Davos, January 3, 2008 - It was a 15 year old boy from Quebec in Canada who stole the show in the quarterpipe qualifications at The O'Neill Evolution, with a massive 7.4m Backside Air. What made it all the more spectacular was that this was O'Neill rider, Seb Toots' first ever quarterpipe competition.
His score of 187 points in the second heat was the highest score of the qualifications. And it was the highest air of the competition so far by a massive 0.8m. He stands in good stead to win the Highest Air competition - he has already gone higher than last year's winner at 7.2m, Terje Haakonsen.
Speaking of his achievement, Seb said, "I did not expect to go that high. When I arrived here and I looked at the quarterpipe, I was thinking maybe I could reach the 4m mark." He went 3.4m better.
"Back in Canada I do Big Air and Rail competitions so this is new to me," he says. So was he intimidated? "No" is his emphatic response.
Behind him in Heat 2 was French rider, Arthur Longo who pulled out a super clean 6.6m Backside Air and bagged a score of 183 points. And third in that outstanding round was Norwegian Kim Rune Hansen, who landed a huge 6.7m Backside Rodeo Flip.
Heat 1 saw Davos local hero Colin Frei take the top spot with a 5.3m McTwist. O'Neill rider Stefano Munari repeated his feat from yesterday's superpipe here on the quarterpipe, qualifying again for the finals - this time in second place. And third place in the first heat was French rider Olivier Gittler with a 3.5m McTwist.
In the third heat it was the Norwegian, Tore Holvik who pulled out a 5.6m Indy Air to take first place. Manuel Pietropoli finished second with a 6.6m backside air, and was the only rider in the qualifications to have all his jumps over the 6m mark. Third in that heat was French rider Gary Zebrowski.
With five riders qualifying for the semi finals from each round, the sixteenth place goes to O'Neill rider, Steve Krijbolder. The 16-year-old Dutch rider was the highest placed sixth place rider out of the three heats with 161 points.
You can catch the latest of the O'Neill Evolution live on Method.tv
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