GAP Session goes off!

By Transworld
Sun, Mar 9 2008 12:00 am | Comments

The 2008 Red Bull Gap session went down in Garmisch Partenkirchen Germany March 8th 2008.

The huge step up gap jump with a ski jump run in was about 60 feet distance to clear (plus uphill) with top run in speed around 80kph. Originally is was not supposed to be a Gap jump but due to shortage of snow they had to built it this way.

Antti Autti was at the GAP session throwing down

Markus Keller is one of the top riders on the European scene, big fast backside 7

Sani Alibabic backside 540. Sani was the first to try out the jump, nobody wanted to come up short or overshoot the landing so the right speed was crucial.

Sani kicks off the night session. The European Photographer scene is well equipped for a night shoot!

Boris Benedek filming from a 500 pound home made Heli, this thing was nutz and as it was so small could get insane angles not otherwise possible.

David Benedek gets the day session going and stomps a double corked frontside 10 grabbing mute for his first time. He won best trick of the week for this. The video footage from the heli pictured is totally insane, check the GAP web video out in the vid

Frederik Kalbermatten back 7 nosegrab.

Dan Brisse came over to shred the GAP session and blew his boot dryer up too, yes the voltage is different in Europe.

Dan Brisse frontside 7. Brisse threw got close to some double corked 10¿s in the day session too.

The scene. 4 days before the event everything in this photo would have been brown other than the jump, they lucked out big time with a snowfall 3 days before giving them enough snow to make a solid run in.

Finalist Yuji Suzuki was going off.

The Finals were 4 riders with 3 runs best trick counts. Yuji Suzuki sends the crowd nutz.

The idea of the GAP session is to get best crew of freestyle snowboarders together and build a jump which can open doors for progression, like when David did the first double cork frontside 12 two years ago. Christoph Weber did a great job designing and

Austin Smith photographed in black & white, shot through a fence with a tilt shift lense, uber art!

Chris Sorman won the 2008 Gap Session.

Arthur Longo made the trip from France and impressed everyone all the way to the final 4 session.

David Benedek with a big backside 180

Antti Autti frontside 10¿d his way into the finals with a real monster, sending one real deep.

Chris Sorman heats it up in the day session under the watchful eye of the heli camera

The run in was scarily fast so not many riders hit the jump switch. Christophe Schmidt backside corked out and spinning with the heli cam right on his heels

Gigi Ruf tries out the air bag placed in the gap for safety. Luckily no one came up short and had to really test it out, the drop from knuckle was about 50 feet so it was pretty necessary for the riders to feel comfortable.

The owner of Red Bull flew in from the head office in neighboring Austria to check out the scene for a hot hour. It was a big deal as he is rarely seen at events

CATEGORIZED: Contest Gallery, Park, Photo Gallery, Photos, Resort, Travel
TAGS: David Benedek, gap jump, Gap Session, Garmisch Partenkirk, germany, Photos Nick Hamilton, Red Bull, Snowboarding, Snowboarding contest

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