With a unique set up and format, this event saw riders from 7 nations competing in a very difficult slopestyle consisting of halfpipe, kinked box and a 15m final jump, in order to allow patecipants to express all their freestyle skills.

Bad weather with snowfalls, clouds and very low temperatures signs the training and qualification days. But the final day saw a blue sky with perfect conditions of snow. Riders from Slovenia, Czech Republic, Island, Norway, Finland, Italy, Poland and Slovakia landed in Spindleruv Mlyn to compete for the last 3 wild card avaible for the upcoming World Rookie Finals 2010 to be held in Ischgl, Austria, from 7 to 11 april 2010.

With 2 qualification runs and 3 final runs, many riders had the opportunity to get the attention of all media and industries rapresentatives: finnish shredders Vesa Makarainen and Henri Laakkonen, rising italian star Marco Grigis as well as the local young hero Martin Mikyska and the Czech twins Daniel and Ondrej Porkert. Among the girls big up for Kristina Nisula from Finland with huge bs3 on the big jump as well as the unknow slovakian Klaudia Medlova with perfect bsrodeo5 on the 10m jumps.

In finals the level increased. Henri Laakkonen took the first place in the rookie section with huge fs7 in pipe and fs9 on the kicker. Italian Marco Grigis got second followed by Czech Martin Mikyska. Jakub Cral won the grom girl section while Kristina Nisula resulted the best girl of the event and took the last “all inclusive” ticket to the rookie finals in Austria.

Protest East Rookie Fest ranks

Rookie Girls (rank-bib-surname-name-nat)

1 29 R NISULA KRISTINA FIN
2 25 G SVITIALA SILJA FIN
3 10 R MEDLOVA KLAUDIA SVK

Grom Girls (rank-bib-surname-name-nat)

1 17 G AUGUSTINOVA DIANA CZE
2 38 R VOJACKOVA KATERINA CZE

Boys Rookie (rank-bib-surname-name-nat)

1 27 R LAAKKONEN HENRI FIN
2 9 G GRIGIS MARCO ITA
3 11 R MIKYSKA MARTIN CZE

Boys Grom (rank-bib-surname-name-nat)

1 26 G KRAL JAKUB CZE
2 37 R PORKERT ONDREJ CZE
3 24 R HAGEN OLE NOR

Don't miss the upcoming Protest World Rookie Finals in Ischgl, Austria, from 7 to 11 april 2010. The 4Star Swatch TTR Slopestyle that will nominte the World Rookie Champion and will assign incredible prizes: a video shooting with Pirate Movie Production, a ticket to Air&Style 2010 Rookie Challenge, a photo shooting with Onboard Europe and an all inclusive trip to Chile for a filming freeride trip with RedBull international pros. All events and the list of the pre-qualified riders to this event will be avaible from next week.

Picture by Premek Vida

Next International Rookie Fest Stops 2009.10

Protest World Rookie Finals - Ischgl, Austria - 4Star – 7.11 april 2010

Summer Rookie Camp – Val Senales, Italy – 3-10 july 2010 – www.rookiecamp.eu

Freeride Rookie Fest - Valle Nevado, Chile - 2Star - august 2010

In addition to these, the Oceania Rookie Fest in Australia is next to be confirmed for summer 2010. Many local rookie stops 1Star will be organized by WSF National Snowboard Association all over (check www.worldsnowboardfederation.org for complete calendar)