Matts Kulisek Wins 2011 4Star RIDE Shakedown In Washington

Matts Kulisek nabs his fourth TTR podium of the season at the 2011 4Star RIDE Shakedown in Washington, USA. With its unique format, the Shakedown leaves no room for error and pushes riders to focus and stomp tricks.

The 2011 4Star RIDE Shakedown in Washington was greeted with blue skies for the slopestyle semi-finals and finals. An international field of riders battled it out for a chunk of the $35,000 prize purse and a maximum of 500 Swatch TTR World Ranking points.

Canadian rider, Matts Kulisek, was the victor of the event, leaving American, Tyler Flanagan, in second place and Japanese rider, Yuki Kadono, in third.

The RIDE Shakedown in the USA is a new 4Star event on the TTR World Tour and features a condensed slopestyle course made up of a big-air kicker and rail setup along with the Shakedown's signature 'call your trick' format. Riders must call their tricks on both the jump and the rail before dropping in order to be scored. If a rider fails to land his called tricks, no score is awarded.

The Shakedown finals went off on Saturday afternoon where Matts Kulisek stole the show with a huge frontside 1260 on the kicker and a stylish switch 50-50 on the kink rail.

With his win at the Shakedown, Matts improved his TTR Ranking to World No. 37.

"The TTR season's been good, started off perfect with the Ante Up, it's been my best season so far and it couldn't be better with how it ended up here," said Matts.

Finishing in second place was American ripper, Tyler Flanagan, who has been turning heads on the TTR tour ever since he took a podium spot at the 6Star Okaley Arctic Challenge back in February. Tyler threw down some stylish airs all day including some huge methods, but took the second place spot with a Cab 900 and a frontside boardslide on the kink rail.

Coming in third place was Yuki Kadono, who also had a good showing with a stomped Cab 1260 and a boardslide on the down rail.

With the RIDE Shakedown wrapped up, the Swatch TTR Tour moves north from the United States to Vancouver, Canada where the 4Star Quiksilver Showdown Over the City will go down on March 25th and 26th, 2011 at Grouse Mountain. Going on the same weekend on the other side of the world is the 4Star Battery Catfight, an all-girl event taking place in Levi, Finland from March 24th to the 27th, 2011.