Source | December 11, 2009 | Permalink

Copper Mountain, CO—The world’s best riders are in town for the men’s qualification at the 2009 US Snowboarding Grand Prix in Copper Mountain, Colorado, and yesterday, two Canadian riders – Dustin Craven and Charles Reid - cracked the star-packed finals set to go on today. With 87 riders registered in the contest, an Olympic qualifier for Canada and the US, the stakes were high for most of the riders dropping in. Top American riders such as Shaun White, Louie Vito, Kevin Pearce, Mason Aguirre, Steven Fisher to name a few, along with World Champion Ryoh Aono of Japan, were in attendance hoping to qualify for the Finals. And the Americans didn’t disappoint, placing 11 riders in the Top 16 – the cut-off line for Final – including 8 riders in the Top 10. Canada had a total 12 riders dropping in the contest, both coming from the Canadian Snowboard Team program and the Open Qualification process. Canada’s Charles Reid (Mont-Tremblant, QC) and Dustin Craven (Banff, AB), two riders hoping to qualify through Canada’s Open Qualification process, finished in the Top 4 of their respective discipline to advance in the Finals, making significant steps towards cracking the 2010 Canadian Olympic Snowboard Team. Shaun White, the American snowboard megastar, won the qualifiers on the very last run of the day with a score of 49.5, receiving a unanimous 9.9 points per judge, a feat rarely seen in halfpipe contests. White notably landed back-to-back double-cork tricks, the new in-style trick within freestyle snowboarding. American counterpart Louie Vito, who recently appeared on the television series Dancing with the Stars, also landed the back-to-back double cork in his run to score 48.60 and sit in second position behind White. Craven wowed the crowd by scoring 44.5 points, qualifying in fifth position overall. Craven’s landed a Frontside 1080 to kick things off, then moved to Cab 720, Frontside 900, backside 900 and Japan Straight Air in his first of two runs. “It feels good. If feels like I might stand a chance to make the Olympic, and at the Olympics. Can’t be more happy than that,” added Craven, currently on Canada~Snowboard National Development Group. “This is such of a high calibre riding, and makes you push yourself. If you can do well here, you can do well at the Olympics, because there are some many more better Americans than anywhere else in the world.” Craven, a well-known figure in the industry, dropped his filmmaking focus temporarily in order to pursue the Olympic qualification. Charles Reid, currently in fifth place in the Swatch TTR Tour rankings, cleanly landed Frontside 1080, Cab 1080, Frontside Air, Backside 540 and then Backside 900 to qualify in 13th position. “I have been working on that run since I arrived last week in Colorado. I am happy for sure. It’s always good to know you made the Finals, especially in those events. I think it’s the best event for sure, it’s the Olympic qualifiers and all the Americans are here,” said Reid, who is riding for SnowboardFirm.com, a snowboard company located in the Quebec Laurentians. “It’s a great opportunity for me (to try to qualify for the Olympic team). Since I know I can qualify for the Olympics, I am doing more FIS contests instead of pro events. Making the Olympics would be amazing for me, it would be a dream. I think it’s great for the younger rider to know that they can still make the Olympics. Other Canadians on the National team were: Justin Lamoureux (31st, 36.60 points), Brad Martin (32nd, 36.20 points), Jeff Batchelor (36th, 34.90 points), and Derek Livingston (72nd, 19.30 points).