THE EUROPEAN PEANUT BUTTER AND RAIL JAM FINALS 2009 24/04/2009 This Saturday, the 3rd annual European PBRJ final took place in Les Diablerets, home resort of long time Volcom team rider Tonton Holland. Following the successes from the previous years in Grindelwald and Hoch Ybrig, we saw no point in leaving the land of cowbells, chocolate, cheese and watches. With all the riders from across Europe that had qualified for the finals, along with a few wild cards, the rider list added up to more than 90 competitors in total. Up on the Glacier 3000, the riding level was insane, and yet again up a notch. With DJ Snöber Billy functioning as “record player player” aka DJ, the sounds were better than at any previous PBRJ. Thanks Billy! Highlights from the comp were too many to even attempt to mention. A trend definitely worthy of mention though is that more and more girls seem to be switching not just to tighter pants, but TIGHT snowboarding pants. Hallelujah let’s hope it sticks around… And now, for the some of the riding highlights: - Anal Thunder from Finland giving all the baggy pants kids shit for blocking his in run with their XXXXL size clothing, then dropping & gapping over the kink, 1-foot fs boardslide over the flat down rail and later a fs board double nosebgrab while sipping Jack straight from the bottle before every hit. Simppis Gap To Fs Board - Jon Weaver’s meticulous mc’ing. - Marc “Freedom” Swoboda’s Cab 270 to fs board hop over to blunt 270 off (You get that kiddo?) with which he won the Electric Gooeyest move of the day, and a fs blunt 270 to 5-0 on the down rail. Marc Swoboda Fs Board - A Swedish girl (Number 16) fs’ 180 the hard way to switch bs 50-50 on the down rail. - Anouk, the Girl winner’s nose press on the flat to down box transfer and nosepress bs 180 on the downrail. - Dominik Wagner’s 50-50 bs 1 to switch 50-50 to sex change 180 on the down rail. - Mattias “Magoon” Nordby nosetap on to switch back lip hard way revert pretzel 270 off . - Lucas Baume, the junior winner and his step up step down to rail and fs lipslide 270 on the downrail and nosepress bs 180 on the downrail. - Cees Wille from Holland tried a bs 1 the hard way (that’s the opposite of the easy way kids) sw bs 3 out. And he almost landed it/. While all this was happening, Fredo and his Swiss Gourmet Chef crew were serving delicious sausages, drinks hot and cold and all sorts of Swiss candies and chocolates. IN the end, the snow cleared, revealing some surprise sunburns and the following names on the top of the result list: Division 16 + 1. Marc Swoboda 2. Dominik Wagner 3. Mathias Nordby 3. Florian Galler 5. Tom Guilmard Division 15 – 1.Lucas Baume 2.Sami Luhtanen 3.Adne Boe 4.Felix Cadiou Girls: 1. Anouck Grau 2. Helen Nadig 3. Beth Climent 4. Dina Treland Simppis Gap To FsBoard Then, at night, it was off to party at the Demonium House at Chalet Budokan. An indoor mini ramp, free drinks all nite, good times it was. Thanks to: Les Sources Hostellerie, MC Jon Weaver, Chalet Budokan, our judges Kari Opsal, Gary Manlove Drunkshields, Cheryl Maas, and Marc Swoboda, Glacier 3000, all the shapers for the sick setup, all the helpers on and hill, media, all the riders and everyone that came to watch the comp… A very special thanks to our friends at the industry for supporting with sick prizes: Nitro , Vans, Electric , Nixon , and thanks to Red Bull for the drinks. Uf Wiederluege! See u next year! -JP