Fri, 1 Aug 2008Burton New Zealand Open Day 4
Posted at 10:30:00 PMNZO - Day 4
As riders rocked up to Snow Park NZ on Friday morning they were surprised to find freshies on the slope. But, a jam-packed schedule for slopestyle semis and finals were on tap and there were no room for delays. First up were the ladies semis with a field that was twice as large as anticipated due to Thursday’s weather cancellations.
22 women took to the course once things got underway, 10 of those women would advance on to the finals. Jamie Anderson (USA) was clearly killing it, her winning semi-final run started with a noseslide, followed by a tail bonk backside shifty, into back-to-back 3’s, followed by a tailslide to fakie and finishing with a fakie wallride. Jamie was definitely feeling it. “The course is great, it’s super fun”, said Jamie. “The weather is clearing up a little bit so we’re all stoked. I feel good.”
Women’s Slopestyle Semi-Finals Results
1 Jamie Anderson USA BILLABONG
2 Shelly Gotlieb NZE BURTON
3 Spencer O’Brien CAN BURTON
4 Cheryl Maas NED NITRO
5 Sina Candrian SUI BURTON
6 Ellery Hollingsworth USA BURTON
7 Naho Mizuki JPN ROSSIGNOL
8 Callie Conaghan AUS
9 Tomoko Kikuchi JPN NOVEMBER
10 Mari Mizukami JPN NIKITA
11 Michaela Davis-Meehan AUS BILLABONG
12 Faye Gulini USA OAKLEY
13 Desi Diselrod USA
14 Charmaine Ironside CAN BURTON
15 Kara Rennie CAN NIKITA
16 Georgina Allen NZE BURTON
17 Stefi Luxton NZE BURTON
18 Karlinski Jordie USA K2
19 Kunioka Ai JPN HEAD
20 Evensen Emilie NOR BETTY RIDES
The men’s semi-final field was made up of a whopping 43 riders, and the competition was stiff. The dudes were throwing down and going big, but it was Tim Humphreys (USA) that took the top spot with a run that kicked off with a half-Cab 50/50 on the hubba, followed by a 50/50 backside 3, into an inverted backside 7, followed by a frontside 9 tailgrab, into a gap to Cab 270 frontside boardslide to fakie, finishing with a wallride. Humphrey’s had this to say, “The course was sick. I didn’t expect it to be too good because the weather was kind of bad this morning but it cleared up and it turned out to be really good.”
Men’s Slopestyle Semi-Finals Results
1 Tim Humphreys USA BOLLE
2 Chas Guldemond USA DC
3 Mikkel Bang NOR ANALOG
4 Eric Willett USA VANS
5 Charles Reid CAN ANON
6 Luke Mitrani USA BURTON
7 Sebastien Toutant CAN O'NEILL
8 Sam Hulbert USA OAKLEY
9 Stef Zeestraten NZE CHEAPSKATES
10 Chris Sörman SWE BURTON
11 Takaharu Nakai JPN BURTON
12 Nick Hyne NZE RIDE
13 Stephan Maurer SUI BURTON
14 James Hamilton NZE 32 SNOWBOARD
15 Mitchell Brown NZE BATALEON
16 Roger Kleivdal NOR DRAGON
17 Nathan Johnstone AUS 32 SNOWBOARD
18 Tyler Flanagan USA VOLCOM
19 Fumiyuki Murakami JPN FORUM
20 Marko Grilc SLO BURTON
21 Tore Holvik NOR BATALEON
22 Janne Korpi FIN KISSMARK
23 John Murphy USA ANALOG
24 Connor Harding NZE K2
25 Jacob Koia NZE OAKLEY
26 Ville Uotila FIN ATOMIC
27 Masaharu Ando JPN BONFIRE
28 Neville Lapwood NZE BURTON
29 Keegan Valaika USA BURTON
30 Robbie Walker AUS ANON
31 Mario Käppeli SUI Forum
32 Jaakko Ruha FIN KISSMARK
33 Justin Lamoureux CAN
34 Kevin Bronckaers BEL ROME
35 Chris Willett USA ZION
36 Nick Brown NZE BURTON
37 Seppe Smits BEL BURTON
38 Olivier Gittler FRA BURTON
39 Takahiro Ishida JPN DRAGON
40 Kiichiro Kazumi JPN VOELKL
41 Sani Alibabic AUT BURTON
42 Ben Stewart NZE O'NEILL
43 Graham Scott USA QUIKSILVER
Eight lucky ladies advanced on to the finals, but luck had nothing to do with it- these chicks ripped. Spencer O’Brien (CAN) nailed her first run through the park and the score held up for the rest of the comp as she rode away with 3rd place. Her run started with a frontside lipslide, followed by a 50/50 frontside 180, into a switch backside 180 mute, followed by a backside 5, into a 50/50 frontside boardslide, finishing with a wallride. O’Brien had this to say, “It feels super good. I haven’t really been riding very much so it was nice to come here and do well. I’m stoked.”
Cheryl Maas out of the Netherlands took home second place with a run that kicked off with a boardslide, followed by a 50/50, into a frontside 3 on the first kicker, followed by a backside 7 tailgrab, into a gap 50/50, finishing with a wallride. Cheryl was digging her run and the setup, “I’m feeling good. It was a really nice course to ride. It was too bad that the weather came in a bit but the jumps were really smooth. I’m stoked I got second.”
But no one could step to Jamie’s riding, each run scored consistently higher marks and she continued to raise the bar and push her riding to the next level- her winning run scored 34 points higher then her next closest competitor; she blew the doors off the thing. Her third and final run started off with a noseslide, followed by a frontside 180 nosebonk on the tank, followed by back to back 5’s, into a gap tailslide finishing with an alley-oop wallride. Anderson had this to say, “It was good. I landed my Cab 5 to front 5 so I was stoked. Good stuff.”
Women’s Slopestyle Finals - Results
1 Jamie Anderson USA BILLABONG
2 Cheryl Maas NED NITRO
3 Spencer O’Brien CAN BURTON
4 Shelly Gotlieb NZE BURTON
5 Callie Conaghan AUS
6 Sina Candrian SUI BURTON
7 Ellery Hollingsworth USA BURTON
8 Naho Mizuki JPN ROSSIGNOL
16 Men took to the slopestyle course for the finals, the weather was still a factor but it did little to effect the riding of these guys. Pushing the bar and consistently throwing down, Chas Guldemond finished in 3rd with his second run that started out with a frontside blunt 270 followed by a frontside boardslide to fakie on the sex change into back to back 9’s, gap Cab 180 5-0, finishing with an alley-oop 270 wallride. Chas had this to say about his 3rd place win, “Today was super fun. Open Series, first event of the year, I’m pretty stoked. I’m trying to get my head back in the game with the first event of the year and I’m stoked to do well and even get on the podium. That’s always good. I’m trying to get all those [BGOS] points this year.”
Charles Reid brought home a 2nd place win for his native Canada with his first run that started with a tailslide 270 out, nosepress nollie off the tank, into an inverted backside 720 nosegrab followed by a frontside 1080 melon, gap 270, finishing with a big 50-50 on top of the wallride. Charles was stoked with his podium placement, “I’m feeling great, it was an awesome day. The event was really cool. The weather could have been better but it was good during the competition, so yeah, it went well.”
Mikkel Bang from Norway pulled out all of the stops and continuously upped the ante on his runs. On his third and highest scoring run of the day he started with a switch frontside boardslide, followed by a Cab 540 nose tap on the tank, followed by a Cab 720 mute on the first kicker into a switch backside 900 mute on the second, 270 in on rail, finishing with an alley-oop wallride. “In the finals I just landed all my runs and I did better every run so I couldn’t have done any better I guess”, said Bang. “I’m just happy. The event was perfect.”
1 Mikkel Bang NOR ANALOG
2 Charles Reid CAN ANON
3 Chas Guldemond USA DC
4 Eric Willett USA VANS
5 Tim Humphreys USA BOLLE
6 Sam Hulbert USA OAKLEY
7 Chris Sörman SWE BURTON
8 Nick Hyne NZE RIDE
9 Stephan Maurer SUI BURTON
10 Luke Mitrani USA BURTON
11 James Hamilton NZE 32 SNOWBOARD
12 Mitchell Brown NZE BATALEON
13 Roger Kleivdal NOR DRAGON
14 Sebastien Toutant CAN O'NEILL
15 Takaharu Nakai JPN BURTON
16 Stef Zeestraten NZE CHEAPSKATES
