November 2024, 11. "COWDAY STREET 23" was held at Kita-Mido (Hongan-ji Tsumura Betsuin) on Midosuji in Osaka (just 4 minutes by train from Umeda Station!). The preliminary rounds began at 2024:10, and by the time the finals came around, so many people had gathered around the venue that entry restrictions were put in place. Then, at 19:XNUMX p.m., the showdown began in front of a large crowd. First, we will bring you the tournament report as the first part.
Photo: itachan (COWDAY STREET 2024)
"COWDAY STREET 2024" was already attracting attention even before it took place, simply because the snowboarding event would be held in a uniquely Japanese location, a temple.
However, what caught our attention as a snowboarding media was the luxury of the riders who participated. In addition to Ogawa Ryoki, Toda Masato, Yoneno Shunji, Suzuki Fuyu, Aizawa Ryo, Nagasawa Sohi, and Takamori Himari, who mainly express themselves through filming on the street, technicians such as Kunitake Hiroaki, Ogihara Taito, Otsuka Ken, Yamada Yuto, Hamada Kaito, and Miyamura Yuto, who are focusing on world-class contests, and even big-name overseas riders such as Zeb Powell and Grace Warner, participated. Will they impress with their style, compete with difficult tricks, or excite the audience with their creativity? Just imagining what kind of battle will unfold made me feel my body heat up with excitement, in stark contrast to the chilly temperature.
Let me introduce the stage for the final battle here.
After climbing the stairs from Midosuji and going through the gate, you can see the special stage on the stairs leading to the main hall. Looking from below, there was a down-flat-down kinked rail on the left, and a flat-down rail on the right. Even watching the qualifying and public practice, the tricks looked quite easy to pull off, and it was easy to predict that the final would be a fierce trick battle.
First up was the ladies. Ishihara Haruna, known as Suika, started with a front-side board, followed by Grace Warner with a nose manual followed by a front-side 180 off. From there, there were a succession of spin-ins and spin-outs. Among them, Sakamoto Hinano, who had advanced from the preliminaries, stood out with her style that rivalled that of the men. As a result, her back-side lipslide and 270 off was selected as the best trick. And the best rider was Takamori Himari, who also appears in CAPITA's latest movie, "GLOW." She made a back-side boardslide tap-out and 270 off on a kink rail, and even did a front-side noseslide, and she really did it all with just the tip. At that moment, the venue erupted in thunderous cheers.
Next came the men's competition. Suddenly, "that guy" captured the hearts of the audience. Yes, it was the unpredictable Zeb Powell. He appeared on a 2m+ powder board, which he had never ridden in the public practice, and crashed into the Kink Rail.
The excitement in the venue rose in an instant, and from there, high-level tricks were performed one after another, including Miyamura Yuto, who had made BS450 on, boardslide, and 270 off in the qualifying round, Hamada Kaito's BS360 on, Ogihara Taito's BS270 on the flat part of the Kinkle rail, and Kunitake Hiroaki's board change combo where he turned the board on the rail. In addition, Ogawa Ryoki, who entered the rail with a butter BS1, and Toda Masato, who showed off a splendid tap-out from a BS lipslide, also captivated the audience with their style. Among them, the best trick was selected by Ichinose Kaito, who went from CAB180 on boardslide to regular stomp on a Kinkle rail. His tenacity in the downhill part of the second half was another dimension of board handling. The winner of this fierce battle was Ryo Aizawa, who showed off a series of impressive tricks, including a BS270 transfer from the lip of a flat down rail to the down part of the latter half of a kink rail, and a 270 on the outside. It was a truly spectacular victory.
＜＜ Results ＞＞
Men's_BEST RIDER
Ryo Aizawa
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Women's_BEST RIDER
Aoi Takamori
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Men's_BEST TRICK
Kaito Ichinose
(CAB270 ON BOARDSLIDE @DOWN-FLAT-DOWN RAIL)
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Women's_BEST TRICK
Sakamoto Hinano
(BS LIPSLIDE 270 OFF @FLAT-DOWN RAIL)
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"COWDAY STREET 2024" was held at a temple in the heart of Osaka. It ended with great success, with a total of over 4,000 visitors. This time, we only reported on the competition, but in the near future, we will be delivering a second part of the article looking back on the event, based on the voices of various riders, judges, photographers, and key people involved in the event.
The second part ishere
If you missed it, you can watch the live footage from that day by clicking the link below!
- Men's qualifying
- https://youtube.com/live/1UfHGThBMhs
- Men's and women's finals
- https://youtube.com/live/GNy3q-NL11c
COWDAY OfficialInstagram account
