One of the first event’s on the snowboard calendar for 2011/12 has been going down in the southern hemisphere the past few days, and perfect conditions with clear blue skies saw Jamie Anderson take her FOURTH NZ Slopestyle title.  Jamie’s riding last season saw her propelled to the top of the TTR rankings and bagging just about every Slopestyle competition title out there, including the X Games and Oakley Arctic Challenge.

She looks set to keep the stellar pace, and her super stylish Switch Backside 180 Tailtap; Front Blunt to fakie; Halfcab 5-0 to Backside 180; Switch Backside 540 Indy; Frontside 360 to a Backside 540 Mute saw her maintain her Burton NZ title.  Former Cooler covergirl Norway’s style queen Kjersti Ostgaard Buaas also impressed with her trademark steeze, holding it down with a Frontside 360 Nosetap, 50-50 on the double kink, 50-50 to Backside 180, Cab 540 and Frontside 720 to a Frontside 360 Stalefish.

You can catch the half pipe final live today here.    The quali’s also showed how the progressive pace of women’s half pipe riding is also set to continue this season.  The Japanese girls were out in force, with Haruna Matsumoto posting the highest score with her run that included a frontside air, method air, frontside 540 and frontside 720.  NZ’s own Rebecca Woods came in second, with Japan’s Hikaru Oe in third.  Looks set to be an awesome final, and is it just us, but even though it’s the middle of summer, we’ve got snow fever and can’t wait to get our shred on this winter?!

Visit opensnowboarding.com for more