Photos courtesy of RedBull

Europe has seen an absolute glut of insane events this spring. Swatch Nines had the most insane snow features you could dream up, Buldoz Invitational, Jib League and more have all the vibes, but you could certainly argue nothing is quite as out there as the Unrailistic Invitational. And it's clever too. None of the other events mentioned really translates to an actual competition format that might make it to the mainstream, but Unrailistic does. So much so that it was broadcast by Sweden's main public broadcaster. Sure it's difficult to understand for the layman, but there were just enough traditional features... runs, judges, scores (hint hint XGames) that it made for a pretty crazy show. The full event will be published tomorrow on RedBull TV, hopefully with English subtitles, and it's a great watch. I'd definitely recommend watching the whole thing if you enjoy the best skiers on the planet crushing rails.

Crowd vibes were high

I'm not even going to try and break this one down run by run because even describing the features is tricky enough. The s to s to s rail and the gigantic rainbow probably stole the show, especially the former because it was right in front of the grandstand. And yes, there was even a solid crowd on the ground (hint hint FIS). There was also a trampoline (who ever thought they'd see Henrik tramp bounce in a comp run?) and a bunch of other crazy features. Most apparent of all though, were the vibes. There were smiles all around despite the crappy weather and relatively slow snow. Sure, it was still a contest and it's never going to be as chill as a week-long jam but it's clear enough that the riders enjoy doing something different, and that a bit more variety in regular comp courses could transform the sport side of the sport.

That is one tall rainbow...

The scoring had a nice twist to it too, with yesterday's best trick session giving bonus points towards the final scores. It didn't ultimately decide things but it's a fun idea and much like the courses, a bit of variation in scoring criteria could go a long way. The only downer was that the womens side of things was a bit of a washout, with only Kirsty Muir and Mathilde Gremaud fit to compete in finals. Hopefully we'll see more ladies on the start list next year.So what went down? Well, in short, madness. Barely a run went past without a jaw-dropping moment, from Hugo Burvall's 810s on and tips under 270s to the rainbow, to Jesper almost sending a double backflip onto the flat-down box.

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A couple of personal highlights include:

- Cody Laplante & Hunter Henderson taking their future children into their hands with 5050s on the rainbow rail. It's not that hard but fuck me, that would be terrifying.

- The UK's finest, Kirsty Muir, absolutely crushing it in the best trick jam. Doing the homeland proud that'n.

- Max Moffat ironically stomping a nollie 360 over the C-Rail at the bottom

- Emil Granbom is a straight psychopath. He sent a handrag dub 7 on the rainbow out of nowhere and somehow kinda landed despite going to flat.

- Oh and the winner... *spoiler alert*. The oldest man in the field, and for me, arguably the still greatest rail skier ever... Andreas Hatveit. He looked good on his first run but came in clutch on his second, putting down what was really the only properly top to bottom run of the day. 5050 360 out on the rainbow was subtly savage and he just stomped everything. Honestly, a hero at this point. Why did he retire again?

The winner in action

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Full replay (Red Bull TV):

https://www.redbull.com/int-en/videos/red-bull-unrailistic-2023-best-action

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Results:

Men:

1. Andreas Hatveit

2. Colby Stevnson

3. Evan McEachran

Women:

1. Mathilde Gremaud

2. Kirsty Muir