Is it that time of year, already? Where the hell did summer go? Freestyle.ch over in Zurich has become the kickoff to the winter's ski competition circuit (sorry, Icer Air, you gave it your best), meaning snow is on the way. The format for the comp this year is two heats of ten riders, each from which will qualify four finalists. The first group went today (or yesterday, Zurich time, I guess):

1. TJ Schiller (CAN) - 156.00 2. Andreas Hatveit (NOR) - 150.00 3. Elias Amb hl (SUI) - 148.25 4. Laurent Favre (FRA) - 147.50

-cut off for finals-

5. Henrik Harlaut (SWE) - 142.75 6. Bobby Brown (USA) - 139.75 7. Russell Henshaw (AUS) - 133.75 8. Andri Amb hl (SUI) - 133.50 9. Martin Misof (AUT) - 114.50 10. Colby West (USA) - 114.25

The next group (tomorrow's) looks like this:

1) Rory Bushfield (CAN, Squamish) 2) Sammy Carlson (USA, Mount Hood) 3) Fridtjof Fredericsson (NOR, Oslo) 4) Thomas Hlawitschka (GER, Eschenlohe) 5) Benedikt Mayr (GER, M nchen) 6) Jon Olsson (SWE, Monaco) 7) Nicolas Vuignier (SUI, Venth ne) 8) Tom Wallisch (USA, Salt Lake City) 9) Jossi Wells (NZE, Wanka) 10) Jacob Wester (SWE, T by)

So winter is here, and in case you needed further proof, the Jon Olson videoblog is back:

Freestyle.ch in Zurich qualifications day 1 from Christoffer Kristiansson on Vimeo.