FREESTYLE SKI. Monster Energy Fridge festival went down in Budapest, Hungary on November 12, 2011. Elias Ambühl took his second victory here in as many years. The format was 3 jumps 2 must be different.

It was a spectacular event. 32 riders were on the start list to show their skills on the scary looking city ramp. The weather was a bit cold, so the snow on the ramp became icy, and the fans went to get some shots a bit too often, but we had nothing to complain about. There was a great circus, a big show yesterday. Fundamentally.

The venue was amazing, the closeness of the Heroes Square, the 2 museum buildings, and the Vajdahunyad Castle behind the ramp, gave the festival an amazing environment in the middle of the capitol of Hungary. By the finals, as more and more people approached the festival, a pretty decent crowd gathered around the ramp, giving a great atmosphere to the freeski event.

The festivals’ full capacity, with the ramp area, smaller stages, the partyarena, and the retail village was about 12,000 people, and it was full house yesterday.

From 15:00, more and more people started to gather around the landing zone, because the riders started their practice jumps. 1 hour later the qualification rounds began, and we already have seen some sick tricks. The crowd grown and grown, because it seemed even from far away, that something big is going down on the ramp. In the quali rounds, it was Kai Mahler, who qualified himself first with a dubcork 1260 with mutegrab. PK Hunder arrived on the second place with one of the last quali jumps, and Gus went through to the finals on the 3rd place. Almost everybody did dubcorks in the top 8, but the question was there still: are we going to see a 1440 spin? The answer arrived in the finals.

Qualification results
1. Kai Mahler, 87.25
2. PK Hunder 84.75
3. Gus Kenworthy 84.25
4. Ole Mustad 83.5
5. Klaus Finne 83.5
6. Jonas Hunziker 83.5
7. Elvis Harsheim 82.75
8. Elias Ambühl 82.5

Birdyman started to refresh the crowd right after the qualis. His crazy beatbox and DJ techniques really shook them up, so everybody was ready to see the best 8 skiers that night. With almost 10.000 people watching, Elias Ambühl was the first to kick off the finals with a nicely carried out dubcork 1260, which after several jumps did not seemed to be enough for the gold. Everybody went crazy there, with amazing styles and technical tricks. One of the sickest was Gus Kenworthy’s dubcork 1260 with tailgrab, and Klaus Finne’s dubcork, who entered for the contest in the last minutes. There were 3 tries for each rider, and the 2 best tricks counted. For the 2nd run, most of the riders have taken risk and went for very difficult tricks and grabs, so we have seen landing mistakes and several crashes, like Kai Mahler and Gus Kenworthy.

The most amazing thing was Elias, who answering our question, went for the dubcork 1440 with a mutegrab. The ramp was not the biggest ever, and he spinned like a helicopter, but he had not enough time to land, so he crashed a bit. It was time for the 3rd run, to correct these mistakes. It was breathtaking to see all the reckless faces on the big screen, standing on the the top of the ramp concentrating for their last jump. It was Elias who came first, setting the standard with a perfectly carried out dubcork 1440 with a mutegrab. The spin was that fast, that he could even open up a bit before the last spin, to concentrate on the landing, which was crazy solid. Like it has been a piece of cake. He got 91 pts for it, while the highest point was 87 so far. Everybody was crazy, the crowd was shouting, Luke Van Valin’s voice filled the air with laudatory words. All the riders tried to give their best, but nobody could go higher than Elias, who was the winner by far yesterday. He defended his title in Budapest, and was ready to kick off the party with the international riders and the local crew, Freeski Maffia.

Final results
1. Elias Ambühl, 182.5 pts
2. Kai Mahler 167.5 pts
3. PK Hunder 166 pts
4. Gus Kenworthy 160.5 pts
5. Klaus Finne 160 pts
6. Elvis Harsheim 151.8 pts
7. Jonas Hunziker 146.8 pts
8. Ole Mustad 113 pts
9. JF Houle 81.5 pts
10. PC Fosse 81.5 pts
11. Fridtjof Fredricsson 80.25 pts
12. Jeremy Pancras 79 pts
13. Antti Ollila 76.75 pts
14. Tom Wallish 76.5 pts
15. Sig Tveit 74 pts
16. Nico Vuignier 70.75 pts

downdays.eu
November 12th, 2011