Saturday is the final day of competition, with the Halfpipe semi-finals and finals. Since New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of us, the event will begin this evening at 7pm Eastern Time. You can watch the event live at www.Go211.com.
The contest has attracted a multitude of top riders, with the rider's list reading like a who's who of the snowboarding world. Bellefontaine's own Louie Vito will be representing the United States and is one of the favorites to podium in this event. Louie will have his hands as fellow Olympians Iouri Podladtchikov aka Ipod (SUI), Kazuhiro Kokubo (JPN) and Ryo Aono (JPN) will make this early season contest fun to watch. The Burton NZ Open marks the first stop on the prestigious Burton Global Open Series and is also a Five Star event on the Swatch T.T.R. World Snowboard Tour.
As in past years, the Burton NZ Open will be webcast live this evening at 7pm on www.go211.com with live scoring, live chat, email the commentators, and real-time ranking among other features. In addition, the New Zealand Open will offer a live scoring service, accessible with any mobile phone or web browser. For iPhone users, a native iPhone app is available on the App Store free of charge.