With clear domination and outstanding performance in the super final, Elias Elhardt (GER) won the 5Star Relentless BIGAIR Stuttgart presented by QUIKSILVER. Victor de le Rue (FRA) grabbed second place with the best combination of style and tech runs. Third place went to current TTR Big Air World Tour leader Roope Tonteri (FIN).

With wind and snow issues in the morning, the contest had a rocky start. Hurricane Joachim created quite a stir, canceling Friday's training session and causing the organization to seal off the event site. The crew was challenged to prepare ideal conditions for today's competition, but as the winds calmed today the contest took off and presented some top notch snowboarding to the 6000 spectators.

“It's obviously super cool to win in your home country, the crowd went wild. It's both the first and last contest for me this season, as I will concentrate on filming. Therefore it couldn't have been a better day,” says favorite Elias Elhardt, who won the contest with his Frontside 360 Stalefish - Frontside Boardslide run for style, and  a Frontside 900 Melon - 270 Frontside Boardslide on his technical run. With these two runs combined, Elias had the highest score in the super final.

With another 5Star TTR Big Air contest wrapped up, Roope Tonteri is still solidly leading the TTR Big Air World Tour Ranking. German Ethan Morgan moved up into the Big Air second place. There were no changes in the Overall ranking results, Roope Tonteri is still ranked 3rd. Quiksilver rider Markku Koski (FIN) was ranked 9th, the Austrian talent Mathias Weissenbacher made it to rank 11, and team fellow Felix Georgii from Rettenberg/Germany took rank 22.

In anticipation of the World Snowboarding Championships from 10-19 of February in Oslo, Norway, riders have another few chances in the last days of 2011 to qualify for the Halfpipe and Slopestyle disciplines. 4Star Events US Revolution Tour and the Burton Pro-Test give opportunities in the USA. The O'Neill Evolution, from 2-8 January in Davos (SUI) features a 5Star Halfpipe and 6Star Big Air contest. The 6Star Big Air for men and women will count as a Slopestyle result for WSC qualification. The RedBull Nanshan Open in China is the next 5Star Slopestyle opportunity. WSF 1-3Star events also count for the TTR Points lists.

In January Stuttgart had already been blessed once. With the “Relentless BIGAIR Stuttgart” event coming to town, a top-class international snowboard comp had its inauguration. And despite not being known as the Mecca of winter sports, the Stuttgart event was a raving success – to more than 10.000 visitors and to the World Snowboard Tour committee (TTR), who upgraded the contest shortly after its premiere from a formerly 4-star to a 5-star TTR event, thus, propelling it to one of the world's most prestigious in snowboarding. Now the event is making its come-back as “Relentless BIGAIR Stuttgart presented by Quiksilver”: On December 16th and 17th 2011 the international snowboard scene's best riders will gather at Stuttgart's Neckarpark and go head-to- head for a total of 50.000 US-Dollars prize money, 850 TTR-world cup points and – for the first time – a ticket to the Oslo 2012 World Snowboarding Championships.

The riders line-up for the second round of “Relentless BIGAIR Stuttgart presented by Quiksilver” promises a competition on the highest level. The actual number one in TTR's world tour ranking, Finn Roope Tonteri, is taking part, as well as his fellow countrymen, sixth in the Olympics and Quiksilver team rider, Markku Koski. Also attending: Quiksilver team-mate and Austrian Master in Halfpipe & Slopestyle Mathias Weissenbacher, Janni Korpi, who managed to win “Relentless Freeze” last week in London, Swedes Nils Arvidsson and Kevin Backstrom, Mario Käppeli from Switzerland, and highly acclaimed crowd pleaser and last Relentless BIGAIR Stuttgart's second placed rider, Austrian Werni Stock.

For more information, go to: www.bigair-stuttgart.com

Quiksilver's Tony Hawk, the greatest skateboarder of all time, tonight made an astonishing performance in Mumbai for the first skateboard event ever organized in India. In front of almost 5000 spectators massed at Dhirubhai Ambani International School Grounds. Tony Hawk, along with his friends Kevin Staab, Andy MacDonald, Sam Bosworth and young prodigy Mitchie Brusco, surpassed themselves to entertain the massive and enthusiastic crowd packed up around one of the world's biggest portable vert ramp especially built up for the show by Quiksilver.

Tony & friends all displayed their best manoeuvres to the sound of UK deck star Scott Nixon : airs and lip tricks in both old school and modern styles. The 8 time skateboarding world champion and 21 X Games medals owner, Andy MacDonald, threw massive his 360 backside boneless and fx rodeo lean and achieved several doubles along with Tony.
On his side, the birdman nailed perfect 720  and a mc twist over the 10 feet channel. He also made several spectacular attempts for a 900°, supported by the huge crowd shouting his name.

Tony Hawk : "With thousands of kids watching at us today, I was wondering this event would maybe change the life of some of them. I deeply hope that skateboarding will grow in India. When I see the energy and desire of all these children, I imagine that maybe, in a few years, one of them will become one of the best skateboards in the world."
"It's insane to think that every single manoeuvre you land is the fist ever achieved on the Indian soil. It's really a huge motivation. The Indian peoples craze really pushed me to do my best. I tried to land the 900° many times but unfortunately I could not make it. It's a good reason to come back here !"

This amazing demo showcasing Tony Hawk, the most recognized action-sports figure in the world, also gave Quiksilver an extraordinary opportunity to celebrate the launch of the brand in India and the recent openings of the first 3 stores in the country in a 5 months period.

(photo: KevinMetallier)