Burton New Zealand Open Snowboarding Championships Underway

The seventh annual Burton New Zealand Open is officially underway at Cardrona Alpine Resort, after a day of men’s and women’s slopestyle practice and rider registration. The impressive field of global talent is stacked with riders like Torstein Horgmo (NOR), Chas Guldemond (USA), Antti Autti (FIN), Jamie Anderson (USA), Peetu Piironinen (FIN), Cheryl Maas (NED), Janna Meyen (USA), Charles Reid (CAN), Takaharu Nakai (JPN), Dustin Craven (CAN), Chanelle Sladics (USA), Lisa Wiik (NOR), Shelly Gotlieb (NZL), Hana Beaman (USA), Daisuke Murakami (JPN), Tim Humphreys (USA) and Mitchell Brown (NZL) among many more, all of whom registered today.

Mother Nature served up some challenging conditions in the morning, but the skies cleared and made for pleasant, albeit windy afternoon of training. “It wouldn’t be proper to kick off the first day of this season of competition without a bit of winter weather,” said Liam Griffin, Events Director for Burton Snowboards. “Riders were pretty anxious to get some time on the course since most people are just getting their snow legs back after some mellow summer riding. Once people get warmed up, I expect to see some pretty solid riding go down, especially since this looks to be one of the best turnouts of big name riders we’ve ever seen in NZ.”

Competition will get underway tomorrow with men’s slopestyle prequalification and qualification rounds, followed by the women’s slopestyle qualifications. That night, be sure to catch the world premiere of Burton’s new and highly anticipated movie, “The B,” which showcases the riding of some of the world’s best. Thursday, August 13 will see men’s halfpipe prequalification and qualification rounds, followed by women’s halfpipe qualifications. The Gravis Open Sessions will kick off that night with music from Black Sun Empire (NL), State of Mind and Truth at the Lake Wanaka Center.

All eyes will be on the slopestyle course on Friday for men’s and women’s slopestyle semifinals and finals, when 2009 BGOS Champions Chas Guldemond and Jamie Anderson take to the slopes. Men’s and women’s halfpipe semifinal and final competitions will go down on Saturday, August 15 when Olympic medalists Kelly Clark and Danny Kass can be seen riding the 22’ halfpipe, which is the same size pipe that will be featured at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Later that night, Tiki Live with support from DJ Reno, will wrap up the weeks’ festivities.

Burton would like to thank Cardrona Alpine Resort, Go211.com, Speight’s Summit Golden Lager, Juice TV, The Edge FM, Anon Optics, High Cascade Snowboard Camp, Nature Valley, goodbars.co.nz, Joe’s Garage, SolRX, McKenna, Smirnoff Ice Double Black and Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour for their support of the New Zealand Open.

If you can’t make it to New Zealand, 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.

 

The Burton Global Open Series events are the pinnacle snowboarding events of the season. Founded by Jake Burton, the Opens have grown from grassroots events to global spectacles attracting tens of thousands of spectators and riders from around the world. Since the beginning, the Opens have been driven by riders, for riders evolving with snowboarding and riders’ needs over the years. With events held in New Zealand, Europe, Canada, Japan and the United States, the Opens set the standard for snowboarding events around the globe. For more information, visit www.opensnowboarding.com.

About the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour
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 and innovation as guiding principles. Since its foundation, the Swatch TTR Tour has been developing into the most respected 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 at the end of the season are crowned Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Champion.

About GO211.com
GO211.com is the leading community and video site for action sports created for and by athletes and enthusiasts. It’s the place to go for behind-the-scenes videos, blogs, and photos from pro athletes and featured contributors along with other action sports fans. GO211.com is proud to offer a broad range of exclusive content submitted directly from the athletes and is proud to host interactive live webcasts of the top events in surf, skate, snow and BMX. The current GO211 Pro Team roster includes: Hannah Teter, Nate Yeomans, Torah Bright, Mikes Losness, Kelly Clark, Jack Mitrani, Andy Finch, Donny Robinson, Christian Hosoi, and Holly Beck, among others.

About Cardrona Alpine Resort
CARDRONA is located in the Crown Range between Queenstown (57kms/60mins) and Wanaka (34kms/35mins) in the South Island of New Zealand. With consistently good weather and reliable snow conditions Cardrona offers superb terrain suited to all ability levels. Cardrona is renowned for its wide open, undulating terrain that is perfect for beginners and intermediates, whilst the Arcadia and Tulips chutes offer extra challenge for more advanced riders. Cardrona is home to New Zealand’s premier terrain parks, with up to four halfpipes, a gravity cross and a range of beginner freestyle features. For more information, visit www.cardrona.com