Words by: Cédric Dörig

Photos by: Oliver Maccabez

Welcome back to day two of the Freestyle.ch here in Zurich, Switzerland. Even the sun made the effort and showed up here on the Landiwiese. With the lake in the background and mild temperatures, the conditions were quite ideal for a beautiful day of competition. This is at least true for the spectators. Due to the slightly higher temperatures, the snow on the kicker has become a bit sluggish, so we will have to see what today’s starting riders will be able to achieve. But first, let’s look at who’s up:

Andri Ambühl, Switzerland

Elias Ambühl, Switzerland

Anders Backe, Norway

Xavier Bertoni, France

Philip Casabon, Canada

Paddy Graham, UK

Andreas Hatveit, Norway

Russel Henshaw, Australia

Thomas Hlawitschka, Germany

JF Houle, Canada

AJ Kemppainen, Finland

Thomas Kobel, Switzerland

Martin Misof, Austria

Colby West, USA

Elias, one of the youngest riders participating

So, which four of these fourteen riders will make it to the finals tomorrow? Before posting the results, we should at least look at what was to be seen here this afternoon.

Philip Casabon looks quite pleased with his performance

As expected, the kicker was difficult to ride this afternoon, mainly due to the fact that the snow had gotten more sluggish with the slightly higher temperatures. This resulted in several spectacular falls, one of which ended with Andreas Hatveit having to go to the hospital. We are happy to say that we saw him a few hours later, walking up to the riders’ hangout with his crutches. He even gave us an interview, which you will be able to see soon.

Andri Ambühl kicked of today’s qualification round

AJ Kemppainen’s first run

Thomas Kobel made us proud with a 5 reverse tail

On a more positive note, Colby West was able to please the crowd with a huge flatspin 5 japan. Martin Misof was also on top of his game today, with a switch backflip landed quite smoothly!