The Burton Global Open Series (BGOS) today announced that the prestigious Nippon Open Snowboarding Championships will now become the first Asian Open Snowboarding Championships, set for February 24-March 1, 2009 at Alts Bandai Snow Resort in Fukushima prefecture, Japan.

“Since 1994, the Nippon Open has had a tremendous influence on the competitive snowboard scene in Japan, bringing a world-class competition to Japanese professional and amateur riders, while attracting top international snowboarders to the region,” says Liam Griffin, Events Director at Burton Snowboards. “With competitive snowboarding gaining momentum in China and Korea, we felt it was time to expand the Nippon Open into the Asian Open Snowboarding Championships, attracting more riders from growing snowboarding communities throughout Asia.”

The first Asian Open Snowboarding Championships will be held as part of Burton Global Open Series. With events scheduled year-round and in six countries, the Burton Global Open Series boasts the most lucrative cumulative prize purse in snowboarding. All six Burton Global Open Series events offer riders the chance to earn points towards men’s and women’s championship titles, each worth $100,000, currently the largest single payout in snowboarding. The Burton Global Open Series is also part of the Swatch Ticket To Ride (TTR) World Snowboard Tour, the largest collection of independent freestyle snowboard events in the world. New for the BGOS this year, riders all over the world can watch every Burton Global Open Series event via live webcasts on Go211.com, the official webcaster of the BGOS and home to live scoring, standings, rider bios and more for each Burton Global Open Series stop. Check out Go211.com for more information.

Below are final dates and locations for all 2008/2009 Burton Global Open Series competitions.

Burton New Zealand Open     July 29 – August 2, 2008      Snow Park, New Zealand
Burton Australian Open       Sept 1 – 5, 2008            Perisher Blue, Australia
Burton Canadian Open        December 1 – 7, 2008        CODA’s Canada Olympic Park
Burton European Open        January 9 – 16, 2009         Laax, Switzerland
Asian Open                February 24 – March 1, 2009   ALTS Bandai, Japan
Burton US Open            March 16 – 22, 2009         Stratton Mountain, USA

For more information on the Burton Global Open Series head to www.opensnowboarding.com
For more information on TTR, visit www.ttrworldtour.