A17-year old from Ontario almost walks away with it all
Big crowds for big air
New school skiers emptied the full bag of tricks in the World Ski Invitational Orage Big Air contest on April 14, with many of them competing for the biggest crowd – more than 5,000 spectators – and the biggest prize purse – $25,000 – of their new careers.
With a steep takeoff, a steep landing, and more than 50 feet separating the two, skiers had a lot of time to execute difficult manoeuvres and a lot of incentive to land them. Tricks included 720s with mute grabs, switch 900s with flairs (skis crossed behind the back, huge 1080s, Corked (semi-inverted) 720s, D-spin 720s (inverted), mobius flips (inverted 360s), rodeos (partially inverted backflips with 360s), and Skodeo 540s (a switch rodeo with an extra half spin). Grabs, switch takeoffs and switch landings meant extra points, so competitors tweaked everything in sight and made full use of their twin-tips.
And land they did. After the qualifying jumps, just over three points separated the top score from the 10th.
Only the top five out of 20 competitors moved on to an all-Canadian semi-finals, led all the way by 17-year-old David Crichton of Manotick, Ontario. Vincent Dorion of St. Jerome, Quebec – only 21 himself and one of the founding fathers of the new school movement – was second. Phil Belanger, 20, of Quebec City was third, Rex Thomas, 21, of Nelson but living in Whistler, was fourth. JF Cusson, 23, of Montreal – another founding father – took the fifth and final spot.
In the two-run semi-final – where only your best jump counts – Crichton was once again flawless, posting the two highest scores of the round. Dorion also nailed both jumps to take the second spot, and JF Cusson was good for the third spot. Both Thomas and Belanger had problems with switch landings and loose skis, and had to sit out for the finals.
Crichton’s day fell apart when he over-rotated his jump, and after leading the competition from the start he had to settle for third place and $2,500 in prize money. A day later, when asked if winning the slopestyle took some of the sting out of the big air crash, he replied: "No… but yesterday will still be a pretty good accomplishment for me.
"It’s pretty crazy. There were more people there than at all the other competitions combined, and a crowd definitely does pump you up and get you going, push you to do something that maybe you wouldn’t have done. It was a great contest."
Cusson finished second with a perfect rodeo 900 indy grab and a solid landing, and walked away with $7,500. It was a big day for Cusson, who had been on a dry streak since he won at the X-Games in 1999. When asked what his first major result in almost two years meant, Cusson simply said "I’m back."
Dorian’s switch 900 tail grab was huge and he finished it off with one of the smoothest landings of the contest to take first place and $15,000.
Dorian and Cusson were teammates on the Quebec Freestyle Team in the ’90s and are credited with sowing the seeds of the new school movement on their frequent trips through the terrain park.
"Crichton was leading throughout the entire competition until the Superfinal jump," said Mike Douglas, World Skiing Invitation Style Council and event judge. "Dorian gained momentum throughout the competition, and Crichton knew he had to go even bigger to maintain the lead – he just couldn’t stick the landing on the final jump, and Dorian’s was near-perfect."
Other highlights of the big air contest included a huge iron cross 720 by Sarah Burke – the only female in the contest – and a front flip on a snowboard by Gizmo, the Whistler Kids ski school mascot. Rex Thomas did his best to provoke the crowd into making more noise, the competitors that were eliminated stuck around to cheer on their friends, and nobody got hurt.
Atomic Slopestyle — Crichton’s revenge
The Atomic Slopestyle picked up April 15 where the Big Air left off, with competitors hitting all of the rails, tabletops and spins of the double black diamond terrain park.
David Crichton was the story of the day, and run after run he made sure it stayed that way.
"The jumps were really well built and the course had a good set-up," he said. "It felt good out there."
"The landings were ridiculously hard, though – I had to pull back a bit until the finals, and then I just went for it. You can’t hold back if you want to have a shot at doing well."
He pocketed $15,000 for the win, bringing his two-day earnings to $17,500 – not a bad way to finish the season.
Crichton is a relative newcomer to the new school circuit, and got into it when he didn’t make the national freestyle development team for moguls – "It’s a long story" – but he says he is happy with the way things are working out, and has never looked back.
Philippe Belanger finished second in the slopestyle with a solid day of his own. "The jumps were big, the rails were nice, the weather was cool, and the quarterpipe was just crazy," he said. "The landings were hard, but we’re used to that in Quebec – we have hard landings there that you wouldn’t believe."
Belanger had no idea where he finished in the standings until his name was announced, which took the pressure off. "I was just doing my runs, not the biggest tricks – I was just trying to put a lot of style into my runs and go smoothly. I had a really good run."
Third place went to Boyd Easley of Flint, Michigan, the only American to finish in the top five all weekend.
Douglas also had a few things to say about the slopestyle: "Crichton’s been performing incredibly well in training, but has fallen short in competition. It all came together for him this weekend… with a first and a third place finish.
"Belanger’s second place finish wasn’t a surprise – he’s one of the most stylish riders in the world, and only missed the top spot because he chose more stylish tricks than technical ones. Easley was incredibly consistent throughout the day, putting down clean, solid runs."
On the day of the slopestyle, Whistler-Blackcomb laid down an additional $3,000 for the winner of a quarterpipe jam session, where competitors were give half an hour to show the judges why they deserved the cash.
Belanger, who launched more than 20 feet over the wall of the 24 foot monster quarterpipe, took the money for guts alone. On his last jump, where he was attempting to jump over another skier heading down the other side of the ramp, he launched too high and too far, clearing the photographers and crashing into the hard snow at the back of the pipe. He slid down the side of the pipe until he caught a ski in some rope at the bottom.
Asked if it was the scariest moment of the weekend, he replied "Of my life! I was in the air and I saw the rail at the back of the jump, a chair, the photographers, I saw everything I could land on and said ‘I’m going to land somewhere’. When I hit the ground, I was worried for sure. I thought my ribs were broken, I couldn’t breathe. I’m doing good now, but I’m lucky as hell."
Belanger shared the prize money with all 12 of the quarterpipe competitors. "I went high but didn’t land a lot of tricks, but everybody did good so I’m going to share the money."
Bradford Fayfield, the publisher and editor in chief of Freeskier Magazine – one of the World Skiing Invitational’s sponsors – said he looks forward to being back next year.
"Whistler is a big part of the new school skiing movement, and the World Skiing Invitational captures the entire spirit of the sport. The athletes were stoked to see such a huge crowd for a skiing event – it does great things for the profile of the sport. Freeskier is proud to be involved and we’re already looking forward to building an even bigger event next year."
