Flying into Calgary for the fourth annual Burton Canadian Open my mind danced around with a myriad of thoughts that didn't really touch on actual boarding. Thoughts were on strippers and partying, not the prize purse of $72 000 and the equal prize money for both men's and women's pipe and slope being $10 000. I tried to conjure up concepts of writing about how to make 850 points going towards a boarder's TTR ranking sound as enticing and exhilarating as watching the Superbowl this Sunday, but those musings were soon flicked aside after realizing some of the competitors were as young as 13 (like pipe rider Gabe Ferguson from Bend, Oregon) which in turn egged me on to text Craig Beaulieu. "Hey Craig," I texted, "Want to see how many underage boarders we can wrangle up and get into the strippers tonight?"

He was into it. Well, maybe not the underage partying part, but the part about ladies sans pantaloons. Beaulieu hadn't qualified into slope's semi finals, and needless to say, the best part about coming to COP is that if one doesn't make it through to the next round, the nightlife in cowtown can still be rewarding. The French Maid had a legacy of hype behind it's name, but it turned out it was shut down, which left Jon Versteeg, Graham Fleming, Molly Milligan, Beaulieu, and I wandering into the Boudoir, a classy establishment that used to be a Christian bookstore. Soon the peelers and days of qualifications for pipe and slope started to blend into one long hazy dream - nothing smelled worse than boarding all day - and the finals for pipe were upon us all.

Derek Livingston.

A chinook blew through Calgary, and temperatures rose from -30 to +10 in the week leading up to the Open at Canada's Olympic Park - a hill that is nothing more than just one big awesome snowboard park surrounded by hotels and fast food joints. Chinooks, according to case studies, cause people to lose their minds due to the drastic changes of temperature and high winds - they actually put extra staff on at psyche wards during these times. So what else would be more fitting than to have Dean and Terry of Fubar rock up and high kick their way through hosting the pipe finals? Riders were judged on their best of three runs by a panel of nine judges (two judges were assigned to one hit) while those two long-haired, Pilsner-chugging grease bags partied up and down the pipe, hung out with Harrison Gray as much as they could, smoked cigarettes, and tried to pick up chicks. Terry was found bragging that he was going to rip a sled up the middle of the pipe. It never happened.

Sarah Conrad.

For Canadian women, Alex Duckworth and Mercedes Nicoll just missed making qualifications into semi finals, yet out of the eight that did, Sarah Conrad made it through with seventh place. In the finals, Conrad finished fifth overall with a Backside 540 mute, Frontside 540 melon, Backside Air, Air to Fakie Japan, Switch Frontside Air, Switch Alley Oop 720. She also walked away $2500 richer thanks to the Mini Creative Use of Space Award for her Cab 720.

Queralt Castellet.

Unfortunately, Kelly Clark hit her head so hard and cracked her helmet during practice that she sat this one out. Ellery Holligsworth, who has a sweet penchant for Michaelchuks, took third place, while Gretchen Bleiler had Deaner and Terry screaming out, "Gretchen is fetching $5000," for second. Queralt Castellet threw down an impressive run her second time down the pipe: Front Nine to Backside 540 Mute, Frontside 720 Tail, Front 540, Backside Air to wrap up with a mind-blowing Front 1080. Castellet is the new up-and-comer. Why? This girl is known to drop in and throw down consistent back to back nines, and for her first time at the Canadian Open, first time in Calgary, she landed her first 10 - notably, Kelly Clarke threw down the first ten for a girl in the pipe recently at the 2012 X Games. Pronouncing Queralt's name was a bit difficult. I asked, "Like carrot?" "No," she said, smiling, "like Car-ralt," to which she further explained that her name is so completely unique that even in her homeland, fellow Spaniards have problems pronouncing it. "Although the pipe got hacked, was icy, slippery, and hard to land, the shape was really good," she said as she paused, perhaps a little amused that Deaner and Terry were shouting out, "Ondelay, ondelay," at her while waving a prize from Tourism Calgary: a white cowboy hat. "Calgary is such a nice city," she added with a huge grin, "when you are surrounded by a great environment, everything works out good."

Markus Malin.

Out of the top 16 men leading into the semi finals, four of them were Canucks: Derek Livingston, Brad Martin, Harrison Gray and Justin Lamoureux. Livingston was going huge and wrapped up fourth overall with a Frontside Air, Backside 900, Frontside 1080, Cab 720 to Front 900. According to Terry, the Finnish aren't afraid of ice: Markus Malin came second, throwing down Double Cork 10s in his run, while Janne Korpi came third, and also took the Mini Creative Use of Space Award for his Backside Ally Oop Rodeo 720 Nose. Ryo Aono qualified first for semis, and being that he won the New Zealand Open and podiumed third at the recent X Games he would be the one to watch for, and proved that he was by winning with a Cab 1080, Frontside 540, Backside 900 Tail, Frontside 1080 to Cab 720. "Last year Calgary was very, very cold," said Aono, "but this year the weather has been amazing and I was having so much fun." Since he was having his Japanese translated over to English and vice-versa by ex-halfpipe competitor Ryan Rausch, more thought-provoking questions were thrown at Aono, like, had he been partying at all? He claimed to have been and definitely would be tonight. When asking if there were hot girls in Calgary, he responded, "Every girl is beautiful." This left me wondering if he had a girlfriend, and then it dawned on me that perhaps I could convince him to come on our next peeler escapade. He replied that he had a lady friend, paused and added with a laugh that having one was not a problem. "Not a problem? Oh careful," I said completely amused, "this is going on the web." As for Queralt? She was last seen amongst a crowd of people partying at the base of the hill, high kicking it to the moon.

Janne Korpi.

Men's Pipe Finals:
1    Ryo Aono    JPN
2    Markus Malin    FIN
3    Janne Korpi    FIN
4    Derek Livingston    CAN
5    Scotty James    AUS
6    Tasuku Ishizaki    JPN
7    Jan Scherrer    SUI
8    Kyle Mack    USA
9    Harrison Gray    CAN
10    Hojun Kim    KOR
11    Brennen Swanson    USA
12    Brad Martin    CAN
13    Gabe Ferguson    USA
14    Joey Mensch    USA
15    Korath Wright    BAH
16    Justin Lamoureux    CAN

Women's Pipe Finals:
1    Queralt Castellet    ESP
2    Gretchen Bleiler    USA
3    Ellery Hollingsworth    USA
4    Cilka Sadar    SLO
5    Sarah Conrad    CAN
6    Hannah Teter    USA
7    Ursina Haller    SUI
8    Kelly Clark    USA

All photos: Jeff Patterson

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Related:
Cowboys At Night: The 2011 Burton Canadian Open
Burton Canadian Open: Slopestyle Finals (2010)
Burton Canadian Open: Halfpipe Finals (2010)