Mathias Weissenbacher is 1st at Nanshan Open!
For the first time in more than a few years, the Red Bull Nanshan Open was finally graced with ideal conditions for day two with the men’s finals and super finals!
With the field of 15 narrowed down to 6 following the finals, at the end of the day it was Austria’s Mathias Weissenbacher who topped the podium in first, taking home a cool US$20,000 and 850 World Snowboard Tour Ranking Points.
“It was a really good time here at the Nanshan Open - a really good park and the whole crew is super fun – I’m so stoked I came here!” Mathias’ winning run started with a double blackflip indy on the first kicker, a fs720 tailgrab off the second before getting technical on the rails with a lipslide 270 off on the up rail and a front blunt switch up on the down rail.
American’s Ian Thorley and Tim Humphreys rounded out the remaining podium spots with third and second respectively. His second time at the event, a $6,000-richer-Ian said “Two weeks ago I told Tim to come to the best event in the world – and here he is with me on the podium for the two-three! Best week of my life.” Tim was equally stoked, “I got second which makes this trip extra awesome, but even if I hadn’t of I still had the greatest time ever and got to experience China for the first time!” Ian’s run featured back-to-back double backflip varieties, while Tim’s featured a huge cab900 crail to rodeo 720.
36-year-old veteran snowboarder Wang Lei was the highest placed Chinese rider, earning an impressive tenth place and earning the largest cheers from the crowd. “I haven’t really ridden kickers for two years, so I’m so stoked on the result – it was so much fun riding with everyone again!”
With the snowboarding side of the trip now over, riders are now treated to charming karaoke session with the whole crew before flying off to their next adventure. - Zaijian and Ganbei!