The best men and women in the world of snowboarding have been gathering at the Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont for the 27th US Open Snowboarding World Champioship – the action starts tonight at 6:15 p.m. with an invitational quarterpipe competition followed by a concert at 8:00 p.m. in the USO Sponsor Village at the Sunbowl.

Top riders including Shaun White, Kelly Clark and Hannah Teter and Olympic hopefuls like Kevin Pearce, Ellery Hollingsworth and Charles Reid plan to attend the event. Hardly surprising as it is one of the first snowboarding events in the world to offer male and female competitors equal winnings, the US Open’s prize purse includes over $200,000 in cash and prizes.

Thanks to US Open sponsor Volvo Cars North America, the Volvo Most Valuable Rider Award will go to the overall top male and female who will both drive away in brand new Volvo XC-60s. Amp Energy will be awarding riders a $3,000 cash prize each for men’s and women’s highest air in quarterpipe and men’s and women’s best trick in halfpipe. Also, as part of the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, the USO will play host to the presentation of the Men’s Swatch TTR World Tour Champion award. This prestigious honour and $50,000 cash will be awarded to the top male leading the 08/09 TTR ranking list.

This year’s Open features a different competition schedule than the past few years with all events and concerts taking place at the Sunbowl area of Stratton Mountain.

Saturday, March 21st will feature men’s and women’s semi-final and final halfpipe competitions, an autograph session in the sponsor village, topped off with a concert immediately following the halfpipe awards presentation at 4:15 p.m. in the Sunbowl.

Sunday, March 22nd, will kick off with the junior jam halfpipe competition, followed by men’s and women’s slopestyle finals, after which three major titles will be awarded: the $100,000 Burton Global Open Series men’s and women’s title, the Volvo Most Valuable Rider Award and the Men’s Swatch TTR World Tour Champion award.

Below are the top ten men in the world rankings followed by the top ten women

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