Markus on The Orange Open
The Orange Open Makes Quarterpipes Great Again!
A week ago in Riksgränsen the Gälka Warriors crew dug out a perfectly shaped quarter pipe in the infamous “Apelsinklyftan” (the orange gully in English), and thus brought the quarter pipe competition back to Sweden.
The quarter pipe itself was quite a mellow beast, measuring about 6m in height and 20m in length, with a step up to a “bowl” section on the far right. The latter was upgraded for the second s
ession with an extension in the form of a picnic table.
The first session started out on Sunday and everyone was hyped but a bit hesitant due to the fact that almost no one had ridden a quarter pipe in years and for some, or the majority, it was their first time. After a while people started sending it, working on hand plants or trying to beat Mr Terje Haakonsen in height. Terje did a perfectly executed nosebone to fakie, catching some 4m of air over the lip. Check out @chocorompe on instagram for an awesome pic shot by the talented Daniel Bernstål.
On Monday the time had come for the second and final session on the quarter pipe. The weather gods had blessed us with perfect weather conditions and the features looked mint. Although people were a bit sore from the previous day’s session and hiking, everyone started charging and trying out new tricks. Terje took out his snow skate han started doing tricks that most riders dream of doing on a snowboard.
The picnic table soon became one of my favorite things to hit and i tried to do as many tricks as possible and to be creative. Didn’t win any of the spot prizes but I had heaps of fun, although I took a lot of slams.
Some highlights of the day were Johan Nordhag’s chicken wing McTwist (@johannordhag), Abbe Hjellström’s one foot to fakie (@abbe_hj), Terje’s height and Len Roald Jørgensen’s creativity (@sirframeface). The ladies charged hard and Ylfa Rúnarsdóttir (@ylfarunars) sent sick handplants and McTwists, Julia Lundberg (@julialundb) went huge an Rebecca Bodin (@rebeccajbodin) did handplants in places handplants should be impossible. A special shout out to Tomas Johansson a.k.a. Tompi a.k.a. Knoddas who borrowed Terje’s snow skate and did an airwalk to fakie first try!
After a long day of hiking and shredding I tried to get a final trick and went for an alley-oop transfer from the high part of the quarter to the low part. But my legs were too tired and I didn’t get the airtime i needed and caught the lip of the lower quarterpipe and fell backwards on to my arm. (You can se a similar bail in the video.) The pain was instant and I thought that my arm was broken. But after I was taken care of by the medical team (thanks) and got checked up at the doctor’s office it was concluded that I only had suffered a sprained elbow.
Here’s a few tricks that I managed to put down, filmed by Jakob Dahlberg (@jdahlbergg). I can’t wait to see the official video from the event!
It was two days of pure snowboarding joy and I think everyone found a new love for quarter pipe riding.
The winners were announced at the bar Grönan and competition boss Jacob Söderqvist said that it’s way more fun with a lot of winners than only a few. So best handplant went to Markus Östman for a Fs invert to fakie. Best trick went to Abbe Hjellström for the sick one foot to fakie. Highest air and best tweak went to Terje Haakonsen. Female rider of the day was Ylfa Rúnarsdóttir and male rider of the day was Len Roald Jørgensen. But wait a minute, didn’t yours truly win anything? I sure did, I won price for sending it the hardest and I’m very proud.
Thanks to everyone involved for making quarter pipes great again!
/Markus