Tuesday I came back from the Burton European Open 07 in Laax. I went there to ride the Slopestyle Competition which they moved up to the “Vorap” glacier due to bad snow conditions at lower levels. The park, which included 4 kickers, looked really perfect but it was a very difficult setup to ride.

You had to speedcheck every single kicker whereas there was not a lot of time between the kickers which made it pretty hard to get the right speed. Besides the kicker takeoff’s where very steep and the landings too which made it not easier to neither have a precision landing nor to stomp it. That means it was perfect airtime for the photographers.
Furthermore I had to notice that this bad winter also makes me a victim because I didn’t ride a kicker like that in 1,5 month. And there have been 4 kickers in a row at 3000m.

On Saturday there were really good weather conditions during the first heat of the Qualification which I was riding in. My brother “CK” was not really lucky. He was riding the second heat where all the kickers were in the shadow already and also the wind picked up and affected the shredding.

So I qualified for the semi-final which they planned on Sunday. Well, I was checking the weather forecast on Saturday night and it predicted strong wind and snow. So the Chillertal “Hot-Zone.tv” Crew decided to make party and hope for postponing the semi-final. And the plan turned out perfect! I slept till midday till I noticed that the semi-final got postponed to Monday. Sweet! Also Reini Rieser didn’t step out of his bed till the afternoon that day.

So, it was the same then in the BEO 06. No semi final. Everyone of the semi-final moves to the final on Monday. We took the second gondola up on the glacier. It was cloudy but there was no wind when we came up. So we started to train and I was doing 4 or 5 runs. I also tried a bs rodeo 7 on the first jump which I slammed. I was so high and when I came around I couldn’t see the landing at all. It was all white in white and I didn’t see the landing coming. And after 5 runs when the wind was picking up to about 80 km/h it was just impossible to do a safe contest there! So I think it was kind of the only decision to cancel the Slopestyle of this years BEO. It could have been postponed to Tuesday but as Shaun White and some other guys have to go to the X-Games that day it seemed like that wouldn’t be a possibility.
For me it sucks, because this would have been my first TTR result and it would have been a 6star.

Now I am back home and because the park caused some tension in my back I already have been to the masseur twice. In the moment it is dumping and I hope the winter will come finally!

Greets from the Chillertal
Rudi

and greets from Hot Zone Online Snowboard Shop

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