Monday, March 22, 2010

TTR World Tour

The Burton US Open took place a few days go in Stratton, Vermont. It was basically the end of the contest season for the 2009-2010, and it was the final event on the Swatch TTR World Tour. Although Peetu Piiroinen already clinched the title as tour winner for the year, both the slopestyle and halfpipe contests showcased some of the best riding we've seen all year. In the pipe it was all Kazuhiro Kokubo. Louie Vito and Iouri Podladtchnikov got second and third. Althought he was supposed to compete, Shaun White was not feeling well and opted out.


Over on the jumps Mikkel Bang put on a show and a half. His run was perfection. Simply put. Ulrik Badertscher's double frontflip off the cannon got him a silver medal and Canadian young gun Sebastian Toutant got third. Also worth mentioning is the fourth place finisher Stale Sandbech who normally doesn't place tremendously well, but is still an insanely good rider, especially because he's 16!


The US Open also had a sick rail jam with an insane setup. It reminded me a lot of a skate park, and there were definitely many different options. It had everything from rails to quarter pipes to things I don't even know the name of!

1 comment:

  1. I was at the US Open last Saturday, along the left hand side of the pipe (looking up). It was a great day. No winter jacket required. Definitely, the top highlight was Ipod's first run double McTwist 1260 and he did it right over our heads. It was so sick! From our angle, we had no idea what it was, but we definitely knew it was the top trick we had seen up to that point all day. Another highlight was Louie Vito's third run in the finals when he finally, after failing the first two times, stuck (barely) his 1260 at the bottom of the pipe. Coming at the end of a run that had back-to-back-to-back double corks, everyone along the pipe by me thought he had eclipsed Kasu Kokubo's score and tken the halfpipe championship. Boos rang out when his score, lower than Kasu's, was announced. After watching the replays, though, I can't take anything away from Kasu, and have to say that his runs were so beautiful that giving him the victory was quite justifiable.

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