The Burton Global Open Series has announced dates for its 2009/2010 international snowboard competition series, which will kick off in New Zealand this summer. Below are dates and locations for all 2009/2010 Burton Global Open Series events.
Instead of having two events down under in 2009, Burton has decided to combine the Australian Open and the New Zealand Open into one premier Southern Hemisphere event taking place in New Zealand. From August 11th – 15th.

Heading into a busy Olympic year, we’ve decided to reduce the number of events to free up some room in the global events calendar,”

said Liam Griffin, Global Events Director for Burton. “We’re totally committed to the riders who support the series, and are trying to make it easier for everybody to hit all the different events they need to this coming season.”
With events scheduled year-round and in five countries on four continents, the Burton Global Open Series boasts the most lucrative cumulative prize purse in snowboarding. All five Burton Global Open Series events offer riders the chance to earn points towards male and female championship titles, which are awarded at the US Open in Stratton, Vermont.
The European Open stage will be held in Laax, Switzerland from January 9-16, the Canadian Open at Canada Olympic Park, Calgary, Alberta from February 2-7, the Asian Open at ALTS Bandai, Japan from March 2-7 and concluding with the US Open from March 16-21 at Stratton Mountain Resort.
The Burton Global Open Series is also part of the Swatch Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour, the largest group of independent freestyle snowboard events in the world. The Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Champions are crowned at the end of the season.
www.Go211.com / www.opensnowboarding.com / www.ttrworldtour.com

South America Snow Sessions, or SASS, the premier summer camp for teenagers and young adults chasing an endless winter in South America, has six athletes competing in this years US Open of snowboarding at Stratton Mountain Resort, Vermont, on March 19th and 20th. All six SASS athletes, as well as their coach Travis Moore, will be at the US Open. Below is a short biography on Travis Moore and the SASS athletes:

Travis Moore — Travis Moore is one of the three owners of SASS and one of the top rated snowboarding coaches in North America. Travis was formerly the Director of Snowboarding at Loon Mountain Resort, New Hampshire. With over ten years of coaching experience, Travis is able to speak to media about the process of getting to the US Open, results of the Open, the SASS campers competing this year, and more.

Sean Ryan – 18 year old Sean Ryan, from Newtown, CT, will be competing in this years US Open hoping to take a shot at the title after a successful run at the US Open last year. A SASS rider and Coached by Travis Moore, Sean is hoping for a great finish at this years Open. Currently a freshman at Skidmore, Sean is also a member of the Varsity soccer team there. Most recently Sean finished 5th at the Aspen Open and 1st at the USASA Men’s Open Slope style at the Copper Mountain Series, at Copper Mountain, CO. And most recently Sean took fifth place at the final Revolution Tour stop at Sugarloaf Mountain Resort, Sugarloaf, Maine.

Jacob and Micalea Aaronsen – Brother and sister Jacob and Micalea Aaronsen, ages 13 and 15, from Needham, MA, will be competing in this year’s US Open after three years of competing in the Junior Jam. Jacob and Micalea are looking to show case their skills and push their riding to the next level at this years US Open. Jacob and Micalea were recruited by Travis Moore at Loon Mountain to snowboard competitively in 2003.

Other SASS athletes competing at this years US Open include –

Scott Kutchinski, age 20, from the Pocono’s of PA, competing in the US Open slope style event.
Steve Denmark, age 19, from Stratton, VT, competing in the US Open slope style event.
Natalie Gough, age 24, from Calgary, Canada, competing in the US Open slope style event.

Founded in 2004 by friends Luke Shelley, Travis Moore, and John Sang Wilbur, SASS is a skiing and snowboarding summer program for teenagers and adults. With U.S. offices in Tahoe, CA and Lincoln, NH, every summer SASS takes campers to Catedral Alta Patagonia resort in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, where they live up to their slogan “La Montana is our park.”

As much as SASS focuses on the skiing aspect of their trip, they also make an effort to encourage the kids on their trips to see the cultural side of Argentina, enrolling the kids in a local Spanish school, and making sure they have ample time to tour the villages and absorb as much of the local culture as possible. The founders of SASS are continuing to chase the dream of an endless winter, and they’ve brought that dream to a whole new generation of skiers and boarders through this summer camp.

John Kucera of Calgary this morning became the first Canadian man to win the downhill gold medal at the World Alpine Championships.

Starting second on the Bellevarde course on a day with ever shifting conditions, the 24-year-old Kucera skied a nearly flawless run, hitting the finish line in 2:07:01. He then endured a long, nervous wait, while each of the world’s best downhillers tried – and failed – to beat his time.

Austrian teenager Gregor Schlierenzauer soared a hill record 142 metres on his second jump Saturday to win the first World Cup ski jumping competition held at the 2010 Olympic venue.

The latest in the growing list of world class snow sports competitors who took their first slides on indoor snow is set to take to compete alongside the world’s elite in a prestigious international snowboarding competition.

29 year old Adam Bowcutt from Worcestershire will compete at the latest Burton Global Open Series event to be held in Calgary, Canada next month.

Currently training and teaching young people to board in Canada after summer training in New Zealand, Mr Bowcutt first took to snowsports ten years ago at one of the world’s earliest indoor snow and holder of the “snowdome” name copyright, the Tamworth Snowdome, which is currently celebrating 15 years in operation.

Bowcutt has also set up a website called britishsnowaddictions.com, which aims to promote British snowboarding globally.

I am likely to be the only British competitor within the elite field consisting of top North American pro-riders,”

Bowcutt said.

www.britishsnowaddictions.com

A new ski ramp, believed to be the biggest in the world, was built in Moscow to host the World Alpine Ski Cup parallel slalom events which started on January 2.
The 56m high, 33m wide ramp had already entered the Guinness Book of Records last year when it hosted ski and snowboard freestyle World Cup legs in Moscow. These events will be staged here again in February and March this year.
The aim is to help boost interest in winter sports in the country five years before the southern Russian city of Sochi hosts the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Continue reading ‘World’s biggest ski ramp is built for world alpine ski cup parallel’

11 Year-old Brit Katie Ormerod (11) is in leading the Youth Girls category in The Burton AM Tour, one of Europe’s largest amateur freestyle snowboarding contest series.
Riders have flocked to the three events of the indoor leg of the tour like never before and pushed riding to a new level.
From the first stop in Bispingen (Germany) to the events in Castleford (UK) and Landgraaf (Netherlands) it has been obvious that the tour is the perfect setup for the kids to be creative and show their best riding.
Tour partner Volvo Cars has helped maintain the high quality and good atmosphere of the tour. Now everyone is eager to show their skills in the outdoor events, starting on 24 January in Flachauwinkl (Austria).
Currently, the rankings are dominated by the Dutch, with Katie the leading Brit. Other category leading riders are Gino Rupp (14, Youth Boys), Aston Egelmeers (15, Junior Boys) and Rachida Aoulad-El-Haj-Amar (15, Junior Girls).
All Burton AM Tour stops are Swatch TTR 2-star events and all participants collect points for the Swatch TTR World Ranking. The 4 overall AM Tour winners will win a full Burton European Open 2010 package, which contains the starting slot for the slopestyle competition, the on-site board and lodging and last but not least a Volvo VIP transport from their home to the Burton European Open in Laax 2010 and back. The overall tour winners will be crowned at the last stop on the glacier of Val Senales (Italy) on 28 March 2009.
Ivar Fougstedt, Burton Europe’s Marketing Director, is just as stoked as everyone on the current tour: “This season the Burton AM Tour shows it has grown into a truly international contest series: At all stops, riders from various European countries and even overseas have taken part. It is amazing to see how the kids manage to step up their game year after year. We believe that the Burton AM Tour is one of the best ways to promote and push our sport.”
www.burtonamtour.com