The 29th annual U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships are set to host some of the hottest shredding of the year at Stratton Mountain in Vermont from March 7 to 13, with a handful of titles and a boatload of cash up for grabs.
The U.S. Open represents not only the last stop of the Burton Global Open Series (BGOS) but also the final 6-star event of the 2010/11 TTR World Tour, so champions for both series will be awarded in Vermont. The top male and female riders from the BGOS series will grab a hefty share of the $200,000 prize purse and each will drive off in a new Mini.
The men’s TTR champ has already been announced, since Peetu Piiroinen mathematically clinched the title, but the remaining positions in the men’s and women’s overall rosters have yet to be decided. Currently, the second through fifth positions in TTR points are occupied by Red Bull athletes Seppe Smits, Sebastien Toutant (pictured at top), Mark McMorris and Iouri Podladtchikov.
Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Toutant and McMorris (pictured above), both explosive competitors enjoying banner competitive years, are confirmed for the U.S. Open, along with Slovenian Marko Grilc and American Forest Bailey.
The Canadian pair of Toutant and McMorris have both picked up Air & Style wins this year (Seb in China and Mark in Austria) and some hardware at Winter X Games, landing in the gold (Seb) and silver (Mark) positions in Slopestyle, with Seb also pocketing a Big Air silver. These two constantly motivate each other at contests, so there’s no telling what they’ll pull off at the Open.
Can’t make it to Vermont? Don’t sweat it – there are four days of live webcasting scheduled, accessible at Burton.com and metacafe.com from March 9 to 12, so you’ll be able to catch all of the slopestyle and halfpipe semi-finals and finals as they happen.
There will also be a 90-minute U.S. Open highlight show airing on ESPN2, currently scheduled for March 13 at 4:30 p.m. EST – but check your local listings for exact times.
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