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Guldemond Jumps To Victory at 3Star Boost Sno Sho and extends Tour lead

Monday 1 September 2008, 7:29AM

By SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour

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Chas Guldermond
Chas Guldermond Credit: Boost Sno Sho
Clint Allen
Clint Allen Credit: sno sho

American snowboarder Chas Guldemond out-jumped a 30-strong international field to win the 2008 3Star Boost Mobile Sno Sho presented by Samsung at Perisher Blue last night. The rising American star upstaged his opponents in the fourth annual game show style event staged under lights with a stunning performance.

With his win the 21 year-old successfully extended his Tour Lead closely followed by Janne Korpi (FIN) now in World No. 2 and Charles Reid (CAN) now sitting in World No. 3. But not only the top ranks were reshuffled after the Swatch TTR 3Star event, also the Top 20 saw a lot of movement with Chris Sörman (SWE) jumping 14 ranks into World No. 15 and Torstein Horgmo (NOR), who placed 4th, jumping another 10 places up to World No.20. Another Australian, Robbie Walker, fought his way into the Top20 with this result and now sits in World No.18. Matts Kulisek (CAN) came to claim his huge pay-day with the $15,000 winner’s cheque from the $25,000 event’s total prize purse in the Sno Sho final, jumping an amazing 295 ranks into World No. 43.
Defending event champion and Australia’s highest placed rider at the event this year Clint Allen (AUS) moves into World No. 29 on the Swatch TTR World Tour with his third place finish overall along with Torstein Horgmo, Janne Korpi and Matts Kulisek.

Now in its fourth year, the innovative tournament had two parts. The Boost Mobile Sno Sho started off with the crowd favourite, ‘longest rail’ slide and progressed to a Big Air and Jam Rail competition. The final was a Game Show style event where a huge spinning wheel depicted random tricks for a $15,000 grand prize.
Guldemond rode strongly throughout the Jam Session qualifying round, finishing in second position behind Chris Sörman to qualify for the 6-man final. He then turned up the pressure in the ‘game show’ format by landing five consecutive tricks from the wheel.

“What an unreal feeling,” said Guldemond. “To just come out and have some fun with my friends and go home with 15 grand after landing all my tricks in the finals is just the best feeling ever. I’m so stoked.”

With prize money and the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour rankings on the line, 21-year-old Guldemond linked together a Frontside 1080, Backside 270 Rail Slide, Backside 360 Indy Grab, followed by a Backflip and finished with a nerve-racking Frontside 720 to beat a world-class field of competitors.
“I was just thinking in my mind don’t think about the money, just concentrate on landing my last trick,” he said. “I just went into it like I was free riding, not in a contest. I guess it just worked for me.”

Swedish pro Sörman, who was the inform rider of the night, finished in the runner-up position after failing to complete the relatively easy Backflip on the second last spin of the Sno Sho wheel in the 6-man final.
Even though falling short in his quest for the win, Sörman won the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour section of the event taking out 400 TTR ranking points and the $5,000 in prize money. Competing on the 60-foot tabletop for the Big Air, Sörman completed two enormous spinning tricks to seal the win with a 17.37 total (out of a possible 20) for this Swatch TTR 3Star event.

The Boost Mobile Sno Sho presented by Samsung kicked off last night with the 28 national and international pros along with 2 local wildcards going head to head to take on the 100-metre world’s longest rail slide.

Canadian Charles Reid slid into the record books after breaking the official world record for the longest ever successful slide. Reid slid an incredible 54.80-metres to edge out Ryan Thorley’s (AUS) now defunct record of 54.15-metres, which was set in last year’s event and claimed the $5,000 prize money.
“The longest rail slide was so fun,” said Reid. “I’ve never slid that long on a rail before so I’m stoked. It was such a fun part of the event.”
With more snow than this time last year, the unique event created a snowboard show unlike any other seen in Australia before, with an exciting mix of snowboarding and entertainment from some of the world’s best snowboarders as they competed in the game show style event.

Stay tuned to www.ttrworldtour.com for updates of the upcoming 5Star Burton Australian Open and the latest videos from the 4Star Oakley Stylewars from last week.

2008/2009 - Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Ranking as of: 31/ 08/08

MEN

Rank Name Nation Results Points
1 Guldemond, Chas USA 5 353.77
2 Korpi, Janne FIN 4 296.84
3 Reid, Charles CAN 4 285.59
4 Hamilton, James NZE 4 272.70
5 Zeestraten, Stef NZE 5 262.75
6 Holvik, Tore NOR 5 258.72
7 Mitrani, Luke USA 4 252.22
8 Kleivdal, Roger NOR 4 251.36
9 Uotila, Ville FIN 4 234.32



ABOUT TTR:
Founded by Terje Haakonsen and industry innovators in 2002, the SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour is a non-profit, rider-driven organization with the mission to create the highest quality competitive snowboard environment in the world, using authenticity, accessibility, innovation as guiding principles. Since its foundation, the Swatch TTR Tour has been developing into the most exposed snowboard tour worldwide featuring global grass root and key independent freestyle snowboarding events over a ten-month period from Southern to Northern Hemisphere locations. Events are rated via a 1-through-6Star system, with points allocated accordingly, a 6Star event holds the highest (1000 Swatch TTR points). Any rider participating in these events, from up-and-coming to professional talent, earns ranking points and a position on the SWATCH TTR World Ranking List. The top male and female rider based on an average of their best eight results of the season is crowned SWATCH TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.