Burn Rail Session @ Billabong Air&Style 2011

On Friday 4th February in the heart of Innsbruck, the 'Burn Rail Session' threw it down in Austira to kick off the Billabong Air&Style weekend. A huge crowd of spectators and media showed for this innovative jam format event feat 15 of Europe's most talented rail riders.

The assembled talent was impressive: Austrian riders were joined by rail specialists from Germany, Sweden, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and the UK, including our five wildcard Burn Raill Session winners selected via our Rail Session comp (see their winning videos here).

The setup was simple but challenging: two 8m-long rails, one a classic down rail and the other with a kink at the bottom, allowing the riders to show their most technical and stylish tricks without taking too easy, as the occasional bone-shaking bail proved.

True to our ethos that snowboarding is more about pushing personal limits than competing, the format was simple too: no winners, no losers, just a big pile of cash in €50's and €20's shelled out for any trick that made the crowd go mental.

Pumped up by hundreds of screaming fans and hosts Henry Jackson and Jon Weaver, the session kicked off; as the riders got both rails dialled in the tricks just kept getting better and better. The progression of rail riding is seriously fast and hot, with technical tricks getting ever more difficult and style tricks getting smoother.

The standout style riders of the night had to be Englishman Jonny Russel and Swedish Burn riders Rolf Nylinder & Viktor Wikberg who kept it classy with butter-smooth nose & tail presses and bs tailslides. In the tech department it was an eastern onslaught, as Poland's Wojtek Pawlusiak span in, out and through the kinked rail in every direction, while Slovenian Nejc Ferjan did the same on the straight rail, one highlight being his fs bluntslide to bs board Danish.

As for the overall 'killing it' category, Germany's Benny Urban and local hero Steve Grumser were on fire all night, combining style with technicality and consistency - building up the biggest stack of banknotes in the process. Last but not least, Croatian Ana Rumiha, winner of last month's Sista Session Burn Rail Jam and the only female in the event, showed the crowd that girls can rip rails with just as much gnar as the boys.

Once the money was totaled, it was time to switch to the main stage for the traditional Air & Style Rider Draw, where the riders find out who they are up against in Saturday's huge head-to-head showdown. The evening didn't stop there, as Austrian Rap masters Blumentopf added fuel to the fire.

meanwhile over at the nearby Orangerie, Burn Unit riders Gigi Rüf, Arthur Longo, Giorgio Ciancaleoni and Marco Grigis arrived in style in the Burn Lamborghini for the Official Burn Pre-Party.

Check out our mini-interviews with Gigi and the other burn riders here.