STYLEWARS 2008 – FINAL DAY INSANITY AND A NEW GRANDMASTER Thursday August 28, 2008.

Stylewars 2008 presented by Oakley.
August 24-28, 2008
Falls Creek Resort, Australia.

The final day of snowboarding at Stylewars was held under perfect Australian skies without a breath of wind.

The riding standard was beyond ridiculous, the course was softening in the hot sun and tricks were getting thrown that have never before been seen on snow down under.

Leading the charge today was a man on a mission, last year’s grand master Torstein Horgmo (NOR) who was sending massive smooth tricks with rarely a hand out of place. He took out best trick with an insane switch backside 1260 melon deep into the landing of the first jump.

“I wanted to try the 12 and I got it around so I was pretty happy about that and I got the front ten a lot better and a few mellow fives. The jumps just got better and better everyday… everyone was killing it, we couldn’t have had a better day.” Torstein said.

The overall winner of the event was Canadian Charles Reid who dominated for the entire three days of the gruelling event that included today. Charles fresh from winning the 28 Stair rail event presented by Volvo last night powered on today with a slew of 1080’s, rodeos and a consistent style that had him pushing out fellow Canadian Matts Kulisek for the win. Matts finished 3rd behind Torstein.

Charles rode through a bruised heel injury with only the win in mind. “My heel is alright, but it just hurts really bad when I land on it. We had 20 minutes left of the competition, it hurts so bad but I just had to keep riding.” Charles said. “Usually in a contest its spin to win but with the rider judging I’m going to vote for style for sure, Shayne Pospisil (USA) and Robbie Walker (AUS) were riding insane.”

After the riders vote was tabulated into the results Shayne Pospisil ended up 4th overall and had this to say. “The standard was so high it was motivating me to step it up and throw down. Everyone was stomping everything. For the riders vote I was looking for just who was smooth over the three days.”

Chas Guldemond after knocking himself out heavily in NZ flew into Stylewars at the last minute to compete and take 5th overall. His result moves him into first place on the overall standings of the Swatch TTR World Tour.
“It’s only the second comp of the year so I’m sure Charles Reid will be biting at my heals after this contest… I wanted to come in to Stylewars and check out the contest, slow it all down a bit and enjoy the contest and focus on my style. I’m going to take this as a good base for practice for the start of the season.”

In the coveted Bledisnow Cup competition between Australian and New Zealand, the Australian team stood strong today with incredible riding from Ryan Tiene, Robbie Walker, the Allan brothers and 15 year old Jye Kearney who was whiskers away from stomping 90-foot front ten tails. One to look out for from Down Under.

2008 STYLEWARS presented by Oakley
FINAL OVERALL RESULTS

RANK NAME
1 Charles Reid (CAN) $7000
2 Torstein Horgmo (NOR)
3 Matts Kulisek (CAN)
4 Shayne Pospisil (USA)
5 Chas Guldemond (USA)
6 Ville Uotila (
7 Ryan Tiene (AUS)
8 Stef Zeestraten (NZD)
9 Will Jackways (NZD)
10 Mitch Allan (AUS)
11 Tore Holvik (NOR)
12 Robbie Walker (AUS)
13 Keiji Okamoto (JPN)
14 Clint Allan (AUS)
15 Jacob Koia (NZD)
16 Roland Morley Brown (NZD
17 Nick Brown (NZD)
18 Masaharu Nakao (JPN)
19 Jye Kearney (AUS)
20 Tyler Chorlton (UK)
21 Mario Kappeli (SUI)
22 Dustin Craven (CAN)
23 Quentin Robbins (NZD)
24 Cohen Davies (AUS)
25 Andy Lloyd (AUS)
26 Kerian McLaughlin (AUS)
27 Jonas Carlson (SWE)
28 Chris Sörman (SWE)
29 Jaakko Ruha (FIN)

For video highlights of Day 2 action go to: www.stylewars.com.au.

Stylewars 2008 presented by Oakley.
August 24-28, 2008
Falls Creek Resort, Australia.

French Canadian snowboarders continue their monopoly of the Stylewars event by this time taking out the 28 Stairs street rail comp that was held under lights in the Falls Creek village last night

After an hour-long jam session, the chosen six finalists had 30 minutes to prove who deserved the win, the $5000 and some gold and silver Stylewars jewels. The set up is a gnarly 28 wooden stair set with two outer round bar rails (on kinked) and one flat bar kink in the middle.

Quebec rider Charles Reid rode like a shredder possessed in the icy final with a number of gap and combination tricks on the middle kinker. Starting with a huge backlip gap he went into a 50-50 to 270 over the kink to front board, a frontside 270 gap, an inward 270 gap (that looked like he was nearly corked in mid air) and he finished with a crazy nollie backside 270 lipslide gap on that heavy middle rail that had all the dingo’s frothing. That last trick also won him the best trick, a clean sweep and $1500.

““It was a pretty sick set up, the biggest rail set-up I have ever seen for a rail contest.” Charles said after the event and also giving props to the other riders in the final throwing down, “Everyone was riding so well especially Robbie Walker from Australia he front boarded through that kink middle rail, that’s such a gnarly kink.”

Robbie Walker wasn’t holding back in the final either charging with some huge gapping combinations and combos through the middle kink. “The level of riding was ridiculous. I was trying as hard as I could not to look ridiculous riding with those guys. Those two are the best two riders around at the moment.” Robbie said.

The other shredder Robbie was referring to was Iceland’s Eiki Helgason who was throwing down trick combinations on the flat bar that had all the riders and crowd freaking out, including some of these hammers; a backside 180 to switch nosepress, front board to tail press to 270 out and finally a backside 180 to cab 270 to boardslide combo. “It was fun but cold tonight and it was a crazy level of riding.” Eiki said after the event.

Canadian shred hound Andrew Geeves also deserves some serious props after he spun a heavy switch backside 270 over the round bar gap rail before taking some heavy slams, “I feel like I’ve been run over by a semi!” Geeves told us this morning.

The Stylewars freestyle marathon continues today with the last day of park riding after which the Grand Master of the overall event will be declared. Currently, Canadian Matts Kulisek also of Quebec, Canada leads the rankings with fellow countrymen and tonight’s 28 stair champion Charles Reid running a close second place. Torstein Horgmo last year’s winner is currently in third, which means an exciting last day of hammer throwing is guaranteed at the wars.

After today’s final day the TTR World Tour ranking is set to change with Chas Guldemond now in striking distance to move in to the number one ranked position and Charles Reid also sniffing around the top. Stylewars is a 4-star TTR World Tour stop.

The Bledisnow Cup (Australia v NZ) will also conclude today with Australia taking the lead after destroying the Kiwi’s in the 28-stair rail event.

RESULTS:
Stylewars 28 Stair Rail jam presented by Volvo.

Overall winner: Charles Reid (Quebec, Canada) $5000 Best Trick: Chrales Reid (Quebec, Canada) $1500

The 2008 Stylewars is presented by Oakley and is supported by Falls Creek Resort, SilverSki Lodge, Corona, Red Bull, Volvo and New Era.

STYLEWARS 2008 – DAY 2
Tuesday, August 26.

Stylewars 2008 presented by Oakley.
August 24-28, 2008
Falls Creek Resort, Australia.

French Canadians Matts Kulisek and Charles Reid continue their dominance at Stylewars during day two of competition at Falls Creek Australia.

Strong winds, scattered clouds and a riders vote meant that today the Stylewars course was restricted to the bottom feature of the park – the gap jump. The jump had been re-shaped last night to give some more pop and allow the riders a little more hang time. The level of style and tricks definitely stepped up today at Stylewars with the help of the course fine-tuning from head park builders Rueben Cameron from Australia and Doug Mercer of Mammoth, California.

Matts Kulisek (CAN) was again throwing down all day with consistent incredible tricks over the gap like backside rodeo nines and frontside 1080’s. His slaying of the jump pushed him to first place today and number one in the overall standings of the three-day freestyle marathon.

Charles Reid (CAN) was bumped into 2nd position by his countryman Matts, but his slew of 1080’s, nines and smooth fives held him solidly in striking position for the win on the upcoming final day.
“Usually in a contest the guys who spin the most win, but I have been spinning some big three’s and seven’s and I was winning yesterday, so I think it’s a great comp - you don’t have to do a 1260 or something to win.” Reid said.

Tyler Chorlton (GBR) threw the most interesting trick of the day with a nollie front-flip nose grab but was not to be outdone by Kiwi Quentin Robbins who launched a one foot indy over the high-speed gap kicker.

In the hotly disputed Bledisnow Cup, which is an Australia v’s New Zealand comp within Stylewars. Australian riders took out day two, led by acting team captain Ryan Tiene and team mate Mitch Allan. New Zealand and Australia are now tied at one day each with New Zealand just ahead in the points.

Tonight at Stylewars the party continues with a special showing of Travis Rice’s new film That’s It That’s All followed by infamous Australian hip hop act Bliss&Eso who will no doubt tear the bloody roof off. Hangovers assured for all tomorrow.

The third day of Stylewars competition is planned for tomorrow, and includes the Volvo 28 Stair Rail Jam to be held in the evening under lights in Falls Creek Village.

For video highlights of yesterday go to: www.stylewars.com.au

The 2008 Stylewars is presented by Oakley and is supported by Falls Creek Resort, SilverSki Lodge, Corona, Red Bull, Volvo and New Era.

Overall rankings after Day 2:

RANK NAME Grand Total
1 Matts Kulisek 1498
2 Charles Reid 1464
3 Torstein Horgmo 1312
4 Ville Uotila 1199
5 Stef Zeestraten 1192
6 Shayne Pospisil 1191
7 Jacob Koia 1153
8 Mitch Allan 1151
9 Ryan Tiene 1147
10 Will Jackways 1132
11 Keiji Okamoto 1109
12 Tore Holvik 1099
13 Robbie Walker 1052
14 Clint Allan 1021
15 Nick Brown 919
16 Roland Morley Brown 867
17 Masaharu Nakao 861
18 Jye Kearney 837
19 Dustin Craven 722
20 Chas Guldemond 618

Stylewars 2008 presented by Oakley.
August 24-28, 2008
Falls Creek Resort, Australia.

A perfect day with sunny blue skies today at Stylewars meant the first day of competition at Australia’s most notorious snowboarding event went down like a bowl full of delicious poutine. The 45 invited riders from around the globe were annihilating the course with a level of snowboarding never before seen in Australia.

Ripping all day and finishing in number 1 and 2 spots respectively was the French Canadian connection (ie: Canadian Club) of Charles Reid and Matts Kulisek who were both sending and stomping their runs all day. Matts was unleashing huge frontside 7 to backside 7 combinations amoung some super smooth 900s. While Charles Reid was dropping insane frontside 1080’s and massive 90-foot corked frontside 360’s that had everyone scratching their heads.

Sitting in third is a very consistent New Zealand rider Jacob Koia who looks poised to strike for the lead. NZ team captain Will Jackways had one of the most interesting lines of the day with a perfect 90 foot backside 900 melon followed by a method from the step-over kicker landing on the side of the landing 80-feet away, stomping a method perfectly amoungst the rubble and grooming debris.

The course is a 3 jump line that consists of a 15 foot flat cliff step-down, a 90 foot high speed step-down kicker and a 75 foot step up/over kicker.

Stylewars 2008 – the freestyle marathon continues tomorrow with sunny days again forecast and riders amping to step it up the rankings for a shot at the Grand Master Title.

Tonight the parties start, a free/private concert for the riders with Australian Producer KATALYST and MC RUCL ready to bring home the first day.

For video footage of the days event check out www.stylewars.com.au

Stylewars Presented by Oakley
Top 20 after day 1 of 3.

1. Charles Reid (CAN) BURTON 722
2. Matts Kulisek (CAN) APO 667
3. Jacob Koia (NZ) OAKLEY 618
4. Torstein Horgmo (NOR) DC/OAKLEY 602
5. Roland-Morley Brown (NZ) ELECTRIC/FORUM 595
6. Wille Uotila (FIN) ATOMIC 593
7. Shayne Pospisil (USA) BILLABONG 570
8. Stef Zeestraten (NZ) K2/OAKLEY 568
9. Robbie Walker (AUS) BILLABONG 550
10. Will Jackways (NZ) BURTON/VOLCOM 529
11. Mitch Allan (AUS) BURTON/OAKLEY 525
12. Tore Holvik (NOR) BATALEON 505
13. Clint Allan (AUS) BILLABONG 484
14. Mario Kappeli (SUI) FORUM 474
15. Ryan Tiene (AUS) DC/OAKLEY 467
16. Keiji Okamoto (JPN) VOLKL/FLUX 462
17. Jye Kearney (AUS) BURTON/OAKLEY 395
18. Nick Brown (NZ) BURTON/RPM 368
19. Masaharu Nakao (JPN) NP ATHLETICS/REVOLT 313
20. Cohen Davies (AUS) ROME 292

The 2008 Stylewars is presented by Oakley and is supported by Falls Creek Resort, SilverSki Lodge, Corona, Red Bull, Volvo and New Era.

IXSM have been organised 2 Japanese Riders Keiji Okamoto and Masaharu "Masai" Nakao for Style Wars in Australia. For more information: www.stylewars.com.au " target="_blank">www.stylewars.com.au[/ja]

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