PERISHER VALLEY, Australia (August 22, 2007) – The second stop of the 07/08 Burton Global Open Series takes place this week with the Garnier Fructis Australian Open at Perisher Blue. Friday’s slopestyle competition and Saturday’s halfpipe event will draw top international riders like Kelly Clark, Elena Hight, Torstein Horgmo, Kazu Kokubo, winner of the New Zealand Open (NZO) men’s slopestyle Mason Aguirre, winner of the NZO women’s slopestyle Jenny Jones, winner of the NZO halfpipe Mitch Brown and hometown hero and women’s NZO halfpipe champion Torah Bright to compete against over 165 riders from 14 different countries.

The Garnier Fructis Australian Open is the second event of the Burton Global Open Series, which features competitions in New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland, Japan and USA and awards the largest cumulative prize purse in competitive snowboarding today. The event is also part of the international Ticket to Ride Series (TTR). TTR ranks riders based on their results at participating competitions and crowns a TTR World Champion at the US Open. Kelly Clark and Scotty Lago, the current TTR leaders, are both slated to compete this weekend at the AUSO.

International Riders
Over 150 competitors from 14 countries: Australia (78), Austria (2), Canada (19), Finland (2), Great Britain (1), Germany (2), Japan (6), Norway (2), New Zealand (7), Poland (2), Russia (1), Sweden (2), Switzerland (2), USA (39). The youngest competitor is 11 year-old Taylor Watling AKA “Mini-Shred” from Canada. The oldest competitor is 61 year-old Dick Schultz from Truckee, CA. Both are competing in men’s halfpipe.

Big Prize Money
Competitors are competing for a share of the AUD$70,000 prize pool plus a chance to compete for US$100,000 as overall Burton Global Open Series winners, last year won by Torah Bright (AUS) and Shaun White (USA).

Massive Pipe and Park
Perisher Blue is home to Australia’s only Superpipe. A massive 9000 cubic meters of snow is required to build the Superpipe, which is created over 10 days. The pipe is just over 5m deep, 125m long and 17m wide. The slopestyle course starts with a down bar, followed a 2m gap on to 9m box, gap to 9m down rail, 4 jumps increase in size (10, 13, 16, 20m) throughout the run that ends with 2 C-boxes. Slopestyle finals are on Friday, halfpipe finals are on Saturday, come down and see the action.

For more information on the Garnier Fructis Australian Open head to www.opensnowboarding.com

About the Burton Global Open Series
The Burton Global Open Series events are the pinnacle snowboarding events of the season. Founded by Jake Burton, the Opens have grown from grassroots events to global spectacles attracting tens of thousands of spectators and riders from around the world. Since the beginning, the Opens have been driven by riders, for riders evolving with snowboarding and riders’ needs over the years. With events held in Canada, Europe, Japan, the United States, New Zealand and Australia, the Opens set the standard for snowboarding events around the globe. For more information, visit opensnowboarding.com.

The Burton Global Open Series is part of the Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour, the largest group of independent freestyle snowboard events in the world. TTR ranks riders based on their results at participating competitions and crowns a TTR World Champion at the US Open. For more information, visit www.ttrworldtour.