The Burton Global Open Series announced dates for its 2008/2009 international snowboard competition series, which will kick off in New Zealand this summer. Below are final dates and locations for all 2008/2009 Burton Global Open Series competitions.

Burton New Zealand Open
July 29 – August 2, 2008
Snow Park, New Zealand

Burton Australian Open
Sept 2 – 6, 2008
Perisher Blue, Australia

Burton Canadian Open
December 1 – 7, 2008
CODA’s Canada Olympic Park

Burton European Open
January 9 – 16, 2009
Laax, Switzerland

Nissan X-Trail Nippon Open
February 24 – March 1, 2009
ALTS Bandai, Japan

Burton US Open
March 16 – 22, 2009
Stratton Mountain, USA

The all new BGOS website is launching this week and will include new features such as rider profile pages featuring rider snapshots, bios, current BGOS standings and event results per rider. Riders can now register for both the New Zealand Open and Australian Open, visit opensnowboarding.com to check out the new site and for more information about both of these events.

“Heading into our third year of the Series, we’ve got some great momentum,” said Liam Griffin, Director of Events and Entertainment for Burton. “It has been amazing to watch the level of riding at the Opens around the world increase over the past few seasons. All the riders are really pushing the sport to new heights and we’re really looking forward to seeing what this next year of competition brings.”

With events scheduled year-round and in six countries, the Burton Global Open Series boasts the most lucrative cumulative prize purse in snowboarding. All six Burton Global Open Series events offer riders the chance to earn points towards a male and female championship title, each worth $100,000, currently the largest single payout in snowboarding.

Last season’s BGOS series championship title was a nail-biter with four women and six men all in the running for the $100,000 payout and series championship title at the US Open, the final BGOS competition of the season. Only a handful of points separated the top runners for the title, proving that competing and earning points at all six BGOS events can make the difference between winning the $100,000 or giving it up.

Finland’s Peetu Piiroinen and top Australian snowboarder Torah Bright had to work hard to take home the 2008 Burton Global Open Championship titles last March at the US Open Snowboarding Championships held at Stratton Mountain in Vermont.

Peetu said, “I never thought I had a chance to win the BGOS title.” Riders are encouraged to attend all of the BGOS events in order to maximize their points towards the overall title.

Last season’s Burton Global Open Series champion Torah Bright had this to say about her second BGOS title and $100,000 title win, “I had tears coming down under my goggles. I just couldn’t believe that I could win the title twice. I’m really very happy.”

The Burton Global Open Series is also part of the Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour, the largest group of independent freestyle snowboard events in the world. TTR ranks riders based on their results at participating competitions and crowns a TTR World Champion at the US Open.

Go211.com is the official webcaster of the BGOS and home to live scoring, standings, rider bios and more for each Burton Global Open Series stop.

Check out Go211.com for more information.
For more information on the Burton Global Open Series head to www.opensnowboarding.com
For more information on TTR, visit www.ttrworldtour.com

Current Rankings Top 10 Men 1. Chas Guldemond 535.51 2. Janne Korpi 457.63 3. Charles Reid 437.44 4. Luke Mitrani 433.45 5. Stephan Maurer 396.25 6. Torstein Horgmo 378.00 7. Markus Malin 341.03 8. Chris Sörman 328.82 9. Mason Aguirre 324.53 10. Kevin Pearce 303.47 Top 5 Women 1. Jamie Anderson 587.08 2. Lauren Staveley 296.82 3. Michaela Davis-Meehan 295.45 4. Kara Rennie 282.27 5. Sina Candrian 271.57