The Saturday night Paul Mitchell Expression Session went down in fine fashion. It looked like a fun set up once the riders started going. At first it looked a little suspect; not really a jump or a ledge, who would be ride it well? Everyone went off it fine though and seemed to have good flow and the session was on. If there ever was this kind of a set up in a city, like gap to roof to 20 foot drop off, somewhere it would have been on the cover of Transworld or Snowboarder like 5 times by nbow. Combos like 180 across the first gap to 360's, 540's and inverted tricks seemed to impress the judgesmost. Don't think anyone made a 900, not sure though but a few 7's did go down off the big ass gap. A good mix of veterans and newbies went at it and the crowd was stoked. The format was simply a 50 minute jam with 22 men and 3 women, which got whittled down to a 5 man, 3 woman final.
The course; gap to flat to big gap drop (with no lip, just a drop) to a flat rail down below. You would not want to make a mistake and fall off that platform and luckily, no one did
Eric Willet with a 5
Chas Guldemond – back rodeo 5. Techinically Chas made this "after the buzzer" - it was his 4th trick of the 3 trick final so it did not count. Actually, a few of the finalists made more than 3 runs.
Chas
Colleen Quigley going for the drop via a 180
Gjermund Braten rolls into second place
Chelone Miller
Johnnie Paxon on the rail
Louif Paradis cab to front board
Johnnie Paxon – cab 7, think this was Paxon's 5th trick of the 3 trick final so it did not count either
Gabi Vitteri – back 180
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Women's podium, l-r, Gabi Viterri, Hana Beaman and Colleen Quigley
Men's podium, l-r, Johnnie Paxon, Jordan Phillips and Gjermund Braten
Event winner Jordan Phillips - sequence
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Results
Men
1 Jordan Phillips $5,000 2 Gjermund Braten $2,500 3 Johnny Paxon $1,300
Women
1 Hana Beaman $700 2 Colleen Quigley $500 3 Gabi Viterri $500