The third annual TTR 5Star Burton Canadian Open 2011 presented by MINI is geared up and ready to rock the Winsport Canada's Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta all this week. The snowboard competition officially kicks off with qualifiers on Tuesday, February 1st with halfpipe finals taking place Friday, February 4th and slopestyle finals going down on Saturday, February 5th. Riders will be going after a slice of the $50,000 USD prize purse and a maximum of 850 TTR ranking points. The competition season is moving quickly and the Canadian Open is a major stop for riders going after a top spot in the Swatch TTR World Tour rankings before the 6Star Burton US Open where the TTR Tour Champions will be crowned in March. With the 6Star Billabong Air & Style event happening the same weekend, many of the current TTR Top 10 male competitors are in Austria, but the Canadian Open rider list is still chock full of talent. Chas Guldemond (USA) will be in attendance and will be one to look out for on the slopestyle course. Chas has been making some major moves in the Swatch TTR rankings over the past month with a podium at the 6Star Burton European Open and will be looking to climb higher in the TTR Top 20. And, current TTR World No. 2, Christian Haller (SUI), has the opportunity to take the tour lead if he can nail down good results in both slopestyle and halfpipe. Christian has been having a stellar season so far with a first place in the halfpipe at the 5Star Burton New Zealand Open and he also took his first 6Star title of his career in the halfpipe at the O'Neill Evolution. On the women's side, the competition is going to be fierce with top talent in both halfpipe and slopestyle disciplines slated to attend. Kelly Clark (USA), current World No. 13, just landed the first-ever 1080 in a women's halfpipe competition last weekend at the XGames and will definitely be bringing her top game to Canada.
