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2002. European Open |  |
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Livigno, Italy |
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For the first time ever, this event was
sold as a "rider driven" event, catering to what the riders
wanted, and fortunately, Burton were able to create the thing most
in demand in Europe at the moment - Snow! By almost draining the lake
dry they made a total of 30,000m3 of man-made snow, allowing the 4-day
event to kick off on Wednesday with a slopestyle. This consisted of
3 kickers, rails & a couple of corners that allowed the new riders
to strut their stuff early on. Cranking in this Jam from day one was
Finnish youngster Henri Sankala who was ruling the rail, stomping
insane 50/50 off backflips until he slammed off one of the kickers
& snapped his binding. Also hitting it hard enough off the 1st kicker to dislodge his equipment - (his shoulder) was Ingemar Backman, who then spent the rest of the week focussing on his hobby - filming new talent like JP Solberg from Norway. (Check out his scenes in the next Method Mag). DCP from Canada came through to win with his sick switch backside nines off the kickers. Thursday was the pipe Jam - on the Super pipe, which started off as sheet ice, but softened into an almost perfect pipe with the haze of the sun. Swiss guru Nicolas Mueller came back from his injury 2 days previous where he slammed on the first kicker in the slopestyle & took a nasty chunk out of his cheek. He deserved his win with his sensational run where he dropped into the hip with a lovely backside 270 (3 metres out), into a 2 metre switch method, into hakenflip, then a huge frontside air to finish with a McTwist. Friday dawned blue bird, so, blurry eyed we headed out to the Quarter-pipe, where Romain de-Marchi from Switzerland was planting fear into the crowd with his absolute lack of it. He was dropping in with enough pace to power massive 7-metre-360s, free falling blind from apex of his jump! Mental. Unfortunately after 3 massive hits he caught the lip & dropped to the flat, bruising his heel & wrenching his hips out. Other casualties soon followed with high flyer Henri Sankala slamming on his super-glued shoulder, followed shortly by Joni Malmi who had been laying out lovely backside 3's until he caught an edge landing. Peter Strom fell hard from the lip & cracked his hip, whilst Freddie Calber sent his hat & goggles flying with a concussion that had him throwing up all night. Carnage ensued as the afternoon moved into evening with the help of commentator Ed Leigh appearing firstly as Mr Bling in his afro & slipping into Satan Woppacock as night fell. Partnered with a bemused Italian in tight ski pants, his highly entertaining babble flowed eloquently, complementing the heights David Benedeck was hitting. Standing with Boris (his brother) we were both breathless with fear & awe as he kept laying out solid 7-meter methods to win the quarter pipe title, and, deservedly, win the overall winners trophy. Following dinner served by the Mafia, we hit the styliest club I've been to in a long while - equipped with dancing girls (who looked good - until they started to shimmy), rock star leather seats & multi-tiered dance floor which was just demanding to be somersaulted onto to. Too much momentum on my 3rd go meant I've spent the last 4 days limping & rubbing the egg on my head. Stop when you're ahead. Straight up to my favourite day at 11am after 4 hours sleep - the junior Jam was cranking with the youngest rider, 6 year old Pitter from Norway giving it his all. Lucas DeBari from the USA was all style with his beautiful methods off the first hit, but winner Olivier Gittler came through with his complete control when spinning 360s & height on every hit. These young guys (and one girl!) epitomised snowboarding to me - eyes like saucers in awe of it all, and smiles of pure delight in being on top of the world - both literally & figuratively… Sian Hughes. / boarderzone team |
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| REACTION |
| RELATED STUFF |
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