Jamie Anderson and Stale Sandbech set the early season standard super-high in the biggest slopestyle showdown of the southern hemisphere World Snowboard Tour (WST) calendar, the Burton High Fives.
With most competitive riders basing their season around that little-known competition that’s happening in Sochi in February, the WST points mattered less perhaps than the chance for riders to show where they’re at.
So consider this a statement of intent. Both Jamie and Stale definitely have the tricks to go all the way in the Olympics, and though there were no triples their runs were both seriously tech.
Jamie ran her ever-stylish rails into a back 180, cab 5 and a back 5 over the kickers, a combo which (although she described it as “an easier run”) would have won her almost any comp on the circuit last season.
Stale meanwhile dropped a frontside 900 double cork, a cab 1260 and a backside 1080 double cork – both with oh-so-apt stale grabs. He said:
“I was thinking about that run early on and thought I’d do something mellower because of the conditions – but then I decided to go with my original plan at the last minute and it worked out.”
Burton’s young gun Kyle Mack stormed into second place, with the pint-sized Japanese wonder Yuki Kadono grabbing third. In the women’s final Enni Rukajarvi claimed second while Silje Norendal got third.
BURTON HIGH FIVES SLOPESTYLE 2013 RESULTS
Men
1. Stale Sandbech
2. Kyle Mack
3. Yuki Kadono
Women
1. Jamie Anderson
2. Enni Rukajarvi
3. Silje Norendal