Despite challenging weather conditions, men’s halfpipe and women’s slopestyle semi-final competitions finished up at the BEO today with the men kicking things off in the halfpipe followed by the women in the slopestyle course. Ten men advanced to the BEO halfpipe finals while six women moved on up to slopestyle finals.

In the morning, 42 riders contended with foggy, soft conditions during the men’s halfpipe semi-finals. Arthur Longo from France was the surprise first place qualifier for men’s halfpipe finals. His score beat out last year’s BEO halfpipe champion, Peetu Piiroinen (FIN), by less than a point. Arthur’s stand-out run included a Cab 720 mute grab, a frontside 900 tail grab and a backside 540 mute grab, finishing things off with a frontside 1080 tail grab.

Halfpipe super stars and fellow Olympians Peetu Piiroinen and Kazuhiro Kokubo (JPN) also made it into the men’s halfpipe finals with solid runs. Peetu put together a run that included a frontside 720 mute grab, a Cab double cork 1080 mute grab, lien air and backside 900 mute grab, ending things with an inverted frontside 540 indy grab. Three of the ten riders who made it into men’s halfpipe finals had worked their way up all the way from pre-qualifiers. Benji Farrow (USA), Scotty James (AUS) and Jan Scherrer (SUI) started out in a field of 100 riders, making their way through three rounds of competitions before earning a spot in the prestigious men’s BEO halfpipe finals.

By the time the women dropped into the slopestyle course for semi-finals, the weather had changed again with increased wind and colder temps, but better visibility. A total of 19 women faced the challenging weather conditions and competed for just six spots in the BEO slopestyle finals, which take place tomorrow. Jamie Anderson (USA) qualified first with nearly a 10 point lead over the other ladies, showing why she’s one of the best slopestyle riders out there. Jamie was able to put together a run that was super solid up top on the rail features followed by big and clean jumps that included a frontside 360 mute grab to a backside 360 and a straight air mute grab. Thirteen year-old Ty Walker (USA), who has won the BEO Junior slopestyle competition three years in a row, made it into the adult slopestyle finals today for the first time in her young career.

Just two days left of the 12th annual Burton European Open with slopestyle finals for women starting tomorrow morning followed by men’s slopestyle finals in the afternoon. Saturday is the grand finale of the BEO with men’s and women’s halfpipe finals taking place.

Don’t miss the LIVE webcast on www.metacafe.com and www.burton.com/events starting in the morning with women’s slopestyle finals.

2011 BEO Men’s Halfpipe Semi-Final Results
1 Arthur Longo FRA VOLCOM 89.80
2 Peetu Piiroinen FIN NIKE 6.0 89.00
3 Markus Malin FIN KISSMARK 88.70
4 Kazuhiro Kokubo JPN BURTON 87.85
5 Benji Farrow USA PACSUN 85.90
6 Iouri Podladtchikov SUI QUIKSILVER 85.15
7 Scotty James AUS RED BULL 82.75
8 Ilkka-Eemeli Laari FIN BATTERY DRINK 81.90
9 Markus Keller SUI NITRO 79.90
10 Jan Scherrer SUI NIKE6.0 79.60

2011 BEO Women’s Slopestyle Semi-Final Results
1 Jamie Anderson USA BILLABONG 83.50
2 Urska Pribosic SLO RIPCURL 74.67
3 Silje Norendal NOR NIKE6.0 72.00
4 Sina Candrian SUI BURTON 70.17
5 Jordie Karlinski USA NIKITA 67.67
6 Ty Walker USA ROXY 67.33