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Davos, Switzerland– 28th December 2010: As the new year rolls in with a bang, so does the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour with two 6Star events set for the month of January. First up is the 6Star O’Neill Evolution set to rock the high mountain town of Davos, Switzerland from January 2nd to the 9th, 2011. Male and female riders from around the world will be making the trip to Davos to compete in both halfpipe and slopestyle formats for a piece of the $125,000 USD prize purse and a maximum of 1000 TTR World Ranking points. O’Neill Evolution is the first 6Star event on tour for the women and the second 6Star for the men, making it a crucial event for riders to bank some major TTR Ranking points. The event will also kick off a string of high profile competitions that will keep athletes busy up until the 2010/11 tour finale in March, the 6Star Burton US Open, where the TTR World Tour Champions will be crowned.

Top Riders on the TTR World Tour Getting Ready for O’Neill Evolution
Both the men’s and women’s riders lists feature some heavy hitters and will bring some interesting moves in the TTR World Tour Ranking. Belgian rider, Seppe Smits, has the opportunity to take over the tour lead and fellow young guns, Sebastien Toutant (CAN), Stale Sandbech (NOR) and Roope Tonteri (FIN) will all be competing for spots in the TTR Top 5. But, all these riders will need to deal with major threats, Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI) and Peetu Piiroinen (FIN), who will also be looking to advance their positions in the Tour Rankings. Podladtchikov has had his eyes on the top spot since the start of the season, “It’s kind of my plan to challenge Peetu one more time and hopefully not let him win that early. Peetu, watch out!” he said, back at the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open, bringing healthy competitive fire to the 2010/11 season.

In the women’s competition, young and motivated slopestyle extraordinaire, Enni Rukajärvi (FIN), will be defending her TTR tour lead against Swiss ripper Sina Candrian (SUI), who is a strong rider in both halfpipe and slopestyle. Kelly Clark (USA), who is a known halfpipe slayer, could move into the TTR Top 5 with a good result at the Evolution, but she will have to ride it out with Ursina Haller, another Swiss rider to watch out for in the halfpipe.

SLS – The New, Progressive Way of Judging
The O’Neill Evolution, along with all other 6Star TTR events featuring halfpipe and/or slopestyle, has adapted the new Snowboard Live Scoring (SLS) judging system for both formats. The SLS system is a transparent way for judging halfpipe and slopestyle allowing riders and spectators to clearly see how judges give points by scoring each trick individually in a rider’s run. Each trick score is added up to generate a total trick score, which is then combined with a total flow score (how well a rider links all tricks in the run) to make up the final score for a rider. The SLS system will also be integrated into the live webcast allowing viewers from around the globe to see the system in action.

Watch the Action Live
For those not fortunate enough to attend the 6Star O’Neill Evolution in Davos, the finals for halfpipe on Friday, January 7th, 14: 30- 15:30 (CET), and slopestyle finals on Saturday, January 8th, 20:30-21:30 (CET), can be viewed live via webcast on www.ttrworldtour.com or on www.oneill.com/evolution. During the same week as the O’Neill Evolution, the inaugural 4Star Relentless BIG AIR Stuttgart will be taking snowboarding to the city of Stuttgart in Germany on the 5-6th January 2011. And, the week immediately following the Evolution riders will be heading to the 6Star Burton European Open, scheduled for January 8th to 15th in Laax, Switzerland. Check out ttrworldtour.com for the latest news, photos and video from the Swatch TTR World Tour.