US Open welcomes world's best to Stratton
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 09:30AM By Matt Boxler
Didn’t get your fill of world class snowboarding during the Winter Olympics? Or perhaps your living room couch left you too far away from the action for your liking?
New Hampshire native Chas Guldemond is last year’s Burton Global Open Series champion (photo courtesy of Allisports.com).
Not to worry. You can catch all the sport’s biggest and brightest stars right in our back yard as Stratton Mountain hosts the 28th annual US Open Snowboarding Championships March 15-21.
There’s nothing like the Open to close out the competitive season. Forty thousand spectators will gather in the midst of Vermont’s glorious sun-drenched spring season to party and to cheer on the world’s best as they perform in slopestyle, rail jam and halfpipe.
Free concerts notwithstanding, these riders will have their game faces on when it comes time to throw down because there is a lot at stake. The overall Burton Global Open Series champion will be decided after this, the final stop on the circuit. The BGOS champions win $50,000.
This is also the event where the men’s Swatch TTR World Tour Champion will be crowned. And if that wasn’t enough, US Open competitors will be vying for $500,000 in prizes, including his and hers Volvos to be awarded to the event’s top riders.
With swag like that, the US Open field is stacked as Stratton will welcome the entire women’s U.S. Olympic halfpipe team (including medalists Hannah Teter of Belmont, Vt. and Kelly Clark of Mount Snow, Vt.) as well as all three Olympic medalists in the men’s halfpipe – Shaun White, Peetu Piiroinen and Scotty Lago of Seabrook, N.H.
The men’s competition will also feature Laconia, N.H. native Chas Guldemond, the 2009 Burton Global Open Series Champion, and local favorite Luke Mitrani, who grew up at Stratton.
Others threatening the podium will include two-time Olympian Kazuhiro Kokubo of Japan, Mikkel Bang of Norway, current Burton Global Open Series points leader Christian Haller of Switzerland and Mason Aguirre of Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
On the women’s side, U.S. Olympians Gretchen Bleiler and Elena Hight will join Teter and Clark as favorites in a strong field that also includes Vermont native Ellery Hollingsworth, the 2006 US Open “Rookie of the Year.”
Other top women will include Jamie Anderson (USA), Spencer O’Brien (Canada), Kjersti Oestgaard-Buaas (Norway), Jenny Jones (Great Britain), Lisa Wiik (Norway), Cheryl Maas (Netherlands), Sarka Pancochova (Czechoslovakia) and Sina Candrian (Switzerland).
Slopestyle finals will be held on Friday afternoon, March 19, followed by the invitational “Black & Night Jam.” When the jam concludes, Rahzel and JS-1 will play a free concert at 9 p.m.
The halfpipe finals will take place on Saturday, March 20, followed by a free concert by Shiny Toy Guns. On Sunday, girls and boys 13-years-old and younger will take to the halfpipe for the Junior Jam.
If you prefer watching the sport’s biggest events on the couch, ABC will broadcast the Open on March 27 at 5 p.m. It will also be streamed live on GO211.com.
For more information on the US Open, visit opensnowboarding.com.
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