With registrations now finalized, a record 260 riders from 16 countries will descend on Snow Park NZ for five days of world-class snowboarding action, culminating in the show-stopping halfpipe event on Saturday 11 August.

In addition to top names already announced such as last year's winners, Mason Aguirre (USA) and Kelly Clark (USA), the event has attracted the likes of Ryo Aono (JPN), currently ranked #1 on the World Cup circuit, Anti Autti (FIN) who scored silver in the US Open Halfpipe and Iouri Podladtchikov (RUS), a silver medalist in the European Open Halfpipe.

The women's field is also extremely strong with reigning champion Kelly Clark having to pit her wits against some strong contenders. Paulina Ligocka (POL) is currently ranked #4 on the World Cup circuit and Torah Bright (AUS), is a Winter X Games 07 and US Open 07 gold medalist as well as current World Superpipe Champion.

The competition gets underway on Wednesday August 8 with the men's and women's halfpipe qualifiers in Snow Park NZ's giant superpipe. On Thursday August 9 the action moves to Snow Park NZ's gravity-defying Slopestyle course for the qualifiers followed by the Slopestyle Semi-finals and Finals on Friday August 10.

Friday night will see no-holds barred massive air in the quarterpipe under floodlights with music from top New Zealand DJ's. Spectators can watch all the action for free from a specially created grandstand carved out of snow. All eyes will be on the Superpipe Semi-finals and Finals on Saturday August 11 when the world's best will fight it out for the Open title.

Off snow, there's plenty going on in downtown Wanaka with the evening Open Sessions featuring live gigs from top Kiwi bands Opensouls (Thursday 9 August) and Shapeshifter (Saturday 11 August).

For more information on the Burton New Zealand Open head to www.opensnowboarding.com

About the Burton Global Open Series

The Burton Global Open Series events are the pinnacle snowboarding events of the season. Founded by Jake Burton, the Opens have grown from grassroots events to global spectacles attracting tens of thousands of spectators and riders from around the world. Since the beginning, the Opens have been driven by riders, for riders evolving with snowboarding and riders' needs over the years. With events held in Canada, Europe, Japan, the United States, New Zealand and Australia, the Opens set the standard for snowboarding events around the globe. For more information, visit opensnowboarding.com

The Burton Global Open Series is part of the Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour, the largest group of independent freestyle snowboard events in the world. TTR ranks riders based on their results at participating competitions and crowns a TTR World Champion at the US Open. For more information, visit www.ttrworldtour.