Joonsik Lee & Ruki Tomita are the new 2019 World Rookie Tour Halfpipe Boy & Girl Champions!

The competition began early in the morning with heat one made of rookie and grom girls. Ruki Tomita from Japan won the prestigious title of Halfpipe World Rookie Girl Champion thanks to her run composed by technical and creative tricks: frontside air indy, backside 540 mute, frontside 720 indy, cab 720 indy, backside 540 mute. Ruki was followed by Leilani Ettel (GER) and Berenice Wicki (SUI).

"First time here and take my best to show. Then Win!!" said Ruki, showing her happiness. Ruki also gained the prestigious Golden Ticket for next season World Rookie Tour stops, a spot for next season FIS World Cups and many other goodies from Nitro, Level, Boardriding, TSF and Union.

In the grom girls category, Mitsuki Ono from Japan conquered the highest spot of the podium and showed an amazing run: backside air, frontside 720 indy, cab 720, frontside 540 Melon. Isabelle Lotscher (SUI) won the second place and Telma Sarkipaju (FIN) the third one.

Regarding the rookie boys category, also this year the level of the competition was vey high and judges could already see the future stars of snowboarding. At the end of the day the Black Yeti crowned the new Halfpipe Rookie Boy Champion: Joonsik Lee. The South Korean impressed the public with his unique style and showed everybody a huge frontisde 1260 tailgrab, crippler 540, frontside 1080 melon, cab double 1080 indy. The podium was completed by Raio Kuchisubo (JPN) and Elias Gian Allenspach (SUI). Raio will join a Rookie Shooting in Les 2 Alpes together with Leilani Ettel (GER).

"Hi, I am Joonsik from South Korea, I got first place and got invite from New Zealand World Rookie Tour. I am really happy to come here and win. Thank you World Rookie Tour", said Joonsik, who is arleady dreaming about his next trip to Chile organized by the World Rookie Tour. Joonsik will also take part in next season FIS World Cup together with Ruki Tomita.

Shuichiro Shigeno (JPN) gained the highest score and dominated the grom boys category. He performed a perfect run made of frontside 1080 tailgrab, cab 1080 mute, frontside 1260 tailgrab, backside 960. Valentino Guseli from Australia arrived second and Jonas Hasler from Switzerland third.

This amazing day concluded with the workshop Viva con Agua, a charity based organisation campaigning for clean drinking water worldwide.

Good job riders and congratulations to all the winners!! Thank you to all the sponsors who provided beautiful prizes for the winners: SurfToLive, Level Gloves, Nitro Snowboards, Union Bindings, TSG and Boardriding.

Here you can check out the full results: 

– HP Grom Girls

Watch the highlights of the halfpipe winners - further below you can enjoy Rookie Boy and Rookie Girl winning runs, here's the HP Grom Boy winning run & HP Grom Girl winning run. Enjoy!

You can view the photo gallery here. 

South America Rookie Fest (SS) – Valle Nevado, Chile 9.14 August 2018 DONE

New Zealand Rookie Fest (SS+HP) – Cardrona, New Zealand 14.16 August 2018 DONE

New Zealand Rookie and Grom Fest (SS+H) - Cardrona, New Zealand 2.5 October 2018 DONE

Corvatsch Rookie Fest (SS) - Corvatsch, Switzerland 12.16 December 2018 DONE

USASA Grom Fest (HP) – Copper Moutain, US 6. January 2019 DONE

World Rookie Fest (SS) – Livigno, Italy 12.16 January 2019 DONE

USASA Grom Fest (SS) – Keystone, US 10 February 2019 DONE

Indy Park Rookie Fest (SS) – Nekoma, Japan 9.10 March 2019 DONE

Rev Tour Rookie Fest (SS+HP) – Mammoth, US 13.14 March 2019 DONE

Pila Rookie Fest (SS) - Pila, Italy 13.17 March 2019 DONE

World Rookie Finals (SS+HP) - Kitzsteinhorn - Zell am See-Kaprun, Austria 25.30 March 2019

Follow the World Rookie Tour online:

Web: www.worldrookietour.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/worldrookietour

Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/worldrookietour

Vimeo channel: www.vimeo.com/channels/worldrookietour

Mail: info@blackyeti.info

If you dream to become a professional action sport athlete, then your future starts from the World Rookie Tour!

ABOUT THE WORLD ROOKIE TOUR

The World Rookie Tour is organized by the Black Yeti ssrl in collaboration with World Snowboard Federation, National Snowboard and Ski Associations and selected action sport agencies. It was born in 2005 as a series of youth snowboard event and it consists now of a selection of high quality International events for snowboard, freeski and skateboard, the so called “Rookie Fests”, reserved for riders under 18’s only, in Europe, North and South America, Oceania and Asia. The World Rookie Tour consists not only of competitions: it also features loads of other activities to help rookies to grow in the field of professional action sports, such as photo & video shootings, avalanche and rescue clinics, meetings with photographers and international team managers, parties and English talks. Since year zero it awards tickets to world class events such as X Games Norway, Audi Nines, The Arctic Challenge, The Air & Style, The World Snowboarding Championships, invitations to professional photo & video shootings, and shooting trip all around the world. Every year the tour crowns the World Rookie Champion at the end of season, at the World Rookie Finals, a unique event where the best youngsters from almost 30 countries compete and have fun. More information at www.worldrookietour.com.

ABOUT BLACK YETI ssd

The Black Yeti is an amateur sport club dedicated to the realization of snowboard, freeski and skateboard projects for boys and girls up to 18 years of age, in Italy and abroad. One of the most successful project is the World Rookie Tour, the biggest and the most famous tour in the action sports world that attracts 2.000 young athletes from 30 nations to the events called “Rookie Fest”, organized all over the world: Italy, Europe, North and South America, Oceania and Asia. The Rookie Fests program includes not only the competition but also many side activities such as avalanche and rescue clinics, workshops and English talks.