By Andrew Mitchell
After two days of qualifiers, and a closely contested semi-final round, the 10 th annual Showcase Showdown Pipestyle came down to the final run on Saturday night.
Over those two days the field was narrowed down from 100 qualifiers to the top five women and top-10 men for the finals — a few more contestants than the Price Is Right, but everybody still had to spin to get there.
The Pipestyle course was comprised of a hip jump up top, a section of halfpipe, a couple of c-boxes built into the walls of the pipe, and a choice of three boxes and rails at the bottom.
Each competitor had three runs in the finals, one more than they’d get in most contests. It also changed things drastically on the men’s side, as Chris Wimbles pulled out the smoothest run of the day on the pipestyle course with big airs and spins up top, a 270 on and 270 off the C-box, and a 540 over the gap onto the step-down rail at the bottom. He was also the smoothest rider of the day, and the only competitor to earn 20 points in all three runs.
“It was super fun, I’m just flying right now,” said Wimbles after being declared the winner. “It was totally crazy in the finals. I had crashes first two runs, and knew I needed a big, smooth ride to get in the money.”
Wimbles was a huge fan of the pipestyle format even before his win and acceptance of a cheque for $10,000.
“The setup was great, and you really had to change your mindset from one jump to the next, and everything came at you really fast. If you made even a little mistake up top, it was really hard to recover from it,” he said.
Part of the reason was the snow. Not only did it slow riders down in the transition, it also made it hard to spot the icy sections of the pipe. “Some things look like they should have been soft, but it was really only a little bit of snow on ice,” he said. “You had to be aware of the ice at all times.”
After hearing the crowd’s reaction to his last run, Wimbles knew he had a good chance of finishing in the top-three but also that it would be close, with Jacob Koia also nailing his last run. But while Koia went a little bigger up top, Wimbles landed everything cleanly and took a huge chance on the bottom rails. The final scores were 28.6 for Wimbles and 27.9 for Koia.
Clint Allan, who was leading the contest after the first run in the finals, placed third with 26.9 points.
Brendon Davis just missed third place with 26.2, while Justin Lamoureux from the Canadian Snowboard Team, who was in second place after the first run, struggled to find his groove on the next two runs to place fifth with a 25.5. Warren Williams, David Melancon, Brad Martin, Jesse Kumlea, and Craig Beaulieu were sixth through 10 th .
Kumlea was slightly injured after getting the biggest air of the day on the top hip, then carrying all that momentum up the wall of the halfipipe for a rodeo 720. He landed a little further down the transition than he planned, and fell backwards with a sore leg. He pulled off course and managed to walk off the hill on his own power.
Wimbles was sorry to see Kumlea injured.
“He was killing it out there, and everybody was rooting for him to land a run clean and win some money,” he said. “(Kumlea’s) a good buddy of mine, he was going huge all day, and we were all happy to see that he was okay after hitting the deck.
“At the same time the injuries are part of snowboarding, we’ve all been the guy carried off the course at some point. You try not to think about that side of it too much, and just do your thing the best you can.”
On the women’s side, it was Pilar Peterson’s night for the second straight year with a 22.9 on her first run, although Sarah Conrad from the national halfpipe team gave her a run for her money in the next round with a 21.7. Stephanie Just was third in 20.6, followed closely by Dominique Vallée and Molly Milligan.
Despite winning last year, Peterson didn’t think she would ever repeat.
“I’m so happy because I really haven’t been riding this year very much and I had no expectations,” she said. “There were some good girls here, and I didn’t qualify very well.”
Peterson is a student this year, taking maths and sciences while working towards becoming a veterinarian and volunteering at the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She pledged a portion of her $5,000 in winnings to the BCSPCA.
Although she’s spent more time with her textbooks than on the hill this year, she said the course design really favoured her style of riding.
“I really liked this course,” she said. “I though last year’s setup favoured halfpipe riders a little more, but the changes they made bumped up the park side of it a lot more. You had to be able to ride a little of everything, park and pipe, to have a chance.
“(The course) is a bit scary, but you’re with your friends hiking up the pipe, the people on the sidelines were cheering you on, it was so much fun.”
In total there was $25,000 in prize money up for grabs, with prizes going to the top four men and three women.
