Burton New Zealand Open - Men's Slopestyle

The 2011 Burton New Zealand Open Slopestyle competition took place last Friday with Mark McMorris of Canada taking first place by just edging out fellow countryman Sebastien Toutant in an almost-too-close-to-call showdown. While Norwegian rider Stale Stanbech took third place on the podium.

McMorris' winning run included two double-tap Cab bonks over the barrel feature, a Cab 720 frontside boardslide to fakie on the down-flat-down, half Cab to backside 350 on the cannon rail and then absolutely killed it on the jumps with a mute backside 1080, frontside melon 900, and a huge Cab 1260 nosegrab on the final hit.

Toutant's run consisted of a Cab 540 tail bonk on the barrel, a frontside blunt 270 on the down-flat-down rail, a tailslide 270 off the cannon rail, then hit the jumps with a backside double cork, a frontside 1080 double cork melon grab, and a backside rodeo truckdriver. Toutnat run earned him a score of 90.55 which fell just short of McMorris' 90.90.

McMorris walked away with $7,000 and takes 850 TTR World Tour event points onto the next stage of the Burton Global Open Series which takes place in Switzerland, January 7-14.