Photography: Chris Wellhausen

Rice, Horgmo, And Kimura Win Big At TW SNOW's 13th Annual Riders' Poll Awards Presented By New Era

Denver, CO – Snowboarding's stars came out in force Friday night, rocking The Fillmore Auditorium for the 13th Annual TW SNOW Riders' Poll Awards Presented by New Era. Infamous emcee GT and Signal's Dave Lee presided over the biggest night in snowboarding as the best riders of 2011 took the stage to receive their awards.

In the Women's Rookie Of The Year category, Finnish phenom Enni Rukajärvi accepted the well deserved win after placing first in both the Winter X Games slopestyle and the Burton US Open slopestyle in 2011. The Men's Rookie Of The Year title went to Mark McMorris for a breakout season that included landing the first backside 1440 triple cork and placing second at the X Games slopestyle.

Women's Video Part Of The Year was handed to self proclaimed loose cannon, Jess Kimura, for her part in Capita's Defenders Of Awesome. Men's Video Part Of The Year was picked up by Eric Jackson who threw down a solid five minutes of footy in People's Good Look. E-Jack's part came together after working hard to recover from injuries that left him couched for the previous season.

In recognition of the growing trend away from traditional DVD video parts, this year an Online Video Project Of the Year category was added. Nominees included Xavier De Le Rue's TimeLine and Devun Walsh and Iikka Backstrom's Polar Opposites, but it was Jake Blauvelt's Naturally series that claimed the new title. Jake's five-part webisodes premiered throughout the winter on TWSnow.com culminating with a full part released online and for TransWorld SNOWboarding's Mag+ Ipad app.

Continuing in the video category, Brain Farm's epic The Art Of Flight was awarded Video Of The Year. Filmed in some of the most remote locations to yet be ridden and with next level production value, director Curt Morgan's project made a decisive victory.

The Stand Out Performance Of Year went to Xavier De Le Rue for his ice ride in the Alps.

For the New Era Women's Readers' Choice Award, Jess Kimura's savage approach to the streets won the readers hearts, placing the second trophy of the night in her hands. For the men it was Torstein Horgmo who rallied the most votes to win the category. Despite no full video part, Torsteins' X Games Big Air gold and a strong web video presence helped him maintain exposure.

The man, the myth, the Legend Award winner Jamie Lynn was in person to collect his due for a nearly double decade contribution to the style and culture of snowboarding. Long live the king of style!

For the final presentation of the evening Jess Kimura took the spotlight for the third time to accept the Women's Rider Of The Year Award. She was followed by Travis Rice who won Men's Rider Of The Year for his groundbreaking riding in The Art Of Flight.

Winners of the Riders' Poll Awards are determined by polling more than 100 professional snowboarders worldwide. In addition, thousands of TransWorld SNOWboarding readers vote for the winners of the New Era Men's and Women's Readers' Choice awards.

The Riders' Poll Award Show is presented by New Era. Additional sponsors include Red Bull, Keystone Resort, Spy+, Zumiez, Chipotle, KRÜ 82 Vodka, and Oskar Blues Brewery.