AIR AND STYLE: Kevin Pearce dominates the super final in Munich
The 2007 Nokia Air & Style is over and those who witnessed the event will never watch snowboarding through the same eyes. The main event was all-time, but first the rookies had the ramp. The event is called the rookie challenge, but make no mistake, these are top-level pros. They took two runs at the course with the best run counting. A legit panel of riders judged the event. Mads Jonssen and Devun Walsh scored the runs out of a maximum 100 points each, with the big kicker being 95 points and the lower section only 5. Mason Aguirre was one TTR tour ranking away from competing in the main event. He showed everyone why by stomping a clean backside 1080 in his first run and just washing out (actually over-rotating) his 1260 attempt in the second run. It was good enough for third place. Iouri Podlatchikov had similar luck on his 12 as he crashed out. No rookies landed that super spin this day. Werner Stock, from Austria, nailed a frontside 1080 cleanly that put him in second place. Finland's Jusso Laivisto stomped a double backflip that left him just shy of the podium. Norwegian rider Daniel Ek threw a huge double cork, but sketched the landing. He told me afterward that he was saving his best for a third run he thought they got as they do in the main event. He didn't find out it was over until he got to the top of the ramp and course maintenance made him walk back to the base. It was over because Tim Humphreys said it was over. His steezy clean cab 1080 with an equally stylish switch backside 180 on the lower hit gave him the #1 spot and the invite to next year's main event. Way to go Humpy!
Speaking of rookies in the main event, this year it was Mikkel Bang's turn to make the jump. And what a jump it was as he faced defending champ Travis Rice in the first round. And what a jump he made. Travis went huge on his double backside rodeo and double cork 1080s but he never really stomped the landings. Mikkel took the opportunity and unleashed what judge Devun Walsh would call "the best switch backside 1080 I've ever seen." This high praise is no exaggeration. Mikkel held his grab all the way around and greased the landing. It was flawless and he was into round two.
Risto Mattila rode against Germany's Christoph Schmidt. The hometown fans were hyped on Christoph, but he never really stomped. Meanwhile Risto did. Most notably a switch backside 900 which was good enough for round 2.
Good friends and fellow DC riders Chas Guldemond and Torstein Horgmo came all the way to Munich to face off in the first round. Torstein's switch back 9 got a higher score than Chas's and Chas couldn't quite find the landing on his front 10, so Torstein moved on.
Norwegian shred-bot Andreas Wiig took on Finland's Heikki Sorsa. When Andreas stomped his second switch back 900, Heikki decided it was time for extreme measures and took one foot out of his binding. After a fall on his first attempt at it, he stomped his second. An unprecedented one-footed frontside 360 rode him right into the second round as the crowd erupted.
German fans absolutely love David Benedek. When the announcers said his name they went bananas. He'd need all the help he could get this round against Austria's Gigi Rüf, who immediately threw down a sick front 900 with a tweaked out Japan grab. David came back with a switch backside 900 to take the lead. Gigi followed with a ridiculous backside rodeo 360 (yes, 360), and a double cork 720, but his landings weren't clean and David took a close round.
Next up was what Andy Finch referred to as "hobbit hucking" as he faced fellow shorty Mathieu Crepel. Hucking is exactly what they did as it took until their third jumps for each rider to land cleanly. There, Mat's front 9 took down a crazy corked no-grab backside 720 from Andy.
Danny Davis and Kevin Pearce had a "Frendly" battle in the first round. Danny showed sweet style on a cab 9 to take the lead, but Kevin took it on the third jump with a stomped cab 1260. Danny had one last shot, but his stomped 10 wasn't enough. You could read Danny's lips as he said, "That was awesome," while riding up to and then bowling over his friend after Danny's last run. I agree, Danny, that 12 was awesome.
The final duo of round one was Eero Ettala vs. Nicolas Müller. Eero's switch backside 1080 was too much for Nicolas. He was spinning and tweaking, including a switch backside 720 that was all poked out and a Japan 900 that came up just short. With that round two was set: Torstein Horgmo vs. Risto Mattila, Heikki Sorsa vs. David Benedek, Kevin Pearce vs. Mathieu Crepel and Mikkel Bang vs. Eero Ettala.
Torstein was hanging out in the lounge between rounds a little too long and straight up missed his first run, but it wouldn't prove to matter. He stomped his switch backside 9 to perfection and Risto came up short on his front 12 attempts, putting Torstein into the super final.
Heikki showed that he had the one-footed 360 down, but on his last run David finally stomped his first double cork 10 of the night. The crowd went off and David went through to the super final.
Kevin and Mathieu had a close battle with Kevin's switch back 10 coming out a couple points higher. On the final jump, Mat pulled out a switch back 12 that just washed out. Kevin was in.
Mikkel slayed yet another switch backside 10 to put the pressure on Eero. After missing on his first two tries at 1080s, he changed it up with the switch double backflip on the final run. A crash there gave Mikkel the official giant killer title along with a spot in the super final.
The super final dropped the head-to-head format and went to a four rider fight for the Air & Style ring of glory. Torstein put a switch backside 9 on the board to set the pace early and kept the lead through some washouts and even a cab 10 from Kevin and a switch backside 9 from Mikkel. It stayed that way until the third jump, but before that a short intermission of freestyle snowmobiling and more snowboarding. Competitors from earlier in the day came out to hit some quick sequential jumps and even some simultaneous airs. The crowd got stoked and then big air snowboarding fans were given the performance of a lifetime. Torstein washed out his front 10 attempt, but retained the lead. Mikkel then stepped up and threw down another sick switch backside 1080 to take the lead. But it was to be short lived as Kevin fully stomped his cab 1260, putting the crowd into a frenzy with only hometown hero David Benedek left to challenge. At this point I realized how much David meant to this crowd as they sang a special German chant for him. I found out that it is a modified Bayern München soccer chant that basically translates to "go David go!" Anytime you can be on a level with soccer in Europe, you've made it. Problem for David was he had fallen on both of his previous attempts and both were double cork 10s. The format doesn't allow a rider to try the same trick more than twice in a round, so David was in a bind. What would he do? David reached back and tossed a double cork 1260! The crowd was amped, but he did revert the landing. After some deliberation by the judges, the score came back not enough to move him out of fourth. Kevin Pearce is your 2007 Nokia Air & Style champion! Fellow Frend, Mikkel Bang came all the way from last year's rookie challenge to take second with Torstein Horgmo third and David Benedek fourth.
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