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Tuffelmire, Burke, Olsson take World Skiing Invitational titles

Crowd of 15,000 for big air contest The evolution of freeskiing continued last weekend as some of the top new school skiers from around the world cranked things up a notch for this year’s Garnier Fructis World Skiing Invitational.

Crowd of 15,000 for big air contest

The evolution of freeskiing continued last weekend as some of the top new school skiers from around the world cranked things up a notch for this year’s Garnier Fructis World Skiing Invitational.

The field of competitors was a true mix of talents, from young guns like Tanner Hall, David Crichton, Simon Dumont and John Symms, who are pushing the sport to new limits, to the grandfathers of new school movement – most of whom are still in their early to mid-20s – like Phil Poirier, Rex Thomas and Greg Tuffelmire. The young guns took their share of the prize loot, but age and experience definitely counted for something.

The understatement of the day by the announcers for both the superpipe and big air events was that they did not envy the judges. Still, someone had to win, and with $50,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs, the athletes had all the incentive they needed.

Salomon Superpipe/Superhit

Although you were hard-pressed at times to see even halfway up the pipe as the fog rolled in and out during the Salomon Superpipe, the show went on.

Judges moved to the mid-point on the pipe to see the entire length of it and to keep things moving smoothly, but there were a few delays between runs that kept the athletes to just three runs reach during the hour-long jam session.

First place, as well as the award for foresight, had to go to Greg Tuffelmire of Summit County Colorado.

The day before, Tuffelmire had traded his brand-new O’Neill jacket and pants to a British tourist for a one piece, 1980’s era one-piece ski suit with fluorescent yellow, blue and pink panels. The lime green Garnier Fructis bib completed the ensemble.

As a result, Tuffelmire was by far the most visible athlete in the pipe on Saturday, which he says played in his favour. He also claimed that the suit made it easier for him to the see the lip of the pipe when he was coming down.

Most of the spectators and judges were probably more impressed by Tuffelmire’s third run – which included two huge 1260s with a 900 thrown in for good measure – than they were by his outfit. That run was worth 24 points, and lifted the 26-year-old from fourth place into first with a score of 24.0.

"It’s a good trick, but it was nothing new," said a humble Tuffelmire after the contest. "Nick Mercon pulled the first (1260 spin) a couple years ago in a contest, and it’s taken me a while to catch up. Still, it came together pretty good. I’ve only landed it once before in training, and I landed four of them today."

Tuffelmire said his only goal for the day was to have some fun and put on a show, and that he was surprised to have won with all the talent that was out there. He has no big plans for his $10,000 Canadian prize purse, but will likely try to bank it for a rainy day. "I’m not going to be able to do this forever," he said.

Second and third place went to David Crichton and Scott Hibbert of Manotick, Ontario. Crichton’s style edged out Hibbert’s amplitude by 0.2 points, as they finished with scores of 23.0 and 22.8 respectively.

The two skiers, aged 19 and 20, are two of the strongest freeskiers in the world these days, and put together some incredible runs. When asked what was in the Manotick water, Hibbert said "It’s pretty sweet."

For the record, Elisa Kurlowicz, one of Canada’s top moguls prospects with the national freestyle ski team, is also from Manotick – a town of just 5,000 people located south of Ottawa.

Crichton’s top run included a pair of alleyoop flatspin 540s with tail grabs, an unnatural Japan air, and a cab 900 safety.

Hibbert, who knocked a cameraman out last year while attempting his own 1260, pulled out corked 720s (landing backwards) that cleared about 15 feet of air out of the pipe.

John Symms of Snowmass, Colorado, celebrated his 20 th birthday in the Superpipe, with aggressive 900s and huge air. His final score of 22.7 was just one-tenth back of the podium.

Other mentions should go to Chris Turpin, who skied the entire pipe backwards on two runs, spinning 360s, a 720, and an inverted trick that was a combination of a barrel roll and a flare.

The top-10 athletes all finished within four points of one another and any one of them could have walked away with the top prize with just a little more time in the pipe.

In the women’s superpipe, Sarah Burke of Midland, Ontario, a former Whistler skier who has been based in Mammoth, California for the past two seasons, won the event cleanly with a score of 16.6.

Burke, one of the top female freeskiers in the world, put spins on every one of her hits to push the degree of difficulty up, including a pair of alley-oop 540s.

Hannah Epps of Wisconsin took second place with huge airs and grabs in the superpipe, and a final score of 16.2.

Rounding out the top-three was Virginie Faivre of Switzerland, a smooth skier who managed to fit a few solid spins and some huge air into her runs. She scored a 16.1.

Special mention has to go to pro snowboarder Kim Stacey, who launched some of the biggest airs of the day – more than 10 feet on one hit – and Jamie Sundberg, who kept going for the McTwist on her final hit, finally stomping one in her second run.

Burke was a fan of the superpipe and says the conditions gave her confidence. The fact that there were nine strong girls in the Superpipe final, more than she typically faces in competition, also gave her a boost.

"It was great. There are more really good girls out there all the time, and that keeps pushing me and pushing the sport, so it’s a good thing," she said.

"It’s getting tougher to win at every contest, we’re taking more chances, letting go a little more. Even in the last year, there’s been such a progression."

Once the Superpipe Contest wrapped up, the SuperHit contest got underway with athletes judging one another for a $5,000 first prize.

The athletes held nothing back. Hometown hero Ryan McKeeman threw the gauntlet down early when he launched a series of huge unnatural corked 900s out of the pipe that cleared more than 40 feet of ground. Tuffelmire answered back with his 1260, and every competitor did their best to crank things up a notch. Turpin showed he was the master of switch riding once again with a series of inverted and spinning tricks where he took off and landed backwards. Jon Olsson went for huge straight airs and grabs. John Symms landed a nice big 1080.

Still, size matters and the athletes gave the SuperHit to Simon Dumont of Maine who landed a corked frontside 540 about 17 feet out of the pipe – he was actually higher than the Garnier Fructis flag.

Men’s Superpipe Top 10

1. Greg Tuffelmire, 24.0

2. David Crichton, 23.0

3. Scott Hibbert, 22.8

4. John Symms, 22.7

5. Simon Dumont, 22.4

6. Phil Belanger, 21.9

7. Phil Larose, 21.9

8. Jon Olsson, 21.7

9. Chris Turpin, 20.6

10. Ryan McKeeman, 20.1

Women’s Superpipe

1. Sarah Burke, 16.6

2. Hannah Epps, 16.2

3. Virginie Faivre, 16.1

4. Jessica Cumming, 15.2

5. Kristi Leskinen, 15.1

6. Kim Stacey, 15.0

7. Jessica Bennie, 13.6

8. Kristina Richards, 12.5

9. Jamie Sundberg, 12.4

Salomon Big Air

There was a huge crowd in Whistler Village for this year’s Salomon Big Air competition, estimated to be somewhere between 11,000 and 15,000 strong. It was also a loud group, and competitors fed off the crowd like Popeye feeds off Spinach.

The format was simple. Each of the 20 competitors had two qualifier runs. The top four jumpers would move into the semi-finals, with the number one skier facing the number four skier, and two facing three.

The first jumper in each bracket to score two points, as determined by the judges, would move into the finals, while the remaining two would battle it out for third place.

The four skiers to qualify for the semi-finals were Jon Olsson of Sweden, Tanner Hall of Kalispell, Montana, Rex Thomas of Golden, and Andrew Woods of Burlington, Vermont. David Crichton narrowly missed the cut, finish 0.7 points back of Woods.

The competition began in earnest with Hall, probably the top freeskier in the world, pulling out a huge switch 900, taking off backwards and landing with his tips downhill. Jon Olsson launched a technical switch 720 tail grab, essentially taking off and landing backwards.

Thomas waded into the competition with the sickest, and most technical trick of the day, an unnatural cork 900 safety. Simply put, he launched off the jump going forward, spun around two-and-a-half times at an almost inverted angle, and landed backwards.

Woods stuck with his huge switch 900, going bigger with every jump.

After the first round, Hall and Olsson faced one another in the finals. With two solid switch 7s in a row, Olsson edged out the three-time X-Games champion to take the win and $10,000 cash.

"It was a new trick that no-one was doing and he did it with style and it was very fluid," said Josh Loubek, the head judge for the event.

Big Air Top-10

1. Jon Olsson

2. Tanner Hall

3. Rex Thomas

4. Andrew Woods

5. David Crichton

6. Matt Sterbenz

7. Steele Spence

8. Chris Turpin

9. Josh Bibby

10. Iannick B.