Monday, March 10

Vans Triple Crown of Snowboarding - Final Stop

Press Release

Big Bear Lake, CA (March 9, 2003) - The Vans North American Championships of Snowboarding, the final stop of the Vans Triple Crown of Snowboarding, came to an exciting finish at Bear Mountain Resort with 16-year-old Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) and Gretchen Bleiler (Snowmass, CO) taking home top honors in the men's and women's Super Pipe competitions.

Not just a Stalefish, but a stale the 9 way ... Shaun White, the 1st place finisher in pipe and slopestyle, way over your head.

White beat out Marius Otterstas (Sarpsborg, Norway) and Andy Finch (Fresno, CA) who placed second and third, respectively, putting him on top for the second time in two days. White had claimed the Slope Style title the on Saturday, again beating out Otterstad. In the ladies' competition, Bleiler won her second straight Vans Triple Crown Super Pipe title, beating out Tricia Byrnes (Stratton, VT) and Kjersti Buaas Oestegaard (Trondheim, Norway) and notching her second straight women's overall Vans Triple Crown championship. Nate Sheehan (Midvale, UT), on the strength of his consistent finishes at each of the Vans Triple Crown stops, walked away with the overall men's 2003 Vans Triple Crown of Snowbording title and a Ford Ranger 4X4.

There was tons of action on Saturday with the Slope Style finals, Super Pipe prelims and the Vans Rail Jam all being staged under the beautiful skies at Bear Mountain. Shaun White claimed his first of two titles, winning the men's Slope Style, while Janna Meyen (Bend, OR) stepped up and took home first in the Women's competition. Saturday concluded with the Vans Rail Jam and local Crestline native Chris Bradshaw and Jeff Meyer taking home $2,500 each. On the girls' side, Erin Comstock claimed $750 as did Alexis Waite who added to her third place and $2,250 in the Slope Style comp.

Gretchen Bleiler on her way to another solid win -- frontside Crippler.

Competition Notes (courtesy of George Crosland):

Shaun White is the guy to beat. He crushed the pipe competition and won slopestyle as well. After the US Open Shaun will focus only on skateboarding and attempt to qualify for the X Games. All the teenage girls that love Shaun could have a chance to see him on TV just that much more.

You need to know that the Scanners are coming on strong. Marius Otterstad's 1st pipe run was amazing. He also got second in slopestyle. Marius got an X Games invitation for his performance. Out of 12 total possible podium positions, the Scandinavians took 4 of those spots.

Tommy Czeschin, Antti Autti and Yuomo Ojala all got invites to the Arctic Challenge after their performances.

Gretchen continued her U-jump domination by stomping out her competition during the pipe comp ... she still doesn't have a board sponsor.

Janna Meyen won slopestyle, hmm, the winner of the four events today were exactly the same as the Winter X Games VII winners.

It was rumored that the Slopestyle course had four jumps set up in a row for someone to attempt 4 different 900 combos in a row. It is also rumored that the person to attempt that would be Shaun White ... did it happen? No.

There is definitely some new talent coming on strong. Will there be a change in snowboarding's top ranks?

Kelly Clark got a concussion and pulled out of the comp so she doesn't end up like Muhammad Ali by taking too many shots to the head.

Everyone's favorite action sports heartthrob, Danny Kass, was filming something somewhere.

Joey McGuire rides for Lib Tech and Lib Tech boards are made in the USA ... that means we better run a pic of him from the slopestyle finals.

Mens Triple Crown Champion:
Nate Sheehan - Ford Ranger 4 x 4

Womens Triple Crown Champ:
Gretchen Blieler - Trip to Hawaii

Mens Slopestyle:
1 Shaun White $12,000
2 Marius Otterstad $8,000
3 Tuomo Ojala $5000
4 Rahm Klampert $3500
5 Nik Batko $2500
6 Nate Sheehan $1500
7 Per Loken $800
8 Joe Eddy $700
9 Cory Cronk $600
10 Wyatt Caldwell $500
11 Tim Jackways $300
12 Jake Blauvelt $300
13 Henning Martinsen $300
14 Jari Tourinemi $300
15 Michael Williams $300
16 Gian Simmen $200
17 Trevor Brown $200
18 Joey Mcguire $200
19 Doug Bemson $200
20 Borden Panesa $200
21 Friedl Kolar
22 Myles Hallen
23 JP Tomich
24 Chris Bradshaw
25 Tapio Kuusakoski
26 True Love

Womens Slopestyle:
1 Janna Meyen $8,000
2 Natassa Zurek $5000
3 Alexis Waite $2500
4 Priscilla Levac $1500
5 Laura Hadar $1250
6 Sarah Mose $1050
7 Macy Price $800
8 Jessica Dalpiaz $700
9 Emily Akerblom $600
10 Isabelle Claire Lalive $500
11 Emily Thomas
12 Erin Comstock
13 Maribeth Swetkoff
14 Hana Beaman
15 Kim Bohnshack

This guy is part of the Scando threat -- Marius Otterstad pulls an Alley Oop Michalchuk on his way to 2nd in pipe, after getting 2nd in Slopestyle.

Mens Pipe (cash prizes same as Slopestyle):
1 Shaun White
2 Marius Otterstad
3 Andy Finch
4 Antti Autti
5 Tommy Czeschin
6 Gian Simmen
7 Vinzenz Lupz
8 Halvor Lunn
9 Mikka Hast
10 Wyatt Caldwell
11 Joe Eddy
12 Justin Lamoureux
13 Steve Fisher
14 Elijah Teter
15 Luke Wynen
16 Ricky Bower
17 JJ Thomas
18 Jukka Eratulli
19 Chris Nelson
20 Marcuss Keller
21 Luke Mitrani
22 Tyler Emond
23 Colter Deupree
24 Abe Teter
25 Eirik Haugo

Womens Pipe (cash prizes same as Slopestyle):
1 Gretchen Blieler
2 Tricia Byrnes
3 Kjersti Buass
4 Hannah Teter
5 Natassa Zurek
6 Doriane Vidal
7 Stine Brun Kjeldas
8 Alisa Mokler
9 Autumn Rose
10 Elena Hight
11 Daniela Roth
12 Lisa Wiik
13 Molly Aguirre

Invitations to Arctic Challenge:
Tommy Czeschin, Antti Autti and Yuomo Ojala