Burton Canadian Open Snowboarding Championships Underway

CALGARY, AB (February 3, 2009) – The first day of the much anticipated inaugural Burton Canadian Open 2009 Snowboarding Championships kicked off this morning under partly cloudy skies at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta. A field of 48 men, whom would be whittled to 20 by the end of the day, were registered and raring to go as they took to the 22’ superpipe.

The oldest rider, 62-year-old BGOS veteran Dick Schulze (USA) was first to drop followed by the youngest rider of the day, 10-year-old Jack Collins (CAN). The majority of the field was made of up local legends like Jed Anderson and Josh Duncan; in addition Canadians like Harrison Gray, Daniel Longo and Trevor Niblett. Representing the Bahamas was Olympic team rider, Korath Wright, feeling the weight of a nation on his shoulders.

Heat one and two dropped alternately in a best of two run qualification round. Highest scoring run of the day was landed by Daniel Longo on his second run which started off with a frontside 720 melon, into a Cab 7 mute, followed by back-to-back 900’s, finishing things off with a stylish air to fakie. Drew Brighton out of SLC placed first in his heat with a run that started with a big frontside air, into a backside 900 tailgrab followed by back-to-back 540’s, finishing with a crippler 720.

The top 10 finishers in each heat move on to Saturday’s semifinals where they will face world-class riders like Brad Martin, Jeff Batchelor, Dustin Craven, Charles Reid and Jack Mitrani.

The Burton Canadian Open action continues tomorrow with men’s slopestyle prequals. The Canadian Open is the fourth stop on the Burton Global Open Series and offers riders the chance to earn points towards a male and female championship title, each worth $100,000, currently the largest single payout in competitive snowboarding.

If you can’t make it to Calgary, watch the semi-finals and finals live on Go211.com, where webcasts and highlights of the competitions will also be available for on-demand viewing once the event is over.

Halfpipe Qualifications Men
Heat 1
1 Drew Brighton USA DC
2 Trevor Niblett CAN Trace Apparel
3 Chad Oliver USA Burton
4 Kyle Thomas CAN ---
5 Josh Warnick USA Billabong
6 Tanner Davidson CAN Forum
7 Robby Balharry CAN Westbeach
8 Nick Saar CAN ---
9 Matthew Pasutto CAN Waffle Cone
10 Gerald Austman CAN ---

Halfpipe Qualifications Men
Heat 2
1 Daniel Longo CAN Salomon
2 Jed Anderson CAN Salomon
3 Harrison Gray CAN Burton
4 Christopher Waker USA Burton
5 Sage Kotsenburg USA Quiksilver
6 Ryan Rausch CAN Ripcurl
7 Josh Duncan CAN Sentury
8 Ryan Hall CAN Clyde
9 Jeremy Page USA ---
10 Peter White CAN ---

Burton would like to thank WinSport Canada, GO211.com, Samsung, Coors Light, Schick Xtreme, Amp Energy, Paul Mitchell, Snowboard Canada, Travel Alberta and Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour for their support of the Canadian Open.