Ulrik Badertscher kills it at O’Neill Evolution
The 120 riders gave it their all in the slopestyle qualification rounds yesterday but standout performance was from 20 year old Norwegian rider, Ulrik Badertscher who finished first in his round with 148.67 points - thanks to a huge BS12 on his last run.
"I did a few 1260s in training," said Ulrik. "It wasn't that big a deal. I'm also doing qualifications for the quarterpipe, but slopestyle is more my thing."
Invited rider, Arthur Longo, who impressed everyone with his huge airs in the quarterpipe last year, was watching the slopestyle qualifications with much interest.
"The Belgian rider, Seppe Smits really stood out - he's really good and has perfect runs. He's a newcomer to look out for," Arthur said. "And also all the Norwegians and Swedish riders of course. Of all of them I really like Andreas Gidlund. I like his style."
As for his own ride, Arthur Longo is still deciding just what he will go for: "I don't know what to do at the moment. I hope it's going be a few 9s and a 10, but we'll see. I'll focus a bit more on the quarterpipe. It's a lot easier for me. Last year I went about 8m. I tried the quarterpipe yesterday and it feels good. It's clean and also perfect on the left."
Another young rider to keep an eye on in the finals is 14 year old Dimi De Jong. The Dutch rider made his name at the event two years ago with a spectacular display in the quarterpipe, and was back this year to show what he can do on the slopestyle.
"I wasn't too nervous," he said. "It's a good course and the second big kicker suits me. I did a FS10 tail on my last run. I just went for it. Now I am looking forward to the quarterpipe."
As the sun set on the first day of qualifications at the O'Neill Evolution 2009, that's when the lights went up... literally. The five meter balloon lamps lit up the rest of the evening for the quarterpipe training in preparation for tomorrow's quarterpipe qualification rounds.
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The O’Neill Evolution will be broadcast live via Freecaster on HUCK TV starting Friday 9th January.
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Ulrik Badertscher kills it at O’Neill Evolution (text) by HUCK HQ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK License.
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