthur Longo. 34.5 points.

23.55

Markus Malin is Finnish. Expect Vittus from here soon. Fs air, bs 9, double cork 10, stuttered stream and alley oop rodeo. No Vittus but no score yet. It should be a good un though… 32.8. Bit of confusion over the judging on that from here.

23.57

Brad Martin from Canada. Stale, bs 5, nasty front something to ass. The crowd don’t care though. Them’s ringing them bells. And he was ona Lamar, are they still around then?

23.58

Huge bs air to huuuuge frontside spin to fail from Daisuke Murakami. He went stupid big there. Sterotypical comment about kamikazes anyone?

00.00

Justin Lamoureux is Canadian. *Cheers* Bs 5, fs 9… err.. slam. The pipe flat is looking chewed.

00.01

Iouri’s on our potential podium list… Let’s see what he’s got. Bit sketchy stale, bs 9, fs 10, sick cab double cork 10 and a crippler. Hectic run and 36.3 is his reward.

00.03

Kazu time. He’s even done up his jacket… Fs 9, siiiiick mctwist, fs 10, cab 10, sent indy landing way deep. “The McTwist was so sick, I never seen one done like that…” Our crew here like that. 42.1 points. Basic tricks but huge score big here it seems.

00.06

Sergio Berger comes a cropper on the first hit. The end.

00.08

Japan’s Kohei Kudo up now. Indy… and then fucking massive something but slams. Holy cow he got away with that somehow. He’s shaken, but thankfully not stirred. Wowzers

00.19

Lien, McTwist, fs 7, Haakon, Front 9 and spanks himself good and proper on the coping. This pipe is bucking people.

00.10

Scott James from Australia up next. Small tailgrab, big front 9 but then washed out on the flat bottom. The shaping crew will be VERY busy when this heat is done. Holy moly, Scott James is a fricking CHILD! 15, but looks 10. YEAH DUDE!

00.11

Owner of possibly the finest haircut in snowboarding, Christophe Schmidt drops in for a nice nose grab, bs 5, fs 10, to approving sounds from the crew here, only to lose  his edge on landing. Nice Bavarian topsheet, Schmitty…

00.13

US rookie who made it in the team at the last minute, Greg Bretz on course. Massive styled frontside air, bs 9, fs 10, cab 9, fs 9. 36 points. High score, but he made it to the bottom clean.

00.15

Fs air, bs 5, fs 9, bs 9, bit overcooked double cork and a slam from Tore Holvik. We’re wondering why when so many riders have fallen, why he went for the double there…

00.16

Koski in the gate now. Method, fs10, cab 10, fs 9 FUCKING STREAM, alley oop last hit. Some of those tricks may be wrongly named, sorry. 39.3. Experience showed through there

00.18

Fs 7, cab double 10, lein, bs 5, fs 9 to finish. Monster. the Finns here have gone nuts for Peetu Piiroinen. That, right there, was a statement of intent. 44 points.

00.20

Scotty Lago on course. Nice method, fs 10, haakon, fs 9, weird corked thing to finish. Super smooth run. 39 points, but he don’t look happy.

00.22

New Zealand’s Mitchell Brown says hi to the crowd and shows ‘em his bs air, alley oop rodeo, bs 5, fs 10, switch something to flat bottom fall. Not getting too many style points is the consensus here.

00.23

Last guy of Heat 2 is Fredrik Austbo… and he pulls a DNS. Guess that means he’s hurt himself in training. Hope you’re ok dude.

The filming for this event is shit, it must be said. Maybe a bit better than 4 years ago in Bardonecchia, but hire the damn X-Games guys next time for crying out loud.

00.27

Canada’s Jeff Batchelor on his second run. Bs air, fs 5, bs 9 missed grab, sick fs 9 late cork, and then, unfortunately a fall. He gets to say hi to his moms though

00.29

Longo up now. What’s he got? cab 10, nose, bs 9, front double 10, switch alley oop bs rodeo. As the French say: Soliiid. 32.4 points.

00.30

Markus Malin. Lien, bs 9, double cork 10, haakon, alley oop, bs 5. Crowd like that, we’re down too. 36.7 points ain’t to be sniffed at at this stage.

00.33

Another Canuk, Brett Martin, drops in and… Stalefish, bs 5, fs 10, haakon, fs 9. A bit sketchy but the crowd, predictably, erupts. Hey, Getting through this thing ain’t no cakewalk.

00.34

Method, fs 10, haakon, fs 7 and that’s about that for Daisuke Murakami. He went no way near as big this time round. Dunno if our pacemakers could have taken it it he’d sent it like before…

00.36

Justin Lameroux steps up to bat for Canada. Bs 5, fs 9, method, fs 7, haakon and that’s all folks. Good beard and 35.4 points. Not sure about that…

00.38

iPod’s up now and heads into a stale, bs 9, fs 10, cab double 10, front 5 has Iouri shouting ‘Fuck Yeah!’ as he crosses the finish line. 41.4 and into third.

00.40

Kazu’s up, looking chill. We like this dude. Fs 9, uber-wanged McTwist, fs 10, cab 10, fs air. Not gonna budge Peetu with that but 42 points is a solid score

00.42

Sergio Berger’s up now and kick into a fs 10, Cab 7, Mute, bs 7, sw bs7, HANDPLANT! Props for that me ol’ Swiss mucker

00.43

Big bs air, fs 10, haakon, fs 9, bs 9 cork to finish. That’s a decent run, all pretty big from Japan’s Kohei Kudo. Uli here reckons she’s hot. 37.1 points

00.46

Shi Wancheng from China takes his second run. Fs air, big bs 5, fs 7, haakon, fs 9 to ass. Sami here has the right arsehole about Shi’s grabs…

00.47

Man-child Scott James heads in looking to stomp a good un. Fs9, bs5, fs7, cab 7, alley oop bs rodeo and it the recipient of perhaps the biggest cheer yet. Not enough to get through but damn this kid’s one for the future.

00.49

Schmidt, repping Germany (or should we say Bavaria?) all by himself takes his second chance with a big fs air, bs 5, fs 10, haakon, sweet front 9. Not good enough unfortunately

00.51

Greg Bretz has a stormer and we missed half of it. Fricking technology. Tailbone, bs 9, front double cork 10, and then everything went blank. 4 place for him as it stands

00.53

Tore Holvik’s fired in for his second run. And it went like this: Fs air, bs 5, fs 9, sick bs 9 late head dip and looked like he went for the double again but couldn’t hang on.

00.54

The experienced assassin Markku Koski has a bit of a sketchy drop in, method, fs 7 and then something or other to back slide. He’s already in the Semis.

00.55

Will be interesting to see what Peetu does here. He’s definitely straight into the Finals… Huge fs7, cab double 10, lein, 9, cab 10. The boy didn’t need to do that, but bugger me it was burlatronic. Nice Work. 45.1 even ups his score.

00.57

Scotty Lago. Method, fs 10, Haakon, fs 9, bs 9 and falls.

00.59

Bs air, alley oop bs rodeo, bs 5, fs 10 and a slam, and that will be that for New Zealand’s Mitchell Brown, and Heat 2 too, for that matter.

So after that bit of snowboarding jazzmtazz, Peetu, Kazu and iPod are straight to the finals, while Greg Bretz, Markku Koski, Scotty Lago, Kohei Kudo, Markus Malin and Justin Lamoureaux  get to slug it out again in the semis.

and now, a beer… reaction to all that in a bit.

We’ve got a while till the Semis kick off again at 02.00 or so. I say ‘or so’, but it’s the Olympics and it’s TV so it will be to the second. Oh, here comes the first bit of judging backlash over the wire… apparently there’s already a Facebook group ‘Korpi Got Robbed’ or something like that.

01.35

Now that the qualification is over we have some more time to drink and reflect on what we’ve seen so far. Oh and we had to give our English correspondent a break as he seemed to get carried away too much with the ups and downs of Ben Kilner. Maybe he will get a cameo apperance in the semi-finals report.

As usual the judging takes some time to get used to. Amplitude and style are big factors and some of the riders knew how to play it right. I think Kazu is a good example for this: he showed some really sick style out there, and he deserved the score even though he didn’t go all technical. Peetu charged inexplicably hard in his second run and one has to wonder what he will be up to in the finals. Big ups also to our European mate I-Pod, the third rider from heat 2 to make it straight into the finals.

01.50

Being  dedicated to delivering some mad shit to our readers we had Sami scan the Finnish newspaper websites for anything on the Janne Korpi robbery. And would you believe, apparently the Finnish team appealed against the judging. Surprisingly, they did not get anywhere with it.

Speaking of the Onboard crew: Our French outpost Youri is already biting his nails down in the Southwest and hopes for Ricciardi, Crepel and/or Zebrowski to make it through to the finals.

02.00

If we haven’t mentioned it yet the pipe does not look to be in the best shape. A lot of snow had accumulated in the flat, and the warm temperatures take away more speed and precision. This will not make things any easier for the twelve lads in the semis… oh, and we just realise things are about to start again soon. This. Is. Exciting.

02.13

Our man in Vancouver just told us that Tony Hawk is with him and following the action as well. Big ups to the slim ripper!

02.15

Ben Mates dropped in, spun a 9 and slid away.

02.17

Justin Lamoureux did … stuff… we lost the connection… 36.2 points.

02.19

Gary Zebrowski… fell on his front 10…  20.1 points.

02.22

Markus Malin: Lien Air, Back 9, then… TWO DOUBLES! 42.9p

02.23

Ben Kilner fell on front 9! (3.1 points)

02.24

Kohei Kudo: back air, method, front 10… (30.6 points)

02.25

Mathieu Crepel: Front 10, Cab Double 10, Front 9, Air to Fakie, Switch Back 7. F*** that was a good run! 37.2!?

02.27

Scotty Lago dropping… method, front 10, haakon, front 5, back 9. That was huge!41.3 points

We are piping our livestream into Jenny Jones‘ room in Reno. Olympics madness!

02.29

Xiaoye Zeng: Lien air. back 9, front 7, haakon flip, front 9, nice claim at the end. 32.9p

02.32

Markku Koski: Backside air, Method, front 7, cab 10, front 9, back 9, topped by an ally oop. “Grabbed everything like every good Finnish man should” (quote Tom). 37.1p

02.35

Alouan Ricciardi sporting a moustache like the entire French team (maybe even including their girlfriends?) Frontside air, back 9, double-cork 10, front 7, cab something. Solid 33.2 points for a solid run.

02.37

Greg Bretz: tailbone back 9, front double cork, cab 10, front 10. Pretty good. Pretty good.
According to our skype friend Jenny Jones the US uniform looks “like a bad Scottish outfit”. The judges might have taken acid: 42.1 points, second place currently.

02.38

That was the first run. Ben’s last (poor Britannia), Malin first. Two doubles sealed the deal for him. Bretz was judged too high compared to others like Ricciardi…

02.41

Props have to go out to 7sky Magazine for providing us with the beer for the night. Cheers Coco – we love you!
And by the way, discussion has been about just how many people from the semis advance to the final. The correct answer is: six!

02.45

Current Standings (top 6 semi finals):

1. Markus Malin
2. Greg Bretz
3. Scotti Lago
4. Mathieu Crepel
5. Markku Koski
6. Justin Lamoureux

Our man Danny in Vancouver tells us that you can hear a pin drop whenever a rider drops into the pipe!

02.51

Ben Kilner method, front 10, haakon (a bit small), front 9…. and BAILS… he had a good run, but it was not meant to be. The front 10 was killer. 17 points.

02.53

Ben Mates: Front 9, back 5, air to fakie – sick one!, haakon, cab 7, biiiig front 7. He did not do anything tech but most tricks were pretty good.27.5 points.

02.54

Gary Zebrowski dropping in. Frontside air, back 5, front 10, cab 10, front 9, a bit loose but kinda ok for the conditions. 36.1 points.

02.56

Kohei Kudo (the hot one) went massive before… backside air, front 10 nograb, cab 7, front 9, backside 9. Hmmm…. will this be enough for such a tight starting field? Things are getting a little hectic over here. The beer is flowing, the commenting is at its hight, and Jenny is still sharing her thoughts over skype with us (computer turned towards our flatscreen).

02.59

Xiaoye Zeng: Lien air, back 9, front 9, cab 10 to face… his arm got stuck in his jacket… poor guy. (16.2)

03.01

Alouan Ricciardi: Back 9, frontside doublesomething… now he’s out, but is to keep his moustache. (12.8 points)

Justin Lamoureux, our overrated friend from Canada: Backside air, front 7, cab 9, and no idea what he did then. Underrotated and now he is out. (20.2 points)

03.05

Markku Koski dropping in: Tailgrab, front 7, cab double cork attempt. But what the heck he already qualified. “He just needs a little more Wu-Tang on his hight” (quote Jenny Jones over our little laptop speakers)

03.06

Mathieu Crepel: front 10, haakon, front 9, air-to-fakie, switch alley-oop. Slightly sloppy, therefore only 22.6 points.

03.07

Scotti Lago Method, front 10, front 10, haakon, and then lots of oohs and aahs because he launched into a cab double to snow angel in the flat. 16.2 points. Finally Jenny agrees to order herself a gin tonic into her hotel room. About time!

03.10

Greg Bretz: double grab in his first air, then front 9, front double cork, cab 10, front 12. FRONT 12! “A little bit helicoptery”, according to Jenny. 38 points for the airwolf.

03.12

Markus Malin, already winner of the semis. Lein air, back 9, double cork 10 into a cab double cork to the arse. Doesn’t matter, this kid can ride. Now get me a beer this typing is hard work! Bring back the Englishman.

03.15

Semis are over, these are the results:

1. Markus Malin
2. Greg Bretz
3. Scotti Lago
4. Mathieu Crepel
5. Markku Koski
6. Justin Lamoureux
7. Gary Zebrowski
8. Kohei Kudo
9. Aluan Ricciardi
10. Xiaoye Zeng
11. Ben Mates
12. Ben Kilner

03.27

So who is going to the finals then? As mentioned the six best from the semi finals meet the six best riders from the qualifications (3 from each heat). You don’t need to do the calculations yourself, here’s the lineup:

Shaun White
Peetu Piiroinen
Ryo Aono
Kuzuhiro Kokubo
Louie Vito
Iouri Podladtchikov

Markus Malin
Greg Bretz
Scotti Lago
Mathieu Crepel
Markku Koski
Justin Lamoureux

03.30

Danny, our man in Vancouver, had a word with Ben Kilner: “The pipe was amazing – but you had to get the right line.” Also, over the days his mom had constantly been asked if she was in Vancouver for the Curling. “No,” she said, “I am here for the Kilner!”

03.38

And in other news, Jesus, Fabianski. What the hell? Anyway, away from Champions League football and back to snowboarding…

03.40

There’s training in the pipe and we think we just seen Shaun knock the back out that slippery Cypress ditch. He went about twice as big as anyone else and we’re still backing our (in no way bold whatsoever) prediction that White will win his second Olympic gold.

03.47

I know she’ll kill me for posting this, but here’s our friend Jenny Jones, who we’ve been piping the coverage to through a combination of skype, internet streaming and Sami’s retardedly large Sony TV, with her X-Games gold medal that she flashed us just before the Semis started. She’ll say that this contest has nothing to do with her but I have some retorts to that. I shall list them now:

1. There’s nothing much else going on right now.

2. She’s won the X-Games twice in a row and that is just frickin epic, and it’s rad to see her and her chunk o’ bling.

3. It’s great to see the mixture of stoke and gong-farmedness that can be displayed by one man, a few beers and a snus in the corner of a picture.

4. I may be dangerously close to being what could be termed ‘drunk in charge of an internet’.

And in Olympics news, White just tore the pipe a new arsehole in training with another jaw dropper of a run.

04.05

It’s like being in an pill head’s nightmare here in the media hub. Someone turn that shit techno off will you. Oh joy, speed skating on the telly. Will we get live TV of the snowboarding? Please, snowboarding, please, stop the techno…

04.09

A german manvoice on the telly just said *noise noise noise* snowboarding * noise noise noise*. We figure that means Real TV will be switching from skinsuited bladers to u tubers any. minute. now.

04.15

THE FINALS ARE ON!!!

Justin Lamouroux dropping in, backside air, front 7, cab 9, switch back 7, backside 9. “This run would have been good four years ago”, says our expert Johannes. 33.8 points.

04.17

Markku Koski gets the Finns excited in our media center. Backside air, front 10, cab 10, front 9, back 9, alley-oop rodeo. Sticked it. Good run from Markku. 36.4 points.

04.19

Mathieu Crepel launching into a front 10 – pretty big – cab double 10, front double, switch air, switch back 9!!!!!! Holy moly, if he manages to get this run a little cleaner then I don’t know what! 25.9 points.

04.21

“Ja Scotti!”, the Lago with a huge method, a giant front 1o, cab late cork 10 front 5, back 9. That was a good run. Good variation of old-school and nu-doubleshit tricks. He’s got good style, son. 42.8 points!! THIS IS GOING TO BE TIGHT FOLKS!

04.24

Greg Bretz getting amongst it: after his big air for starters he back 9, front double cork, cab 10, and bailed. 18.3 points.

04.25

Markus Malin: Lein air, back 9, double 10, cab double 10, and BAILED. Too bad, but he was oozing with style up till then. 16.7p

04.27

I-Pod dropping. He can make Switzerland proud with a nice frontside air, back 9, front double 10, cab double 10, front 5, and a huge claim to finish things off. Lago went bigger, but this was a good performance. 42.4. Second position so far just behind Lago!

04.30

Louie Vito front double 10, cab double 10, nosegrab (just), back 9, cab 10. That was a good one. But maybe not better than I-Pod, slightly struggling on his backside sping. But this kid has a few bangers up his sleeve fo sho. 39.1 for now.

04.32

Kazu-HERO now droppin…. stalefish, a McTwist straight out of the Wikipedia entry for “überstyle”, front 10 monster size, cab 10, and unfortunately bails on his double attempt. This would have been a sick run. 30.5 points – not bad for someone who crashes.

04.34

Ryo Aono, nice jacket, nice pant, backside 9, front 10, cab 10, front 9. Efficient like the Germans, but this is not enough to make history. 32.9p

04.35

Oh we are rooting so much for Peetu over here. Go Peetu, biiig front 7, cab double 10, lien air, back 9, front 10 to top things off. That’s good – but not good enough for the top position. 40.8, third for now.

04.37

Shaun White. Huuuuuuuge method, double cork, cab double, front 5, back 9. If we said anyone else went huge… we were wrong. THIS kid knows how to go big. Why he double-grabbed on his second double we don’t know. 46.8 points and the biggest claim of the day. But don’t count your chicken prematurely…. 46.8 points and a justified lead.

04.44

While some shaping is going on we have time to get ourselves together in our ad-hoc media center in Munich. Jenny Jones has been re-connected with us, and she says “Go Scotty, uhhh!”, whatever that means. Shaun and Scottie in top positions, followed by I-Pod and Peetu. Go Euros!

04.47

We have taken a picture of what we call the media-center. Maybe we will be able to upload it for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime the question is: Can anyone get even near Shaun’s performance – let alone beat it?

04.50

On the dot 4.50 the second run. Markus Malin with a Lien air, small back 9, front double 10, cab double 10… bailed again. He did not manage to get enough speed and should have played it safe. Oh well. 18.6 points. Still a great show Markus and big ups for your performance.

04.52

Greg Bretz tailboning, then back 9, double cork 10 onto the anus. Too bad. This was it for him… no wait a handplant for the gallery. 13.0p

04.54

Mathieu Crepel. Front 10, Cab double 10…. ooooooh…. bailed again. See you again in four years time. Thanks for putting on a good show. 8.7points

04.55

Kamikazuhiro Kokubo: Frontside air, McTwist, front 10, cab 10, double cork attempt. Once again he did not manage to stomp it properly. His style is great, we like his attitude, and we wanted him to do better. So what? He is still young and I am sure we will see him again in a similar booze-fueled media frenzy. 35.7 p

04.58

Ryo Aono, 19 years from Japan starts into his last run with a tailbone, back 9, front 10 (massive!), cab 10, front 9 and fricking bailed. It was brilliant, but not good enough. 29.1 p

5.00

Woah it’s getting late. Five o’clock. But luckily there’s Justin Lamoureux to chear us up. Backside air, front 7, cab 10, front 9 and stuff. Really, his riding is not good enough. Strange he should go through to the finals. But the crowd loves him. Fair enough, he clearly gave his best. 35.7 points.

05.02

Markku Koski getting at it. Backside air, front 10, cab 7, stalefish, backside air, nosegrab. That was it for him. Somehow lost his speed after the second hit. No medal for him either… 25.0 points.

Louie Vito: Does he look better in his Dancing with the Stars outfit or in his US snowboard uniform? Tough call. Tough also his run: double cork 10, cab double cork 10, stalefish, back 5, front 12? 39.4 points, because he lacked amplitude.

05.06

Go Peetu. “He does know how to do it in a big way!” Front 7, double cork 10, lien, back 9, front 10. It was big as usual, we were hoping for a second double rotation… SECOND PLACE for now! 45.0p

Iouri: front air, back 9, double 10… bailed. That’s it for him. He will stay in fourth position.

05.10

Scotti Lago dropping, things got too crazy over here, backside air, front 10, cab double cork 10, and then bails.The Finns are celebrating Peetu’s silver medal! Congratulations Peetu, congratulations Scotti on bronze and congratulations….

05.12

…SHAUN WHITE for winning gold again. His last run consisted of a backside air, double cork, cab double, front five, and the double mctwist 12. He did not have to do it, he put on a show, kudos to him for stomping it, and that was just outstanding. 48.4 points. Another gold medal for him.

05.16

We just realised we kicked the power cable out of the laptop that connected Jenny with our world. She missed the last three runs. Oops.

05.22

There was some dubious judging today, but for the top three it was spot on. Currently nobody can beat Shaun in the pipe. But hey, Peetu scored Silver. How good is that?

And did we promise to post a picture of our media center? Here you go:

The "media center" including Jenny live on skype.