The TTR**** Snowboard contest went off yesterday in Monster Fridge Festival in Budapest. The venue was amazing, the closeness of the Heroes Square, the 2 museum buildings, and the Vajdahunyad Castle behind the ramp, gave the festival an amazing environment in the middle of the capitol of Hungary. The tickets were sold out early in the evening, so there could have been no complaints for the interest either. By the finals, as more and more people approached the festival, a pretty decent crowd gathered around the ramp, giving a great atmosphere to the snowboard event.
There were crazy concerts, such as Freestylers and Infected Mushrooms playing on the stage next to the ramp. The festivals' full capacity, with the ramp area, smaller stages, the partyarena, and the retail village was about 12,000 people, and it was full house yesterday.
First, the qualifications went down, where the best trick counted from two jumps. Staale Sandbech qualified himself for the finals on the first place with a sick and perfect backside 1080. Pat Burgener, last years' winner did a stylish cab 900 and on the third place, Matevz Peter, the Slovenian rider, who did a switch backside 700.
The crowd, many of whom had come for the music, were suitably impressed by the level of riding at the competition, showing that European Big Air city events are one of the greatest ways to showcase snowboarding.
Quali results:
1. Staale Sandbech, 90.5
2. Pat Burgener 88.75
3. Matevz Petek 87.5
4. Ulrik Badertscher 86.5
5. Kevin Backström 85.5
6. Jan Necas 83
7. Zebbe Landmark 82.5
8. Michael Macho 81.5
The finals began at 7.30pm, with already a lot of fans around the bottom of the ramp. The speakers kept the audience alive, so there was a nice atmosphere, while the riders deeply felt the pressure on the top. They had 3 jumps, but only the best 2 counted. As the last qualified rider, the Austrian Michael Macho was the first in the finals, and Staale, as the first qualified, the last. As the stakes raised, the riders did sicker and sicker tricks. Pat Burgener ended up as first with two perfectly carried out tricks: switch backside 1080 and a cab 900 with a mutegrab. As second, Ulrik Badertscher did a doublecork 900 and a backside 1080, and Kevin Backström won bronze with a cab 900 and a frontisde 1080.
Final Results
1 Pat Burgener 186.5 pts
2 Ulrik Badertscher 180 pts
3 Kevin Backström 166.75 pts
4 Matevz Peter 157 pts
5 Staale Sandbech 141 pts
6 Michael Macho 120.5 pts
7 Jan Necas 96.75 pts
8 Zebbe Landmark 58 pts
