And since you might lack some basic internet skills like clicking on hyperlinks we have prepared the results for you once again:

Protest World Rookie Finals 2011 – Results

Male Rookie

1- Emil Andre Ulsletten – NOR – (World Rookie Champion 2011)
2 – Sven Thorgren – SWE
3 – Haaverd Bergheim – NOR

Male Grom

1 – Fridtjof Saether Tischendorf – NOR
2 – Lucien Koch – SUI
3 – David Hablutzel – SUI

Female Rookie

1 – Katarzyna Rusin – POL – (World Rookie Champion 2011)
2 – Valentina Barengo – ITA
3 – Caroline Hockel – SUI

Female Grom

1 – Katerina Vojackova CZE
2 – Verena Rohere SUI
3 – Chloe Sillieres FRA

This is the mal winner, Emil Andre Ulsletten, as seen by our photog Elionora Raggi.

The 4Star Protest World Rookie Finals are finally concluded: Emil Andre Ulsletten from Norway and Katarzyina Rusin from Poland conquered the World Rookie Champions titles 2011 in a perfect and sunny day in Ischgl, Austria. Among the many prizes awarded, there was also an unexpected extra ticket to Oslo 2012 World Snowboard Championships for the male rookie champion.

In a slopestyle consisting of 4 table tops and a big jib area, all the riders showcased an high level of snowboarding for the end of season Protest World Rookie Finals 2011. Also, in the tradition of the World Rookie Tour, the event was not only a competition but included many other activities in the 5 days program: avalanche clinics by Pieps, art workshops with “special” people by We.Art, shredding with snowboard legends from USA (Mike Ranquet, Terry Kidwell and Bob Klein), video premiere about the History of Snowboarding, and a presentation of Oslo 2012 World Snowboard Championships and W.A.S (We Are Snowboarding) by Henning Anderson, CEO of The Arctic Challenge.

And here's the female groms' winner, Katerina Vojackova. Photo: Eleonora Raggi

The male winner of the event and new WSF World Rookie Champion 2011 is the norwegian rising star Emil Andre Ulsletten, who impressed the jury with frontside 1080, cab 900 and tons of style on the rails. Sven Thorgren from Sweden and Haaverd Bergheim from Norway completed the male rookie podium: all of them won a freeride trip to Chile with international pros to join the South America Rookie Fest 2011 in Valle Nevado.

In the girls rookie category, Katarzyna Rusin from Poland conquered her second World Rookie Champion title and moved in the position 20 of the TTR World Pro Rank. Valentina Barengo from Italy got second and Caroline Hockel from Switzerland third.

What? Katarzyna is Indonesian? Oh wait, this could also be the Polish flag. Or is it Singapore?

The groms section, reserved to riders borned from 1996 and up, showcased a great level of riding from very young shredders. Fridtjof Saether Tischendorf from Norway and Katerina Vojackova from Czech Republic resulted the male and female winners in their age groups, both shredding the big kicker line of the snowpark.

Straight after the event, the best male and female riders joined a Cooler and Onboard photoshooting in Ischgl, Kronplatz and Val Senales which will be featured in next season issues to present the rookie fest champions to the international snowboard community.

The male rookies' prizegiving.

Protest World Rookie Finals 2011 – Results

Male Rookie

1- Emil Andre Ulsletten – NOR – (World Rookie Champion 2011)
2 – Sven Thorgren – SWE
3 – Haaverd Bergheim – NOR

Male Grom

1 – Fridtjof Saether Tischendorf – NOR
2 – Lucien Koch – SUI
3 – David Hablutzel – SUI

Female Rookie

1 – Katarzyna Rusin – POL – (World Rookie Champion 2011)
2 – Valentina Barengo – ITA
3 – Caroline Hockel – SUI

Female Grom

1 – Katerina Vojackova CZE
2 – Verena Rohere SUI
3 – Chloe Sillieres FRA

Watch the picture gallery from finals and awarding ceremony at the World Rookie Tour facebook page.

Video highlights from finals and complete event photogallery will be available soon.

Here’s some big news for our small world of snowboarding: The TTR is on their way to create the World Snowboard Championships, a big shred brouhaha that will be held every four years and feature halfpipe and slopestyle. Every four years? If that sounds vaguely familiar to you it might be because of another big event called the Olympics that works along the same sort of schedule. However, the TTR thing will alternate with the five rings every two years in order to avoid any conflicts attention-wise. And since slopestyle is not an Olympic discipline this can be considered the TTR’s shot at becoming the most prestigious slopestyle event on the planet. In any case, the budget outline for the inaugural championships in Oslo/Norway should be sufficient to create a splashy comp up in the North. Fingers crossed.

On 24 May 2010 TTR Pro Snowboarding announced the creation of the World Snowboarding Championships. A new world-class snowboarding event, the World Snowboarding Championships will be held every four years and will feature men’s and women’s halfpipe and slopestyle disciplines. The first event is planned for the 2011/2012 season and will create an environment for the best freestyle riders to compete for world snowboard champion titles in both halfpipe and slopestyle formats.

Obviously, we don't have shots from this new event format yet. But we found this pic of Torstein from this year's Arctic Challenge, which not-so-coincidentally took place in Oslo, too. Photo: Stubberud.

“The creation of the Snowboarding World Championships is a great step forward for the TTR and the world of snowboarding as a whole,” says Reto Lamm, President of the TTR World Tour. “We look forward to putting on a world-class event to push the progression of the sport and provide a global platform to showcase the best riders in the world.”

The concept for the World Snowboarding Championships was developed by a group of international representatives of the sport at the 2009 TTR General Assembly in Austria and is a joint project of the TTR World Tour and the World Snowboard Federation (WSF). With a unanimous vote at the General Assembly 2010, the application for the Norwegian capital, Oslo, has been accepted to hold the inaugural event in 2012. The proposal was put forward by a consortium of the Norwegian Snowboard Federation, the Arctic Challenge organizers and the hosting resort Tryvann.

The municipality of Oslo will back the project with $4.3-million USD for the event and another $1.3-million USD for preparations. The final decision whether the event will take place is pending approval by the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment for the expansion plans of the event arena at Tryvann Vinterpark.

After the 2011/2012 event, the World Snowboarding Championships will continually change locations every four years and will take applications from cities around the world to host future events. Other details surrounding the event, such as qualifications, prize money and event schedules will be determined over the next six months and will be released as they are finalized.

Roope Tonteri. Photo: Raggi Eleonora

It must be what is commonly known as “sisu“: The strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity that only Finnish people seem to have. Because once again a kid from Suomi has dominated a big snowboard contest: Roope Tonteri becomes the first rider ever to take the WSF World Rookie Champion Title for the second time with his victory at the 4Star World Rookie Finals in Ischgl, Austria last Saturday, April 10th 2010. With Finnish Peetu Piiroinen and Enni Rukajärvi crowned male and female Swatch TTR World Champions, Finland was able to take home all Swatch TTR World Champion Titles as well as the WSF World Champion Title this season, which roughly translates to Finland kicked ass big time in 2009/10.

But back to the WSF World Rookie Finals: Second came Austrian rookie Clemens Schattschneider followed by Sven Thorgren from Sweden. The winner of the Rookie girls category was Polish Katarzyna Rusin, followed by Anna Gyarmati from Hungary in second place and Silja Suitiala from Finland in third.

After an already successful season for Tonteri, he ends his season in an impressive World No. 8 on the Swatch TTR Ranking. Among his results are a third and fifth place at the 5Star Burn River Jump in Italy, a sixth place in the slopestyle format of the 5Star Burton Canadian Open and a seventh place at The 6Star Oakley Arctic Challenge.

Diana Augustinova. Photo: Raggi Eleonora

The World Rookie Fest stop in Ischgl boasted a park setup par excellence for the rookies with three jumps up to 18m, a hip and finishing with a jib section. The 18-year old Tonteri took the victory with a run consisting of a cab 900, frontside 720, backside 720, a massive double backside rodeo on the final hip and a lot of the aforementioned sisu stuff. Roope does not only walk away with the Rookie World Champion Title, but can also look forward to freeride trip to Chile, an invitation to the Red Bull Evolution Camp in New Zealand, a film shooting with Pirate Movie Production and a ticket to the Billabong Air & Style Rookie Challenge 2010 in Innsbruck, Austria. And best of all, Roope, along with Tim Kevin Ravnyak, Clemens Schattschneider and Sven Thorgren, are now joining an Onboard Europe on a photoshoot in Italy.

In the Groms category (born after 1995), Tim Kevin Ravnyak from Slovenia stood atop the boys’ podium while Diana Augustinova from the Czech Republic won the girls’ comp. Both riders win a “Golden Ticket” to all Rookie Fest events in 2011.

Where: Ischgl, Austria

Snowboard connoisseurs don’t turn away from competitions after the US Open: They focus their attention on the smaller events of the season in search of some new talent and the ginger-boys of tomorrow. No really! How else would you fill your AM team? And since you were asking: The riding in 9 out of 10 sponsor-me-videos is worse than ours. That’s how bad they are. That’s why we’d rather talk about the World Rookie Fest Finals. Let’s cut to the chase: The riders await many team managers’ googly eyes, prize money, a spot in the next Pirates movie, a freeriding trip to Chile, an Onboard mag shooting, and a wild-card for the next Air&Style rookie challenge. You almost wonder why you would want to become a pro if all of this is up for grabs for rookies?!

Armin Popp took this picture of Roope Tonteri popping.

This 4Star TTR even goes down from April 7th to 10th 2010 in Ischgl, Austria. It features the hopefuls of the Swatch TTR Tour battling for some of the last points available this season. All throughout the season, upcoming snowboard talents from all over the globe have been competing at international 1, 2, and 3Star World Rookie Fests that were held under the wings of the World Snowboard Federation in corporation with National Associations. Now the 4Star finals are up ahead which offer up to 500 Swatch TTR ranking points and the title of the 2009/2010 WSF World Rookie Champion.

One of the most impressive rookies of the season, Roope Tonteri (FIN), is back to defend his World Rookie Champion title in Ischgl. After a successful season at 5 and 6Star Swatch TTR events around the world, Tonteri is now ranked 8th in the TTR world ranking list and is certainly more prepared than ever for the rookie battle this weekend. Also on the start list is one of the youngest talents out of Switzerland, Patrick Burgener who currently sits in World No. 46 due to his good performances at the 4Star Nescafe Champs Leysin, where he placed second and the 5Star Burton Canadian Open where he finished in 8th in the halfpipe. In the mix are also Max Glatzl out of Austria, and World No. 43, Tor Lundström from Norway who has collected some good results at the 5Star Burn River Jump and the 3Star Protest World Rookie Fest this season.

On the women’s side Katarzyna Rusin (POL), currently sitting in World No. 43, comes to Ischgl to try to repeat her victory at the 3Star World Rookie Fest in Livigno, Italy earlier this season. Other rookie girls eager to measure their talents include Finnish Kristina Nisula and Italian Lisa Caserotti who will be making some of their first appearances on the competition circuit outside their home countries this weekend, after many victories at 1 and 2 Star events in their home countries.

The Protest World Rookie Fest is presented by the new Austrian snowboard association (n.asa) and offers additional prizes such as an invitation to film with Pirate Movie Productions, a freeride film trip in Chile with international Red Bull pros, shooting with Onboard European Snowboard Magazine and a wild card for the Billabong Air & Style Rookie Challenge 2010 in Innsbruck. This event is a true opportunity for newcomers to enter the international stage. Furthermore, it forms the link between the WSF and the TTR and their rookie to pro structure set up.