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Friday, 3 January 2003

All photos by Harry Angerer

On Saturday Dec 14th Seefeld hosted the 10th NOKIA Air&Style snowboard contest at the Casino Arena. David Benedek became the first German rider to win the famous Big Air competition.

For the third time now this legendary contest was held at the usually small and sleepy little village Seefeld not far from Innsbruck/Austria. But during the weekend of the contest Seefeld turns into a crazy party village with riders from all over the world, hungry for a great contest and wicked parties.

This year the Air&Style company around Andrew Hourmount brought the contest to a new level. Instead of only one straight jump, there was a whole run filled with an old VW beetle and different kickers, as well as rails, cornerpipes and walls. This allowed the riders to show more of their abilities, quite obviously to their liking.

Sixteen riders from all corners of the world presented a very powerful starter field (1,1,2, 4 through  qualification on Friday) and competed at a very high level, showing sick tricks and insane airtime. The most impressive jump of the day however, (which will be remembered in snowboarding history, no doubt about it) was performed by the Canadian Marc-André Tarte, who was the first rider ever to stomp a 1260 spin (1,1,2, two regarding style, two regarding technique, then the best two results counted. The best four riders were Shaun White (USA), Marc-André Tarte (CAN), Nicolas Müller (SUI), David Benedek (GER) and they advanced to the superfinals.

Even though the finals were dominated by Shaun White and Marc-André Tarte, the German David Benedek was able to impress the judges with perfect style, highest technical abilities and extraordinary performance throughout the super-finals and in the end was crowned the winner of the 10th NOKIA Air&Style.

Before the super-finals were held, they launched  a "best trick session" - the Ratiopharm Allstar Session. This allowed all the riders who had competed at the air&style within the last 9 years like Max Plötzeneder or Thomas Brunner, could prove that they're still going off, keeping the crowd happy.

The anniversary celebrations were completed by three live acts: Gluecifer from Norway, Fettes Brot from Germany and De La Soul from New York, who drove the 11,000 spectators wild and kept them hot inspite of the chilly temperatures at the Casino Arena in Seefeld.
After the contest there were parties and concerts all over the village and as usually the riders knew how to celebrate a good day and a good contest!

See more Air and Style Photos here

Results Qualification:

1 Shaun White USA
2 Marc-André Tarte CAN
3 Nicolas Müller  SUI
4 David Benedek GER
5 Joni Malmi FIN
6 Friedl Kolar AUT
7 Quentin Robbins NZE
8 Stefan Gimpl AUT
9 JP Solberg NOR
10 Ingemar Backman SWE
11 Jakob Wilhelmson SWE
12 Roger Hjelmstadstuen NOR
13 Marc Henault CAN
14 David Carrier-Pocheron CAN
15 Steve Gruber AUT
16 Darius Heristchian SUI

Results Superfinals:

1 David Benedek GER
2 Shaun White USA
3 Marc-André Tarte CAN
4 Nicolas Müller SUI