Burton European Open !!!
by rowan on Jan.12, 2010, under Laxx, Mountains, Snowboarding Stuff
On Thursday I went to Laax for the first time. Whilst we were driving the car to Manchester airport we hit some black ice on the road and the spun the car and damaged it 
When we got to the airport we met Mark and Katie Omerod and found out our flight was cancelled! So when the plane finally came after 8 hours we went to Laax. We got there got some cars and drove to Laax.
On Friday we had a full days practice on the slopestyle course and the halfpipe. When I saw the kickers they were the biggest kickers I’d ever seen, they were huge! First practice run I landed on my shoulder on the stair set which really hurt. The kickers were the best and the biggest kickers I’d ever hit, they had a 15 metre gap! Also the rails were amazing they were really smooth. Then we went to the super pipe which was 22ft big which was the biggest and best pipe I had ever been in.
Next day was the slopestyle competition which was fun and it was a really high standard of riding. In the slopestyle I came 14th out of 20 in my group which I’m really stoked about, I came 22nd overall in slopestyle 
Lewis Courtier-Jones did amazing coming 8th in the final and a big well done to Katie who stomped her back 3 in the final which put her in 4th place in the girls finals.
Next day was the halfpipe comp which was really fun, the pipe was amazing and so was the day. My 2nd run scored me my best score which was 40.60 and the run was frontside tail grab to backside grab to front 5 to backside grab to front 3 to cab 3. I came 16th out of 22 which I’m stoked about again because i have only been riding pipe for a week and also I came 25th overall in the pipe Also another well done to Lewis who came 9th in the final also he was going huge out of the pipe and another well done to Katie who stomped her last run and came 4th again only missing 3rd by 1.6 points!
Last day we packed and had a quick shred on the mountain in the swatch park on the kickers. Then we came down got changed and drove back to Zurich airport. When we got there it was snowing heavily but we still made it back without the flight being cancelled!
It was an amazing weekend and an amazing experience and now I need to get hitting the big kickers in Avoriaz on a regular basis !!!
My dad videod a few of my runs, but his hands were shaking so much they are pretty rubbish, I will try to find the good bits and do a little shredit with them soon.
Fear of the park write up can be found here and Whitelines here.
January 12th, 2010 on 6:55 pm
Nice one Rowan! I saw a photo of the slopestyle course today and the kickers look immense!
)
Well done on your placings, see you out at the Brits
January 12th, 2010 on 9:28 pm
Top work that mini shredder. Look forward to seeing more pics
January 12th, 2010 on 11:50 pm
Sick rowan, keep it up!! Craaazzzy skills