More than 40 teenagers from Bulgaria and other East European countries took in the Burton Amateur Tour, held in the mountain winter resort of Bansko on February 18.
The event was part of the Burton European Tour. It gave the young participants a chance to score points for the world snowboard ranking list Ticket To Ride (TTR).
The freestyle competition was judged by five independent professional referees from Bulgaria and Switzerland, members of the International Judges Commission.
Switzerland’s Erik Bellini, chief designer of the biggest fun park in Europe in the Laax winter resort, designed the track at the Bansko fun park especially for the competition.
Tim Kevin from Slovenia won first place in the category Kid Girls and Kid Boys under 16. Bulgaria’s Lozyo Dimitrov took the gold in the category Junior Boys aged 16 to 20.
In the girl’s category for the same age group, first prize went to Bulgarian Monika Borisova.
In the category for participants older than 20, the fun session category, the winners were Bulgaria’s Stanimira Karadocheva and Romania’s Kinda Geza.
The special prize for most outstanding snowboarder at the Burton Amateur Tour 2006/2007 was awarded to Lozyo Dimitrov.
The award was sponsored by Nikon, which is also the major sponsor of the event.
This was the second time the Burton Amateur Tour was held.
The main goal of the tour is to offer young amateur snowboarders a chance to gain experience and score points for the professional ranking list.
In this way, the Burton Amateur Tour wants to open the doors of the international professional sport to young unknown but skilful snowboarders.
This year’s event brought together 18 winter destinations, compared to the 10 resorts involved last year.
After Bansko the tour moves on to eight other places, the first being Wildhaus in Switzerland on February 25. Next are Bialka Tatrzanska (Poland, March 3), Milzkalns (Latvia, March 10), Kuutsemae (Estonia, March 17), Talma (Finland, March 24), Klappen (Sweden, March 31), Mayrhofen (Austria, April 7) and Hemsedal (Norway April, 21). For the competitions in Wildhaus and Mayrhofen, 80 riders have entered. This means that no more reservations may be made for these two competitions. The existing reservations will expire on the competition day at 9am, so there is still a chance to snatch one of the starting slots. The TTR World Snowboard Tour is the world’s largest collection of independent freestyle snowboarding events, developed to bring increased exposure and value to the sport of snowboarding by recognizing both rookies and pros. Being an annual tour it defines a clear path to the top echelons of professional freestyle snowboarding for both men and women.
