So the inaugural World Snowboarding Championships are a wrap, and a rather successful and tasty wrap at that. World Champions in quarterpipe, halfpipe and slopestyle were crowned in Oslo in a blatant endeavor to wrest back control of snowboarding from the nefarious hands of the FIS and IOC. Kudos and a tip of the hat to Henning Andersen, a tireless champion for our sport, and his entire staff for pulling off a nearly flawless event that truly represents modern competitive snowboarding. Chapeau, buddy, you guys made us proud!

Personally, I was fresh off the plane from 2 weeks in Japan about an hour before the start of the quarterpipe final. It was a surprise I even managed to see it at all, but see it I did, even though it was all over in a flash. Despite a number of set backs during the construction of the massive monolith, the set up looked amazing in Holmenkollen, and the dudes were boosting. None more than the Sprocking Cat himself though, as always Haakon pulls out all the stops and goes bigger than any one else. Highest air at 7.8 meters, although he did pay the price with a gnarly slam when he decked out on a previous attempt. Kimmy Rune Hansen stomped a beautiful double chuck for Best Trick, easily the most technical trick of the whole night. Ollie Gitler is a grown-ass man now, and he put down a man-sized, super stylish McT for the win. How do you spell World Champion again? Big ups, Ollie, you crushed it homie!
Next day, while I suffered from a particularly intense form of jet-lag, the boys and girls sliced and diced the perfectly shaped (if a bit short) U-tube as a steady drizzle of freezing rain soaked through the massive throng of people in attendance. Despite conditions, the pipe was fast and the haze made for an amazing visual. Everyone killed it but I was especially impressed by the girls, the level was riding was truly next level. Watching little Queralt blast out double overhead is quite a sight, I'll tell ya. Iouri and Kelly are worthy World Champs! Now just watch the clips, already.
Slopestyle day dawned bright and warmer after a cold, wet night, which essentially turned the slopestyle course at Vinterpark into a giant ice rink. Unfortunately the final groom had happened the night before, so the competitors were forced to bit the bullet and ride the… uhm, bulletproof snow. But again, by the end of the day some of the most technical and stylish snowboarding ever witnessed in a contest environment had gone down with nary a glitch. Chas edged out Toots at the absolute last minute with a blistering run and Spencer put together the craziest slopestyle run I've ever seen in a women's contest. I won't bore you with anymore of my blabbering, check out the pix and clips!
Here's a highlight clip, if you are too lazy to watch all the other edits!

And that was all she wrote, big ups again to Henning Andersen and whole WSC crew for an amazing job, see you at the next World Champs in 2016!

All photos by Thrilly Tom Lenartowicz, unless duly noted. Check out Thrilly's twitter feed and his site!