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Treble Cone closed on a high note onSunday afternoon with a record number of final-day visitors and the fancy dress SlushCup, bringing to an end a successful 2010 season. A blue bird day welcomed brightly dressed snow sports enthusiasts to enjoy Treble Coneat its finest with an end of season record base of 232cm in the Saddle Basin and 108cm inthe Home Basin.
Visitor numbers for the 2010 season have been above average and the dollar spend on-budget. The season kicked off with an excellent coverage of snow resort-wide with theSaddle Basin operational since opening day. With the dip in snowfall levels in July andAugust there have been very few closed days due to the weather. With quieter visitor numbers during the middle of the season overall tickets sales havebeen good with season pass sales increasing and a noticeable rise amongst the locals.
Treble Cone marketing manager Nigel Kerr said he was delighted with the way the seasonhad gone and the overall visitor numbers.
“We are really pleased with this year’s season and gaining greater local support. MotherNature certainly served up some interesting weather patterns with a bountiful supply ofsnow throughout spring, we are already looking forward to opening day next year!” hesaid.
There is a final opportunity to get the last turns of the season at Treble Cone, nextSaturday 9th October (weather day 10th October) for the local charity fundraising day withthe proceeds going to the Aspiring Avalanche Dogs. Tickets need to be pre-purchased from Thunderbikes on Helwick Street. Tickets cost $40 cash and are limited to 250.

The women were up first, and Kelly Clark threw down the gauntlet on her first run with a giant frontside air, backside 540 mute, frontside 900, method air, frontside 720, and Cab 720 mute for 88.70 points and her 2nd consecutive NZ Open halfpipe title. Kelly was very happy with her win saying, “I had a great day, it’s a great way to start off my season and I was really happy with how I rode today. I walked away doing the tricks I set out to do and had a lot of fun.”

Queralt Castellet (ESP) was the closest challenger with 82.45 points, also on her first run. Queralt’s run started with a backside 540 mute, frontside 540 melon, method air, and frontside 720 to place second. Taking third with 76.84 points was veteran Soko Yamaoka (JPN), who’s run consisted of a McTwist, frontside 720, Cab 720, frontside 540 melon, and backside 540. Kendall Brown was the top New Zealander, finishing in 8th place.

14 year-old Taku Hiraoka (JPN), who dominated the pre-qualifiers and qualifiers, continued to amaze with his first run score of 89.35 points setting the benchmark. Hiraoka’s run was a backside 540, frontside inverted 720, Cab 1080, and massive frontside 900 tailgrab. This Cinderella story proved that it’s possible to ride all the way from the pre-qualifier round through to the podium and second place. But taking the win was Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI) who let out all stops on his second run with a huge crippler, double McTwist 1260, frontside 1080 tailgrab, and Cab 720 for an impressive 93.70 points. Louie Vito (USA) also had a strong second run to jump up into third place with 88.04 points. Louie’s run started with a frontside 1080 double-cork, Cab 1080 double-cork, double crippler, backside 900, and frontside corked 900.

It was also a monumental day for judging, with the newly developed Snowboard Live Scoring system (SLS) proving itself for the first time in the halfpipe. Scores are given for each individual hit during a run, as well as a flow score, to provide a very transparent and informative final score. Viewers of the live webcast on GO211.com were able to see this system in action and watch real-time ranking changes, among other features of the webcast.

Such was the drama, one sleepover guest described it as ‘Chaos on a stick’ – not entirely sure what he means though. Although they were looked after and fed by the good people of Mt Hutt and they have managed to make it off the mountain this morning.

Check out the full article in the New Zealand Herald

Here is todays schedule:

SLOPESTYLE
10:00 -11:30am – Men´s and Women´s slopestyle practice
11:30am – 12:00pm – Course Maintenance
12:00 – 3:30pm – Men´s and Women´s Finals
4:00pm – Prize giving

Keep an eye out for Aussie Robbie Walker wearing bib # 101 on the slopestyle course today – he qualified for the semi finishing 4th overall in pre-quals, all the best Robbie!!

The webcast will go live over the 13th and 14th of August kicking off at 9am NZ local time (so that’ll be like 5am for us!).

In a tight partnership between TTR, the World Snowboard Federation, the events, judges and riders, the Live Scoring System was developed as a completely new way to judge snowboarding. The current system in use, called Overall Impression, focuses on a rider’s run in its entirety and provides little to no feedback to riders or spectators on how a score is generated. The new Live Scoring System is more transparent and allows everyone to clearly see how judges give points by scoring each trick individually in a rider’s run. Each trick score is added up to generate a total trick score that is then combined with a total flow score (how well a rider links all tricks in the run) to make up the final score for a rider’s run.

The Live Scoring system will be used for the first time in both Halfpipe and Slopestyle at the 2010 Burton New Zealand Open. If the system is well received among riders, media and fans, the goal is to integrate the system in all 6Star TTR events throughout the upcoming 2010/11 season. However, based on the overall feedback from riders, spectators and television viewers from the 2010 Arctic Challenge, the general consensus is the system will be a major leap forward for the sport.

Leading the development of this new judging system are experienced head judges Dani Kiwi Meier and Greg Johnson who have both been involved with snowboard judging systems for over 15 years. Meier and Johnson have been working with top riders on the new judging system, especially Torstein Horgmo, Andreas Ygre Wiig and Terje Haakonsen, who have been key players in the overall development. Snowboard VM 2012, a Norwegian organization that will oversee the operation of the 2012 World Snowboarding Championships, has financially backed the development of the Live Scoring System and is also the current owner of the new system. Snowboard VM 2012 plans to make the new judging system available to all interested events within the TTR ranking system.

The 5Star Burton New Zealand Open will take place August 10-14, 2010 at Cardrona Alpine Resort. For a sneak peak at how the new Live Scoring System will work, the New Zealand Open will be webcast live on August 13th and 14th in New Zealand time zones and on August 12th and 13th in North American time zones at GO211.com. Check opensnowboarding.com or GO211.com for complete webcast details.

This year the NZ Snowboarder Banked Slalom will take place in either the Home Basin’s Gunbarrell or Superpipe in the Saddle Basin.  Both are long, high sided barrelly chutes providing the perfect location for speed and steeped banked turns. Over 75 riders are expected to attend in both the open and masters (35+) divisions. There’s cash up for grabs in the open and spot prizes include a day’s heliboarding and heaps of great gear to give away.

Registration takes place at Treble Cone base from 8.30am and the event is scheduled to start at 10.00am. Prize giving will take place at 5pm at Lone Star Wanaka.