It’s was a heated men’s snowboard pipe finals at the Nike Open.I-Pod, Shaun White and Louie all fought hard for the win. Iouri Podlachikov gave everything in a first run that could easily have won first place at any other event.

His run featured: backside air, crippler, backside double cork 12, front double 10, cab double 10 and backside rodeo. It was an amazing run that was marred by a sketched landing where he slammed on his face and ended up bloodied.

White quickly answered back throwing down a backside air into a 900, backside 540, frontside 540 stalefish, a huge double McTwist 1260 and ended with an alley oop backside rodeo. His run scored a 95.00 and set the bar high.

Speaking about his return Shaun White said:

"I’m so happy to put that run down and make it count,” White said. “I did the double McTwist 1260 which is such a pain. That trick, sometimes it’s your best friend and other times it’s not."


Louie Vito had a chance to spoil Shaun party and came out strong with a double crippler, Michalchuk, front double 10, cab double 10, front 12 and finished with a back 5. He scored a 92.75 which left him in 2nd place and I-Pod was third.

Womens SNB Pipe

In the women’s event, Gretchen Bleiler had a strong first run throwing down a crippler, back 900, front cork 7, cab 7, straight air, back 5 to score a 90.25.

After falling on her first run Kelly Clark needed something special from her second run. putting down a front inverted 7, cab 7, front 5, back 5, front 9, and back air, Clark scored a 91.25 to win.

China’s Xuetong Cai finished third with a 85.00 after huge amplitude and solid tricks from qualifiers straight through finals.

Gretchen Bleiler, who finished 2nd had this to say:

“We were only one point away so that’s a really close one, so I’m bummed because of that,” Bleiler said. “But I’m psyched because it’s a beautiful day and the pipe was so amazing today. That will just fuel the fire to make sure we’re not so close next time.”

Clark defending her Dew Cup title, and back in the overall lead for the season said:

“It’s not ideal to fall first run.You really just have to stay focused on the task at hand. You have to think about exactly what you’re going to do and stay focused on that, because if you start thinking about all the external things you can’t control, you’re not going to perform.”