The Burton European Open (BEO) announces key riders and confirmed music acts for this year's 9th annual snowboard competition, taking place in Laax, Switzerland from January 11-18, 2008. Snowboard superstar and 2006 Olympic gold medallist Shaun White has confirmed that he will compete in both the halfpipe and slopestyle competitions, and US hip-hop stars CunninLynguist will play live on the evening of Friday, January 18th at the Riders Palace in Laax.

Also new this week, online competitor registration for the Burton European Open starts on November 7, 2007. Visit www.opensnowboarding.com to register for a chance to compete against top riders like Shaun White, who recently became the first athlete to win gold medals in both the Winter X Games and the Summer X Games.

Also registered to attend are BEO 2005 slopestyle winner Chris Sörman from Sweden and last year's BEO halfpipe winner Crispin Lipscomb from Canada. Both riders can't wait to return and battle with German rider Christophe Schmidt, 2006 Olympics bronze medallist Markku Koski (FIN), Risto Mattila (FIN) and freestyle.ch 2007 winner and Laax local Stephan "Mu" Maurer. Jenny Jones, British Snowboard queen and currently 4th on the TTR Ranking, has also confirmed, as well as 05/06 Dutch TTR World Champion Cheryl Maas and Sarah Conrad (CAN), who earned second place in the 2007 BEO halfpipe competition.

The BEO is the fourth event in this season's Burton Global Open Series, which offers $100,000 USD to each male and female series champion. BEO competitors will also earn important points for the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour Ranking, which pays out $50,000 to the male and female TTR World Champion at the end of the season. $ 125.000 prize-money can be earned directly at the BEO.

Once the final competitions wrap up on Crap Sogn Gion on Friday, January 18th, riders can look forward to a live show by the CunninLynguists at the Riders Palace. The US hip-hop stars will release their fourth studio album, Dirty Acres, in late November 2007 in conjunction with Bad Taste Records. Miss Platnum will open the night's show.

Schedule BEO 2008:

Friday, Jan. 11th:                    Slopestyle Juniors

Saturday, Jan. 12th:                Halfpipe Juniors

Sunday, Jan. 13th:                  Slopestyle Pre-Qualification & Qualification Men

Monday, Jan. 14th:                  Halfpipe Pre-Qualification Men and Qualification Women

Tuesday, Jan. 15th:                 Slopestyle Qualification Women and Semi-Finals Men & Women

Wednesday, Jan. 16th:            Halfpipe Qualification Men and Semi-Finals Men & Women

Thursday, Jan. 17th:                Slopestyle Finals Men & Women

Friday, Jan. 18th:                    Halfpipe Finals Men & Women
                                               Concert CunninLynguists & Miss                                                        Platnum @ Riders Palace