In less than a month the world’s best riders will gather in Laax, Switzerland from January 11-18, 2008 for the 9th Burton European Open, Europe’s biggest Snowboard event. The BEO is part of both the Burton Global Open Series and the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour (6 Star TTR-Event), and riders will compete in halfpipe and slopestyle to earn important points for both rankings. This year’s event theme is “BEO Airlines”, so fasten your seat-belt and get ready for take-off to LAAX!

1 is the number of riders competing from Chile.

2 is the number of brand-new Suzuki Grand Vitara Freeride edition cars which will be given out at the BEO – one car each for the best overall female and male rider.

4 Olympic Gold Medalists from all three Olympic Halfpipe Snowboarding contests are competing at the BEO 08 – Shaun White/USA & Hannah Teter/USA (Gold Medalists 2006), Kelly Clark/USA (Gold Medalist 2002) & Gian Simmen/SUI (Gold Medalist 1998).

6 Burton Open Snowboarding Championships currently take place around the world – one in Switzerland, one in Japan, one in the United States, one in New Zealand, one in Australia and one in Canada.

8 is the number of BEO events in the past – one in Innsbruck (AUT), one in Fieberbrunn (AUT), three in Livigno (ITA), three in Laax (SUI)

10 is the age of the youngest competitor at the BEO – Seamus O’Connor from the US (born April 10, 1997)

11 former BEO Champions are returning to the BEO 08: Iouri Podlatchikov/RUS (Winner HP Juniors BEO 2005), Peetu Piiroinen/FIN (Winner SS Juniors BEO 2005, Winner SS BEO 2006), Dani Friberg/SUI (Winner HP Juniors BEO 2006), Chris Sörman/SWE (Winner SS BEO 2005), Mikkel Bang/NOR (Winner SS Juniors BEO 2004), Andy Finch/USA (Winner HP BEO 2005), Nicolas Müller/SUI (Winner HP BEO 2002), Risto Mattila/FIN (Winner Halfpipe BEO 2006), Sina Candrian/SUI (Winner HP Juniors and SS Juniors BEO 2005), Kelly Clark/USA (Winner HP BEO 2005), Crispin Lipscomb/CAN (Winner HP BEO 2007)

13 is Burton’s lucky number.

23 countries will be represented at the 2008 BEO.

83 represents the number of riders registered from Switzerland – no other country has that many riders at the event.

140 m – that’s the length of the LAAX Superpipe with 6m high walls.

220 km of slopes can be found in Laax – connected with 27 transport systems.

300 people (approximately) work on and off the mountain for the BEO during the period of the event.

3.018 m is the highest point of altitude in Laax (Vorab Glacier), the lowest point is 1.100 m (base station in Laax).

75.000 m³ of snow are used to create the well-known Superpipe (15.000 m³) and Slopestyle course (60.000 m³) on Crap Sogn Gion.

US$ 100.000 is the amount of money the male and female Burton Global Open Series champions will take home after the US Open, making it the largest single payout in snowboard competition history. Mason Aguirre and Elizabeth Beerman are currently in the lead for the BGOS Championship title.

US$ 125.000 is the total amount of money awarded to winning riders at the BEO – one of the only snowboard event series in the world to offer equal prize money to men and women.

US$ 250.000 will be awarded to the top ranked TTR riders at the end of the season, US$ 50.000 each will go to the female and male TTR World Champion.

2.562.757 – The number of monthly unique visitors on Go211.com that will have the opportunity to view the BEO halfpipe and slopestyle webcasts.

4.000.000 people (approximately) are getting on a plane every day. Some of them will find their way to Laax in January.

For more information on the Burton European Open, head to www.opensnowboarding.com