In the five years I’ve been covering the US Open, this is the closest contest I’ve ever seen. And while I wouldn’t have wanted to be a judge at today’s event, I think they were a little off with awarding Kazuhiro Kokubo the title today. Thankfully, in the women’s event, things were much more defined, with Kelly Clark claiming her fourth US Open pipe victory.

Kazu’s run, which was awesome, included a massive Frontisde 900 into an even bigger McTwist Chicken Wing to a Frontside 1080 Tail among a few other 1080s and was definitely a podium-worthy run. It just shouldn’t have been the winner, since he had a minor sketch-out on one of his first Frontside 1080s. The problem here is that you ust can’t score a run at 97.17 points with anything but perfect execution on every trick. So second place comes as a bitter sweet present for Louie Vito, who celebrates his birthday today. He had a unbelievable run which saw a Front 10 Double Cork, Cab 10 Double Cork, Double Crippler, Backside 9, into a Frontside 10 for a score of 96.17. Unfortunately for him, the judges didn’t score this as high as Kazu’s run.

“I’m happy. It’s my birthday,” says Vito just after his run, though he looked very disappointed with not taking the victory. “I could care less what the judges say.”

But I can’t really say who was robbed more: Vtio or Ipod. Third place Iouri Podladtchikov’s first run was not only good enough for the podium: he stepped things up a massive Cab 1080 Double Cork, a Front 5 into a Double McTwist 12 (the same one Shaun White does) with a first run score of 96. In his third run, he tried to one-up himself, but fell on the Double McTwist, causing his first score to stand for third.

It all capped a day of pipe riding that, not surprisingly, was of better quality than the Olympics—even though Shaun White chose not to ride. I just wished that the best rider of the day was awarded the win of such an incredibly presigious title—in my opinion, the biggest title in snowboarding.

More to come later in Snowboardcanada.com’s News Section.