It’s game on down under as Stylewars kicks off day one of its ever-rad contest in Australia. The big news is that Gjermund Braaten, one of the favourites, is our after breaking his collarbone. Get well soon dude! Read on for more…

Young gun Scotty James – 17-year-old Australian Olympic Halfpipe athlete – is at the top of the leaderboard after Day One of Stylewars: The Australian Slopestyle Championships.

This comes after red-hot favourite Gjermund Braaten from Norway was knocked out of competition, after breaking his collarbone for the second time since December last year.

Currently ranked 5th on the TTR World Snowboard Tour, Braaten set the standard high stomping a double cork back 10 in his first judged run of competition. But unfortunately, Braaten fell awkwardly on the last feature ending his chances of winning the money.

Following closely behind Scotty James are Clint Allan, Pete Long, Tor Lundström and Andrew Roth.

With perfect weather and more blue skies ahead, riders are guaranteed impeccable riding conditions for the entire event. For this reason, a vote was made by the competitors to scale back the slopestyle component of the competition to two days instead of three.

This change in schedule gives riders the opportunity to relax and recuperate energy for the notorious 28 Stairs rail jam event on Wednesday night.

Richard Hegarty, Event Organiser and founder of Stylewars, couldn’t be happier with the event so far. “Apart from Gjermund’s injury, everything has run perfectly.”

He says, “The sunshine (with no wind!) has given our 25 riders the best chance at performing their best. What’s more is that unlike previous years, our Aussies are dominating the scoreboard, which is fantastic to see. This could well be in fact in the best Stylewars we’ve ever had in the past 10 years running.”

Judged on their two best runs of the two-hour competition window, riders will need to throw down their best performances tomorrow to secure their share of the $25,000 prize money. The winner of Stylewars 2011 will be announced in the afternoon.

Day One top Stylewars results

Scotty James (AUS)
Clint Allan (AUS)
Pete Long (AUS)
Tor Lundström (SWE)
Andrew Roth (AUS)