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» Halfpipe Semis  » Quarterpipe  » Intro

An enormous crowd descended upon Stratton, Vermont, Saturday for the snowboarding event of the year, the halfpipe finals of the 20th Annual US Open of Snowboarding. The pipe was in good shape, the atmosphere was positive, and the sun even decided to poke its head out every now and again.

The event boasted the 10 best men and the 10 best women riders together in an hour-long jam session for which they were judged on overall impression.

Several competitiors came into the finals riding a wave of momentum, including Danny Kass, Ross Powers, Markku Koski, Keir Dillon, and Andy Finch. Keir set the pace early, boosting the biggest airs of the day, and the event for that matter, with 20-foot straight airs into over 18-foot McTwists. He also managed to pull some really stylie wetcats and haakon flips during the session, which landed him in 3rd. Whatever was beating in those silver headphones of his seemed to do the trick.

Andy Finch decided he didn't want to be out-amped by Keir, but unfortunately was unable to put together a complete run, packing on the deck several times in a slightly over-vert section of the pipe. The enormous cripplers he did land, however, earned him a solid 4th place finish.

Danny Kass once again proved just how huge a bag of tricks he has by pulling back-to-back 1080's, inverted 9's, alley-oop 7's, and even an inverted 1080. The jam format allowed the riders to really display their goods, and Danny took advantage, never doing the same run twice.

But the real eye-opener of the day was Markku Koski who displayed snowboarding like it has never been seen before. Inverted 7's, inverted 9's, all dripping with style. The grabs were held through the entire spin, just to reinforce his dominance. But the question was, would he pull out the 1260 we saw in the quarterfinals? The announcer was asking for it, the crowd was roaring in anticipation for it, but it looked like his set-up trick was in a section of the pipe that was slightly over-vert, and left Markku a little too sketchy to pull it out.

But when everyone had just about given up, Markku made jaws drop when he pulled a 1440. No one even knew what had just happened. I don't even thing Markku knew what he had done, but it just fell into place, and he even made it look effortless in typical Markku fashion.

Daniel Franck and Giacomo Kratter also turned in notable performances. Daniel was dropping back-to-back 9's, but he just had a little trouble putting it all together. The guy was a machine, though, taking more runs during the hour-long jam than anyone, and his dedication paid off, grabbing a 5th place finish. Giacomo, the Italian Stallion, was the crowd favorite, boosting huge inverted 7's, only to sign autographs the entire way on the hike back up. He rounded out the money winners in 6th.

In the end, it was Kass's huge bag of tricks and skate-influenced style that took home 1st place, with Markku finishing 2nd.

The event was well organized and everyone involved left stoked. Thanks to all the sponsors and event organizers for making this a memorable contest.

— Courtesy, Fuse Sports Marketing