It was a dramatic finale to one of the most significant competitions on the Tour. The Swatch TTR 6-Star Oakley Arctic Challenge, greeted with sunny skies and an enthusiastic crowd, wrapped up with US rider Kevin Pearce taking home the title along with $24.500 and moving into the TTR World No.1 position. Shayne Pospisil, also from the United States, took second place while Peetu Piiroinen of Finland once again proved he’s one of the best by rounding out the Top three and maintaining his grasp on TTR World No. 3.

Pearce was stoked with his title win but is still looking to the future: “We just finished up the 2008 Arctic Challenge and it’s another 6-Star win for me. It feels good! It was good to see everybody stepping up… and it was good to see Terje pushing it…I’ve done a lot of TTR events this year and now I’m finally on top. It’s been a long journey. I feel pretty good about it. Seems like just yesterday it was the start of the season. But it’s coming down to the last couple events… and now it all depends on the US Open. I’m psyched. It’s going to be a good ending.”

Pearce also took home the trophy for Best Trick of the day with his crowd and judge pleasing Inverted BS 540 with a Double Grab at 7.1m. All eyes may have been looking for a new World Record, but the highest air of the day, stomped by Peetu Piiroinen, was 7.5m, just over 2m shy of the 9.8 world record set last year by Artic Challenge founder and TTR patron Terje Haakonsen.

In the same fashion as the semi finals, riders were judged on their best runs, but things were stepped up for the finals. Each rider was given five attempts to stomp three of their best tricks. Added to those three scores was a variation score that judged riders on their ability to mix things up with each hit.

Pearce’s attempts included a McTwist with a Tweaked Japan, his best-trick-winning Inverted BS 5 Double Grab, a massive BS Air Method, a Chuckflip 7, and another solid BS Air. Pospisil kept things a little simpler, starting off with a FS Air and then landing a stylish BS Air. On his third hit he busted out the BS 3 Alley-Oop, then went for a BS 5 and finished the afternoon off with a FS 3. Piiroinen returned with his signature Finnish style, opting for a BS 5 Tail on the first hit, unfortunately washing out the landing. He stomped a BS 5 Tail Grab on his second attempt, holding the grab until the last possible second. His third hit gave him the highest air, floating a clean BS Air Tail Grab at 7.5m. After a failed initial attempt, Peetu finally landed a Chuckflip on his last hit.

Some big changes in the TTR Rankings were set after a great afternoon of friendly snowboard competition. Risto Mattila who was previously the Tour Leader is now TTR World No.2 after his 7th place finish in Oslo. Risto will definitely be looking to get back on top in the coming weeks. Andy Finch who was throwing down epic airs all day long keeps his place of TTR World No.4 as Nicolas Mueller, who brought along his legendary Swiss style, now sits in the top ten at TTR World No.8. Scotty Lago who didn’t fair too well in Norway still managed to improve his ranking with a 6-Star result and now sits at TTR World No.9.

Check out the TTR website for fully updated Swatch TTR Rankings along with blogs, news, and videos that document all the action from The Oakley Arctic Challenge. Be sure to stay tuned to TTR as the Tour moves to Japan for the 5-Star Nissan X-Trail Nippon Open where we could see some more big changes in the rankings, setting things up for the final 6-Star Burton US Open and overall Tour prize purse of $250.000.

The Oakley Arctic Challenge Final Results:
1. Kevin Pearce USA
2. Shayne Pospisil USA
3. Peetu Piiroinen FIN
4. Terje Haakonsen NOR
5. Nicolas Mueller SUI
6. Andy Finch USA
7. Risto Mattila FIN
8. Colin Frei SUI
9. Ulrik Badertscher NOR
10. Dustin Craven CAN
11. Daniel Josefsen NOR
12. Fumiyuki Murakami JPN
13. Takaharu Nakai JPN
14. Jake Koia NZE
15. Chad Otterstrom USA
16. Kim Rune Hansen NOR
17. Fredrik Scuderi NOR
18. Arthur Longo FRA
19. Stale Sandbech NOR
20. Takato Taniguchi JPN
21. Scott Lago USA
22. Jody Koenders NED