Super Oksanen

Finland's Jussi Oksanen claimed 1st place and 20G after putting down three beautiful, flawless runs, which included a couple super corky 7s (that's just a super big corkscrew 720) and a fat backside 7 to a Haakonflip for the win. But even after his first run, Oksanen, who won the big air at the US Open in March, was already feeling like a winner.

"This is so crazy - these are the people I watched in movies. They are my heroes, and now I'm competing against them," he said, with a huge grin.

"He's one of the coolest, down to earth snowboarders there is," 2nd place finisher Kevin Jones said of Oksanen. "A lot of other people loose track of what's going on. I've been watching him come up through the field and pass the field."

"I fell on everything, but stylish falling can get you a long way..."— Kevin Jones

Jones will take home $10,000 for his efforts, although he wasn't overly pleased with his final stab at the course.

"I fell on everything, but stylish falling can get you a long way," he said.

And style is what the judges - broken up into two groups, one near the start gate and one at the finish - were looking for. Judging is based on the technical merits of each trick, but also on the amount of flair and style the rider adds to each run. It's a true expression session.

Sweden's Jacob Soderqvist had plenty to express. He took 3rd in the contest, and 1st in the smiley category. He couldn't stop smiling, but why should he? He wasn't even on the original invite list. He slipped into Jimmy Halopoff's vacant spot. Plus, his girlfriend was there. Her name's Elin and she's just the cutest. Soderqvist better spend some of his $6,000 on her.

Speaking of cute, the women's triumvirate at the finish line - Tara Dakides, 1st, Janna Meyen, 2nd, and Jaime MacLeod, 3rd - was all about sisterly love. Makes the heart warm. You couldn't even talk to one of them without the other two chiming in with "she's so good, she's just going off lately."

	Dakides

"I didn't have any real strategy," said Dakides, "Just to not fall. I try to do all the tricks I know I can land."

Meyen took a few more risks for 2nd. "I grabbed method on my fakie 3. I never grab method on my fakie 3! I've learned a trick in a contest."

Meyen is taking $6,000 home, while MacLeod gets $3,000 and Dakides takes the women's cake, with a $10,000 prize.

And so, with this, the World Snowboarding Championship Sims Invitation has begun. This contest might sound new, but it's actually been resurrected (there's God again) by Tom Sims, who was at the seminal World Snowboarding Championships back in 1983, held in Soda Springs, near Lake Tahoe, California.

Back then, Terry Kidwell, Craig Kelly and Shaun Palmer showed up and schooled the nay-sayers who thought this crazy sport was just a silly fad. In creating this event at Whistler, Tom Sims wanted to revive that sense of freshness and excitement. So he put the word out to the world's best riders. And most of them showed up.

Keep checking back. The halfpipe - I mean, superpipe - happens Saturday, followed by a super big air at night. It'll be super-duper.

— Mary Catherine O'Connor, Superspectating for MountainZone.com