Shaun White Wins Both Rails Session and Slopestyle

First 5 (five) Star in Vail, Colorado - The 2006 Honda Session Invitational Snowboard Event

David Benedek moves to 3rd in TTR World Snowboarding Tour Championship race.

Vail, Colorado. USA - Shaun White (USA) joined the TTR World Snowboard Tour Rankings, confirming his dominance with a win in Friday's Rail competition then total domination of the TTR 5(five) Star event, the Honda Session at Vail by Salomon. In yet another history making run, White took his third consecutive title at the event at Saturday night's Bud Light Slopestyle competition, immediately entering the TTR Championship Ranking in 19th position behind Finland's Antti Autti and in front of Norway's Terje Haakonsen. The red headed Californian spun his way into snowboarding history in last year's Honda Session at Vail by executing all four 900 spin combinations, following this never seen before run with three 900 combinations and a cab 1080.  This year, he took it one step further and clocked three 1080's (three complete rotations in the air) closing with a fourth trick (900) to post a score of 95.7, 2.7 points ahead of runner-up Andreas Wiig (NOR) with Travis Rice(USA) third. Wiig and Rice, both being TTR World Snowboard Tour competitors pocket an additional 800.95 and 765 points each, beefing up their current Championships points and firmly establishing them in the current top 10. The first qualified member of the U.S. Snowboard team for the 2006 Olympics, White had not yet competed at TTR World Snowboard Tour events this season due to other commitments. A legitimate challenger to current TTR Tour leader, Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller, White's success on the weekend pocketed him $39,500 USD and 850 TTR points for his Slopestyle result, moving him directly into the TTR top 20. With White now on the Championship board, his following performances will be closely watched. White is likely to pose a late but significant challenge to the tour Champions lead.  Tension surrounding the TTR Championships Title is expected to climax at the US Open Snowboarding Championships in March. Being the third and final 6(six) Star event of the 2006 TTR World Snowboard Tour with 1000 points being available at each of its Slopestyle and Halfpipe formats. :                                                     all other results go to: www.sessionvail.com

Place Name                            Nationality     Sponsor                   TTR Ranking Points<o:p></o:p>

1       WHITE, Shaun                  USA      Burton                          850 2       WIIG, Andreas                  NOR      Jeenus                         800.95 3       RICE, Travis                      USA      Lib Tech, Oakley          765 4       OTTERSTROM, Chad       USA      Academy                      737.85 5       PEARCE, Kevin                USA      Burton, Scott                716.05 6       BENEDEK, David              GER      Salomon                      697 7       OKSANEN, Jussi                FIN      Burton                          678.97 8       CALDWELL, Wyatt            USA      Burton                          663 9       SHEEHAN, Nate               USA      Dakine                         648.85 10     THOMPSON, Ryan            USA      N/A                              634.85 11     CRAVEN, Dustin               USA      CAPita                         621.01 12     GOLDSCHMIDT, Michael   USA      N/A                              607.32 13     NIEMELA, Eero                  FIN      K2                                593.79 14     KLAMPERT, Rahm            USA      Flow                             580.41 15     LANGLOIS, Colin              USA      Burton                          567.91 Meanwhile, David Benedek(GER) 6th place in the Honda Session at Vail by Salomon and previous results at the previous TTR 6(six) Star events Nokia Air&Style and Nissan X-Trail, saw him jump 4 places in the overall TTR World Snowboard Tour Championship ranking into clear 3rd position, falling less than 4 pts behind current TTR World No. 2, Andy Finch(USA). Other results at The Honda Session at Vail by Salomon saw Jussi Oksanen(FIN), Travis Rice(USA) and Andreas Ygre Wiig enter the current TTR top 10. TTR World Snowboard Tour Ranking as of:

              Name                         Nationality       Sponsor                      Points           TTR World <o:p></o:p>

Mueller, Nicolas                        SUI                  Burton                                      641.26             1st<o:p></o:p>Finch, Andy                  USA                 Palmer, Rip Curl           557.47             2nd<o:p></o:p>David Benedek            GER                 Salomon, Bonfire, Anon           553.89             3rd<o:p></o:p>Kroell, Chris                  AUT                 Voelkl, Adidas, SP       465.39             4th <o:p></o:p>Crepel, Mathieu            FRA                 Rossignol, Quiksilver    448.07             5th <o:p></o:p>Risto Mattila                 FIN                   Billabong                      435.81             6th <o:p></o:p>

All other TTR World Snowboard Tour / TTR World Nr#1 results at         www.ttrworldtour.com