Breathtaking Battle for Kanin

Winners of 4th edition of Quiksilver Freeride Battle at Kanin, Slovenia, are from Austria, Finland and Slovenia.

After two days of waiting for good conditions on Kanin, today fifty snowboarders and skiers finally competed in Quiksilver Freeride Battle event.

In the end, the line known as “French” was chosen for competition. Because of avalanche danger and snow getting heavier by the minute there was only one competition run instead of two.

In the women’s snowboard category it was the Austrian Marlies Nindl who took the top score, followed by Mikaela Hollsten of Finland and Slovenian Petra Brajnik who tied for second place.

As well as good line choices and fluent descents, top men showed some daring cliff jumps. Finnish snowboarder Niklas Hollsten dropped some 17 or 18 meters deep into a not very soft landing while indy grabbing his board. This assured him his second QFB title in a row. Like last year it was local rider Matevž Macek (the 2007 winner) who got closest to Hollsten and take second. Austrian Thomas Knes took third.

The crowd that lined the run also saw some scary crashes. By far the worst was by Czech skier Viktor Galuška who rolled over some 40 meters of rocky cliffs. He was taken to hospital only to be released – uninjured, shaken, smiling.

Quiksilver Freeride Battle Kanin 2009 Results
Snowboard Women:
1. Marlies Nindl (Aut)
2. Mikaela Hollsten (Fin) Petra Brajnik (Slo) (tie)

Snowboard men:
1. Niklas Hollsten (Fin)
2. Matevž Macek (Slo)
3. Thomas Knes (Aut)

Best Rookies: M. Hollsten (snowboard women) (Cro, snowboard men)

At last night’s party with Sell Out ska band and Vibe Department DJ team by the gondola base the Bovec Outdoor Film Festival “Crowd’s Favorite” was announced: it is the Slovenian freeski film Evolution, produced by Actionmama/Chouka Films, directed by Jure Niedorfer.

Quotes

Marlies Nindl: “I’m really happy. It’s my first time in Slovenia and I won this great event. It was hard. I was lucky, I took the wrong line, it was a really difficult one and then I somehow managed to master it. I’ll throw a big party to celebrate and I’ll be back next year!”

Niklas Hollsten: “This is a very steep terrain, I prefer it a bit less steep. It was my first time to compete in a terrain where I was not able to turn. I had to choose a new line just before my run because my original one was closed because of a crash. Finally it went well. I’d like to try to make it three in a row next year.”