The Burton European Open is getting ready to kick off this coming weekend on Saturday, January 8th, 2011 in Laax, Switzerland and will play host to over 300 riders from around the globe. The eight-day event will feature some of the world s most talented men and women snowboard athletes competing in slopestyle and halfpipe formats for a piece of the impressive $125,000 USD prize purse and a maximum of 1000 TTR World Ranking points from each format. The Burton European Open is a 6Star event on the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, which is the highest rating a competition can receive. With some serious cash and major TTR Ranking points on the line, riders will be bringing their best to Laax and, without a doubt, the event will be a highlight of the 2010/11 TTR World Tour season.

Young Guns Competing with Seasoned Pros

Featuring an open qualification system, the Burton European Open allows up-and-coming riders to test their skills and compete for a chance to ride alongside the pros. Laax has become known as a snowboarder s mountain over the years and will feature a perfectly shaped halfpipe and innovative slopestyle course for the event located on the Crap Sogn Gion mountain. The riders list is stacked full of talent including Canadian riders, Sebastian Toutant and Charles Reid, Norwegian style master, Mikkel Bang, Slovenian phenomenon, Marko Grilc, and two-time TTR Tour Champion, Peetu Piiroinen (FIN). With the generous TTR points available, there will be plenty of movement in the TTR Tour Ranking and this is an ideal opportunity for these riders to solidify their ranking positions in the TTR Top 10 with a good result in Switzerland. Some heavy competition will also be coming from the young guns scheduled to compete including Seppe Smits (BEL), Stale Sandbech (NOR), Christian Haller (SUI) and Roope Tonteri (FIN) who all have solid runs under their belts.

The women will just be gaining momentum for the season after their first 6Star event, the O Neill Evolution in Davos, which is in full swing this week and will wrap up on Saturday just as the Burton European Open gets started. Enni Rukaj rvi (FIN) will have to defend her current tour lead against the likes of Laax local Sina Candrian, Norwegian queen of style, Kjersti Ostgaard Buaas, American slopestyle specialist, Jamie Anderson, and Kelly Clark (USA) whose halfpipe skills have been setting the bar in the women s game for years.

Don t miss the Live Action

The Burton European Open slopestyle and halfpipe semi-finals and finals will be webcast live from Laax, Switzerland from the 12th to the 15th of January, 2011 and can be viewed on metacafe.com or ttrworldtour.com. With the 2010/2011 TTR World Tour now in full swing, be sure to check out ttrworldtour.com for news, photos and video from other events happening over the next week including the 6Star O Neill Evolution and the 4Star Relentless Big Air Stuttgart.

Webcast Times

Wed, Jan 12 webcast live: 12:00pm 4:20pm CET

Thu, Jan 13 webcast live: 9:00am 1:50pm CET

Fri, Jan 14 webcast live: 9:00am - 2:00pm CET

Sat, Jan 14 webcast live: 9:00am 2:00pm CET