Burn Rail Sessions

Naast de Billabong Air & Style in Innsbruck was er ook de Burn Rail Sessions. Check hier de video hoe de riders de vetste slides maken!

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Burn turns up the heat in Austria at the Burn Rail Sessions and the Billabong Air&Style 2011

Feb 4th 2011 Burn Rail Session Innsbruck
On Friday 4th February, in the heart of Innsbruck’s historic old town, Burn brought the ‘Burn Rail Session’ to Austria – an innovative jam format event featuring 15 of Europe’s most talented rail riders. Attracting a huge crowd of spectators and media, Marie-Theresien Strasse was buzzing with expectation and excitement for Innsbruck’s first in-city rail jam. The assembled talent was impressive: Austrian riders were joined by rail specialists from Germany, Sweden, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and the UK, including five wildcard winners selected via an online video competition at www.burnrailsession.com

The setup was both simple and challenging: two 8m-long rails, one a classic down rail and the other with a kink at the bottom, allowed the riders to show their most technical and stylish tricks without being too easy, as the occasional bone-shaking slam proved.

True to Burn’s philosophy that snowboarding is more to do with pushing personal limits than competing against others, the format was simple too: there would be no winners or losers, just a big pile of 50 euro’s and 20 euro’s banknotes to be handed out for tricks that made the crowd roar.

Pumped up by a thousand screaming fans and hosts Henry Jackson and Jon Weaver, the session kicked off right away; as the riders got both rails dialled in the tricks just kept getting better and better. The progression of rail riding seems to be accelerating at incredible rate, with technical tricks getting ever more difficult and style tricks getting smoother. In the Style department the standout riders of the night had to be Englishman Jonny Russel and Swedish Burn riders Rolf Nylinder and Viktor Wikberg who all kept it classy with butter-smooth nose and tail presses and bs tailslides. In the tech department it was an eastern onslaught, as Poland’s Wojtek Pawlusiak span in, out and through the kinked rail in every direction, while Slovenian Nejc Ferjan did the same on the straight rail, one highlight being his fs bluntslide to bs board Danish. As for the overall ‘killing it’ category, Germany’s Benny Urban and local hero Steve Grumser were on fire all night, combining style with technicality and consistency all night – building up the biggest stack of banknotes in the process. Last but not least, Croatian Ana Rumiha, winner of last month’s Sista Session Burn Rail contest and the only female in the event, showed the crowd that girls can rip rails with just as much style as the boys.

Once the money was all given out, it was time to switch to the main stage and the traditional Air & Style Rider Draw, where the riders find out who they are up against in Saturday’s head-to-head showdown.

The evening didn’t stop there, as Austrian Rap masters Blumentopf added fuel to the night’s excitement, meanwhile over at the nearby Orangerie, Burn riders Gigi Ruef, Arthur Longo, Giorgio Ciancaleoni and Marco Grigis arrived in style in the Burn Lamborghini for the Official Burn Pre-Party. With the Air and Style only hours away, the standard had been set for an incredible weekend!

Feb 5th 2011 Billabong Air&Style presented by Burn
Saturday 5th February saw the Billabong Air and Style 2011 hit Innsbruck’s famous Bergisel Stadium in force. A crowd of 12,000 hyped fans gathered for the legendary 6* TTR event as 16 of the world’s top snowboarders hit the mammoth straight jump with huge tricks. An added obstacle of the Burn Can on the slope gave the riders more jib action after hitting the monster kicker, with 5,000 euro’s up for grabs for the Best Trick of the night. The head-to-head format kept everyone on edge as riders battled it out through two elimination rounds to reach the four-man Super Final, a slice of the 75,000 euro prize purse, and a shot at the coveted ‘Ring of Glory’.

The event started with the Air and Style Rookie Challenge, and as usual the youngsters were giving the crowd a glimpse of the future, with the added incentive of the top two receiving spots in the main event. Norwegian rider Torgeir Bergrem took the first spot with an outstanding cab 1260, while Swiss talent Patrick Burgener grabbed the 2nd.

Then came the main event. Snowboarding’s top dogs strapped in and threw down, raising the bar for competitive snowboarding as it does every year. With 1080’s and double corks now becoming the norm for contests of this calibre, the drama reached new heights as each rider went all-in, every time. And, with Burn team rider Staale Sandbech out due to a bruised heel sustained during training, it was down to local superstar Werni Stock to represent Burn’s debut in Innsbruck.

In the first round it had to be Sage Kotsenburg’s cab 1440 double cork, that will be remembered best – the first in contest history! However 17-year old Canadian Mark McMorris took out Sage in the next round on his way to the Super Final, where he would be joined by TTR world champion Peetu Piroinen, Nils Arvidsson and Burn’s latest addition to the squad, Werni Stock!

But before the Super Final kicked off it was time for veteran rockers Pennywise to work up the crowd to fever pitch, while over at the Burn Gravity Zone team riders Gigi Ruf, Arthur Longo and Staale Sandbech signed posters, DVDs and any other writable surface for a long line of stoked fans.

In the superfinal, Mark McMorris’s perfect backside 1260 was just enough to push Peetu Piiroinen into second and Werni Stock into third. An amazing contest, and, in the words of Head Judge Dani Meier, ‘the level was insane – definitely the best Air & Style yet’!

To wrap up the evening, Germany’s Jan Delay took to the stage with music that made a sea of 11,000 spectators dance in unison, while McMorris, Piroinen and Stock fielded questions and backslaps from every direction. Soon it was time to head back into Innsbruck centre, where Afterparties at Hofgarten and Stadtcafe raged all night long… with a little help from our friend Burn Energy Drink.

Massive CONGRATULATIONS to Mark, Peetu, Werni and Burn Can Best Trick winner Seppe Smits… thanks Billabong Air&Style, thanks Innsbruck, see you next year!