Peetu Piiroinen, the twenty-year-old Finn from Helsinki, beat his countryman Risto Mattila in a closely contested final on day six of the O’Neill Evolution at Davos. With the two riders matching each other trick for trick, Peetu finally snatched the win with a huge bs540 on his very last run.

“Its one of my favourite events. It feels so special when you are here.”
Seb Toutant

Here’s how it went down. Risto led the way in the first two runs with a massive bs 540 around the 5 meter mark, followed by the same from Peetu who could only manage to reach the 4 meter mark.

Peetu Piiroinen

Then came the battle of the bs airs. Risto started it with a huge 7.0m bs air – ensuring himself the $9,000 Highest Air prize, as Peetu reached only the 6.7m mark.

With the lead in his hand, Risto went back to the bs540 with more height and style, earning himself 82.5 points, and what looked like the event victory.

But then, it happened: on his last run Peetu pulled off what was possibly the trick of the whole competition - a hugely stylish and perfectly executed bs540 reaching the 5.5 meter mark and earning him 93.83 points and the victory.

“I am feeling so good right now,” Peetu said. “It’s been a long day. I am so stoked to win this. It’s also nice riding against a friend in the finals like this, because for both of us it doesn’t matter who wins, we are just happy for each other.”

Peetu Piiroinen

Talking about their matching tricks, Peetu said: “I was watching a bit what Risto was doing, we didn’t talk about it and plan to do the same tricks though.”

Risto Mattila had to settle for second place for the second year running at the O’Neill Evolution, but the 27-year-old Finn was not despondent – quite the opposite.

“I am pretty stoked,” he said. “I just started to get used to the massive quarterpipe in the finals. I don’t mind taking second place again. I am on the podium!”

In third place was Dutch O’Neill rider Steve Krijbolder,, who narrowly missed out on the highest air prize with his 6.9m air.

Most riders seemed to agree that it was a spectacular final to end a spectacular O’Neill Evolution 2009. Young superstar Canadian O’Neill rider Seb Toutant said, “Its one of my favourite events. It feels so special when you are here. It’s such a good mix of all the good riders, the lights, the crowd and knowing it’s on live TV. When you are doing an event at the top of the mountain with no crowd and no cameras, you aren’t as motivated or you don’t have as much fun.”

“I enjoyed last year as well,” he added. “But I loved the slopestyle this year, the new format was great, and the quarterpipe was bigger and better. This event gets better and better every time.”

Seb finished in the top 16 of the quarterpipe and in eighth place in the slopestyle but continuously impressed the Davos crowd with his huge tricks and confidence. As the event’s tagline says, Seb was definitely ‘running with gravity’.

“We came up with that theme after trying to look beyond just the competition and understand the nature and the elements behind the sport,” said event director Bernhard Ritzer. “We looked into the basics of what was happening in the quarterpipe as these guys flew through the air. Basically they were using, playing with and fighting against gravity - so we took that theme and ran with it.”

The result was a stunning quarterpipe and slopestyle course sitting next to each other at the bottom of the Jakobshorn, with floating eco-friendly balloon lights, recycled Christmas trees (to be recycled once again as firewood), and snow sculptures to enhance the theme throughout the slopestyle course.

“My favourite moment of the event was probably the slopestyle,” said Bernhard. “It was a great addition to the event. It got great feedback from the riders and the crowd especially with the new format.”

Bernhard’s final words? “This has definitely been the best O’Neill Evolution so far.”

FINAL QUARTERPIPE RESULTS:
1 Peetu Piiroinen FIN F 183.66
2 Risto Mattila FIN F 174.50
3 Steve Krijbolder NED SF 99.67
4 Arthur Longo FRA SF 58.67
5 Antti Autti FIN QF 148.67
6 Chas Guldemond USA QF 132.83
7 Gian Simmen SUI QF 119.33
8 Janne Korpi FIN QF 104.34
9 Manuel Pietropoli ITA 16 125.50
10 Sebastien Toutant CAN 16 111.84
11 Rocco Van Straten NED 16 106.50
12 Adrian Oesch SUI 16 106.34
13 Dimi De Jong NED 16 103.17
14 Kim Rune Hansen NOR 16 92.67
15 Allan Besse FRA 16 79.67
16 Benoit Thomas-Javid FRA 16 67.16
17 Colin Frei SUI Davos Platz 32 129.00
18 Jean Jacques Roux FRA 32 124.00
19 Olivier Gittler FRA 32 102.34
20 Iouri Podladtchikov SUI 32 101.67
21 Pal Sorensen NOR 32 97.50
22 Tim Humphreys USA 32 77.17
23 Ben Stewart NZL 32 76.50
24 Christian Kröll AUT 32 73.66
25 Fredrik Evensen NOR 32 54.33
26 Thomas Franc SUI 32 50.17
27 Nicola Boscacci SUI 32 46.50
28 Davide Vagheggi ITA 32 41.83
29 Ulrik Badertscher NOR 32 0.00
29 Mats Hofgaard NOR 32 0.00
31 Cody Hierons GBR Q 112.00
32 Corsin Simeon SUI Q 111.33
33 Wolfgang Beer AUT Q 106.00
34 Fabian Fassnacht SUI Q 101.34
35 James Hamilton NZL Q 93.67
36 Christian Weber SUI Q 65.67

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