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Oksanen and Dakides Take Slope Style at World Championship Sims Invitational
By Lee Crane
April 21, 2000
See Slope Style Video Clips
Finland�s Jussi Oksanen saved the best for last at the World Snowboard Championship Sims Invitational Friday April 21, 2000 in on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, BC when took first place in the slope style competition ahead of Kevin Jones and Jacob Soderqvist.
Soderqvist went first putting down an 83.7, followed up by Kevin Jones with a 91.2, and Oksanen turned in an 81.2. But this was a best- of-two final and in the second run Soderqvist counldn't better Jones score but moved ahead on Oksanen with an 88.1.
With Kevin Jones leading with his 91.0, Oksanen laid down the highest scoring run of the day. His run, made up of a rail slide, a switch backside seven, a fakie five, a backside five, a grind, a backside seven, and as if that wasn�t enough topped off with a Haakonflip on the quarterpipe, scored an amazing 95.9 and landed him a $20,000 check. When asked what he was going to do with the money Oksanen shrugged and said, "Save it."
Kevin Jones was philosophical about his second place performance and was going over what he did and what he should have done in his final run. "I did a sick to double phat, to switch double sick," he explained in typical Jones nomenclature. "That�s where I went wrong I guess, because I should have done the switch double phat first (with a �ph�) And then the switch double sick to regular on the second. But it happens. It happens to the best of us."
Other standouts in the mens competition included Travis Parker, Todd Richards and Jason Borgstede.
On the women�s� side Tara Dakides, Janna Meyen and Jaime MacLeod were duking it out all day. Meyen scored a 78 in the women�s first qualifier with a run that included a boardslide, frontside 180 Indy grab, and a fakie three method. But when it came down to the super finals Tara�s first run score of 76.0 was enough to sew up a $10,000 check with her name on it.
The slope style course was set up to give riders choices at every turn. At the start riders could go the rail or the picnic tables, followed by a table top with another choice to go left and roll through two more tables and a huge hip at the bottom of the course, or go right and hit two tables, a rail and a final kicker before ending up at the huge quarterpipe wall. Either route would have been a great course all by itself, but the choices allowed for variety of lines and tricks. No two runs were alike. Though it started raining during the finals most of the day featured overcast skies and no wind.
The World Snowboarding Championship Sims Invitational continues Saturday with the Superpipe competition and Saturday night�s big air competition at the base of Whistler Mountain.
Men Women
Slope Style Competition
Slope Style Practice
After edging Jones and Soderqvist during the qualifying rounds, Jussi waited until his last run to put everything together. The top three riders from the qualifying round were given two more runs in what was called the "Super Final". 
A days work and Jussi Oksanen is $20,000 richer. You'd smile, too. crane�photo
Though she won she�s learned never to plan on anything in slope style. "I try not to expect anything because so many things can come up out of no where," she said. "I�m glad it was raining and not windy and blowing everyone off their jumps because the snow was soft and it allowed for people to just go for it. I really thought Janna was going to take it." 
Tara Dakides had some tough competition, but she won anyway. crane�photo
1. Jussi Oksanen 95.9
2. Kevin Jones 91.2
3. Jacob Soderqvist 88.8
4. Travfis Parker 88.9
5. Todd Richards 85.5
6. Jason Borstede 81.7
7. Peter Line 78.7
8. Nicolas Droz 73.8
9. Rahm Klampert 71.3
10. Marc-Andre Tarte 71.3
11. Josh Dirksen 71.1
12. J.P. Walker 69.5
13. Kevin Sansalone 67.9
14. Jeremy Jones 66.3
15. Alejandro Capin 64.9
16. Arild Brun Kjeldaas 64.9
17. Marc Frank Montoya 61.2
18. Jordan Mendenhall 60.9
19. Mike Basich 54.7
20. Neil Goss 47.5
21. Thomas Munkelien 47.3
22. Jason Brown 42.4
23. Jason Murphy 41.9
1. Tara Dakides 76.0
2. Janna Meyen 70.8
3. Jaime MacLeod 66.2
4. Kim Bohnsack 58.1
5. Jessica Dalpiaz 52.9
6. Tina Basich 52.3
7. Natasza Zurek 36.0
Quiktime Video Clips
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