Events

Burton European Open Snowboarding Results

The 2007 Burton European Open wrapped up on Sunday, January 28th, and another chapter in the BEO history books is now complete. Nine days full of action and fun. Nine days of very challenging weather conditions. Nine days with outstanding riding from the juniors – the stars of tomorrow – and a great halfpipe final with men and women on the last event day at Crap Sogn Gion. Nine days with great entertainment events like the StereoMCs live in concert and the Mexican Night at the Riders Palace. Nine days during which winter finally arrived in Europe and people returned with happy faces from the mountain after a powder day. Nine days full of memories for attending riders, guests, media and spectators. These were the colourful Mexican days of the Burton European Open 2007 in LAAX – with cactus in the snow and sombreros on the riders’ heads.

The event kicked off on Saturday, Jan. 20th, with the slopestyle pre-qualifications. 120 riders battled to get a spot in the semifinals to compete against top stars like Shaun White (USA), Travis Rice (USA), TTR World Champion Mathieu Crepel (FRA) and Finnish Armada Antti Autti and Risto Mattila. Despite the warmest winter in Europe in 55 years, Laax made a tremendous commitment to build the best slopestyle course possible with 30,000 cubic meters of natural snow up on the Vorab glacier at over 3,000 meters above sea level. Nine snowcats worked up on the glacier for ten days straight to build a course that all the riders were stoked on.

Unfortunately, strong storms rolled in on the day of the men’s and women’s slopestyle semifinals, bringing dangerously high winds and low visibility. The storms stuck around for days and dumped several meters of much needed snow, but also forced event organizers to cancel all slopestyle events on the Vorab glacier, including men’s and women’s slopestyle semifinals, finals and junior competitions. Cancelling the slopestyle events was a very difficult decision for all involved as many of the world’s top riders traveled long distances to compete at the event. Ultimately, the riders’ safety comes first, and all of the competitors supported the decision to cancel the events.

The week continued with the juniors on Tuesday and Wednesday. The stars of tomorrow showed their skills in the halfpipe and blew minds again, like every year. Keep your eyes out for those riders. You will hear more from some of them soon.

On Thursday it was time for the men and women to take over the pipe with pre-qualification and semifinals. On Saturday, when the men’s and women’s halfpipe finals were planned, the weather wasn’t favoring the BEO. Wind, snowfall and low visibility forced the organizers again to postpone the finals. What a relief when on Sunday morning blue skies and sun welcomed the riders up on Crag Sogn Gion. The perfectly shaped superpipe in Laax was ready for a great halfpipe final and a conciliatory way to end the BEO.

Thanks to the Laax and Burton crew for their enormous efforts to provide a perfect infrastructure for all attending riders. Thanks to Motorola and Land Rover for their support. Thanks to all the 450 riders, 200 media and thousands of spectators who attended the event. All of them and the BEO crew are already looking forward to come back for the Burton European Open 2008 in LAAX, SUI.

Check out the highlights of the BEO on www.burtoneuropeanopen.com and on www.lat34.com/beo.