Monster Energy Snowboarder Louie Vito Nabs 2nd @ W...
The defending U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix champion opts out of this year’s final GP event to represent the U.S. Snowboarding Team in World Cup action
CORONA, Calif., (March 21 , 2009) – Monster Energy-backed snowboarder Louie Vito bested all but one in an international field of the world’s top snowboarders this past week, placing 2nd in the World Cup halfpipe competition held in La Molina, Spain.
Vito, the defending U.S. Grand Prix champion, decided to forgo the final event on that series – in which he was tied for the lead - in order to represent Team USA in the Spanish World Cup event. The Ohioan, who trained at the Stratton Mountain (Vt.) Academy, stepped up in the prelims and qualified for the finals in a heat that included fellow Monster Energy athlete Danny Kass, former X Games SuperPipe gold medalist Steve Fisher, Scotty Lago, Antti Autti and Gary Zebrowski.
Reaching the finals, Vito stomped back-to-back 1080s, went big on all his airs, threw in a backside 540, frontside 900 and backside 900 to place 2nd to Switzerland’s Markus Keller.
“World Cups have not really been my thing and this is one of my first finals,” said Vito. “It was nice to finally land a run.”
Curiously, Vito and Fisher were tied for the lead in the overall U.S. Grand Prix Snowboarding halfpipe championship. And though both opted out of that comp in favor of the World Cup event in Spain, nobody scored enough points at that event (Killington, Vt.) to overtake the two. So this year’s U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix halfpipe championship ends in a tie between Vito and Fisher, giving Vito his second-straight U.S. Snowboarding GP halfpipe crown!
Vito’s now back to his adopted home of Stratton for this weekend’s U.S. Open.
Monster Energy supports the sport. Be it snowboards, SX, rally, insane distance jumping, MX, MotoGP, road racing, supermoto, off-road, FMX, skate, MTB, rock crawling, wake, mini bikes, surf, ski, BMX – name it – the athletes are rockin’ Monster Energy more than anything these days. Check out all the types – Original Monster Energy, Monster Lo-Carb, Monster Assault, Monster Khaos, Monster’s fruit juice hybrid dubbed “M-80,” the party-friendly MIXXD, the ground-breaking Java Monster premium coffee & cream drink line supercharged with our Monster Energy blend, along with the new Monster Energy “Hitman” energy shot. Louie Vito digs ‘em – so will you. On the ‘Net at www.monsterarmy.com and www.monsterenergy.com