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The first week of the 10th FIS Snowboard World Championships staged in Stoneham and Quebec City, Canada, are history.
Time for a short round up of what happened during the three freestyle snowboarding events.
Fact 1 – Roope Tonteri is the boss
Veni, vidi, vici: the World Champs in Stoneham and Quebec were certainly the ones of Roope Tonteri.
The Finnish ripper did compete in two contests and came out winning both of them.
He not only dominated the slopestyle course but also did cope best with the gusty winds and icy landing during the big air competition thus earning two well-deserved Gold medals.
As a consequence, he also linked to the Finnish dominance at WCS big air contests having brought out five big air World Champions in so far six events.
Fact 2 – Finland most successful freestyle snowboarding nation
In general, Finnish athletes put a stamp on the first weekend of the worlds.
Bringing home a total of four medals (2 Gold, 2 Bronze), the North Europeans comfortably lead the medals table.
In addition, Finland became the most successful halfpipe nation on the men's side. Markus Malin's Bronze yesterday was the sixth in total for the country.
Fact 3 – A lot of firsts
Over the first weekend, four riders crowned themselves FIS Snowboard World Champion for the first time – in a total of five events:
Roope Tonteri, Spencer O'Brien (CAN), Arielle Gold (USA) and Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI).
Fact 4 – Great audience
All of them got the credit they deserved.
No matter if at the slopestyle course, along the halfpipe or during the opening ceremony and the big air contest, the Quebecois were great spectators.
Big ups to all of them who cheered for the athletes, no matter which country from, facing all kind of weather.
Fact 5 – Unpredictable weather
And yes, the weather was tough.
You can organize as much as you want, work as much as you can but when it comes to outdoor sports, the weather has the last say; especially in Quebec.
It all started with unusual warm weather in the Quebec province prior to the worlds and less snow than in the previous World Cup years which made it tough for the course shapers around.
Melting snow, suddenly dropping temperature and thus freezing conditions gave them some hard times to prepare the venues.
But in the end, it all worked out although everybody had to find out that Quebec sometimes offers colder temperatures than the best deep freezer on market.
{Editor's note: Need more reason to hate on the FIS? How can the photos they put out of such badass snowboarding be so lame? I get the vibe like they flew in a pro-tennis shooter or perhaps an expert at sailing to shoot these. Worse yet are the ones I've seen in all the newspapers! Can't they find a photographer who will do the athletes and the action justice? And these were the best of the bunch. I mean, it is Canada after all and we have a ton of sick shooters. Hell, Russell Dalby can even shoot skiers!)
For tons more pretty terrible photos, check out the FIS gallery HERE
