Photos: Jordan Wagner

Men's and Women's Slopestyle Qualifications Shine on Day Three of the Canadian Open

Thursday, the third day of the Burton Canadian Open, saw optimal conditions for the men’s and women’s slopestyle qualifications at Canada Olympic Park with bluebird skies and brisk temps. First to drop were the women in their qualification round, 22 women took to the course which featured rails, boxes, a wall ride, three kickers and a log jib.

Although the competition was stiff amongst the ladies, the top spot went to local rider Brooke Voigt who kicked off her run with a smooth tailpress on the downbox into by a 50/50 to boardslide on the kink rail, followed by a tail tap backside 180 off the log, frontside boardslide on the down rail, into a 50/50 on the top of the wall ride. On her first hit she pulled a nice frontside 360 nosebone, followed by a method over the channel, finishing with a backside 180 melon.

The top eight ladies are moving on to tomorrow’s slopestyle semi-finals, where they will face invited riders like Lisa Wiik (NOR), Breanna Stangeland (CAN), Sina Candrian (SUI), Cilka Sadar (SLO) and Shelly Gotlieb (NZL).

A field of 40 men then took to the course for slopestyle qualifications, taking the top ten finishers to Friday’s semis where they will battle against riders like Canadians Charles Reid, Dustin Craven and Mark Sollors in addition to Stale Sandbech (NOR), Antti Autti (FIN), Seppe Smits (BEL) and reigning O’Neill Evolution slopestyle and Air & Style champion Marko Grilc.

The great weather compounded by enthusiastic cheers from spectators on the patio fueled the competition between the men. In the first run, Joachim Krogstie impressed judges with a huge back rodeo stalefish and technical tricks in the rail section. However, Jon Versteeg, top qualifier from the second heat in yesterday’s prequals, edged Krogstie out with his second run that started out with a 180 to Cab 270 switchup on the step-up saddle to down box, front boardslide on the down flat down, backside 360 inverted handplant off the log, followed by a 270 front boardslide on the downrail, Cab 180 wallride transfer into a Cab 720 on the first hit, followed by a switch backside 540 melon, finishing with a backside 900 tailgrab.

The Burton Canadian Open action continues tomorrow with men’s and women’s slopestyle semifinals, aired live on Go211.com. An overall male and female Burton Global Open Series Champion will be crowned at the final event, the US Open Snowboarding Championships held in Stratton, Vermont. The top three men and women will take home equal prize money, with first place winning $50,000, second place $30,000 and third place taking home $20,000.

The Burton Global Open Series is also part of the Swatch Ticket To Ride World Snowboard Tour (TTR), the largest group of independent freestyle snowboard events in the world. TTR ranks riders based on their results at participating competitions and crowns a TTR World Champion at the US Open. For more information on the Swatch TTR World Tour, visit ttrworldtour.com.

If you can’t make it to Canada Olympic Park, watch the semifinals 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 2010 Canadian Open halfpipe and slopestyle action can be seen on The Score on February 28 at 4:00 p.m. EST.

Result
Slopestyle Qualification Women
1 Brooke Voigt CAN BILLABONG
2 Joanna Dzierzawski USA 686
3 Meri Peltonen FIN PROTEST
4 Victoria Marshall CAN BILLABONG
5 Thea Stenshagen NOR NIKITA
6 Jordie Karlinski USA NIKITA
7 Alexandra Duckworth CAN OAKLEY
8 Silje Norendal NOR ROXY
9 Jenna Blasman CAN BILLABONG
10 Rebecca Torr NZL BILLABONG

Result
Slopestyle Qualification Men
1 Jon Versteeg CAN NOMIS
2 Joachim Krogstie NOR BURTON
3 Chris Hagerty USA GKC
4 Matt Munn CAN CAPITA
5 Zak Stone CAN VOLCOM
6 Jan Necas CZE GNU
7 Brett Esser USA OMATIC
8 Ben Watts USA BURTON
9 Jordan Phillips CAN NOMIS
10 Bryan Daino USA SIMS

Burton would like to thank WinSport Canada, Go211.com, Paul Mitchell, Amp Energy, Samsung, Travel Alberta, Tourism Calgary, Calgary Hotel Association, Alberta Lottery Fund, Snowboard Canada Magazine, Transworld Snowboarding Magazine and Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour for their support of the Canadian Open.