Spectators at the Salomon Superpipe and Playstation Big Air, the last two events of the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, got a good look at the latest progression in skiing and snowboarding, with athletes trying and landing new tricks while raising the bar once again.
Last year a switch 1080 on skis was the top trick in the big air events, but in 2006 it seemed to be the minimum requirement for qualifying for the finals.
Crispin Lipscomb also pushed the boundaries in snowboarding, landing three 1440s – four complete rotations, landing switch – in the superpipe. For the women, a 720 in the halfpipe, landing backwards, was also becoming a stock move, and several athletes managed to squeeze 900 spins into their runs.
Putting skiers and snowboarders together definitely didn’t solve the "who’s better" argument, but instead provided a good contrast of skills and talents.
Salomon Superpipe
After a week of rain, snow and fog during training and qualifications, riders and skiers awoke to blue skies and sunshine on Saturday.
The snowboarders went first on a pipe that was well groomed but still ice hard, making for some fast transitions and big air.
In the women’s heat the momentum from the start belonged to Soko Yamaoka of Japan, who posted a big but safe run to take an early lead. Dominique Vallée, a Whistler rider who lives in Squamish, followed up with a strong first run of her own, while Tricia Byrnes of the U.S. had a little more trouble figuring out the pipe but still managed to rank third.
Things stayed the same through two more runs, although Trica Byrnes’ last run was almost good enough to knock Vallée out of second place.
The men’s competition was nothing short of amazing, with Whistler’s Crispin Lipscomb, who has been on the podium in the TWSSF three times, setting the bar high from the beginning with a stock run that went from a big straight air, to a 1080, to a cab 720, to a frontside 900, to another backside air, and finished with a stylish air to fakie. The run was worth a score of 9.0, and nobody would touch it through three more runs.
"Sunny days are always good, it was so cloudy for so long," he said. "When I woke up and it was sunny I was so excited, I felt ready to land everything."
Although it’s the end of a long season, Lipscomb says if Blackcomb was open another three weeks he’d be up every single day because the conditions were so good.
For first place Lipscomb won $1,000 and an Arctic Cat sled – just weeks after buying one.
Lipscomb plans to keep riding and training, and will spend some of his spring filming, before joining the national team for another training camp in Whistler. Before the Olympics the team had a 10-day camp in Whistler where Whistler-Blackcomb provided them with exclusive access to the Base II halfpipe and a few snowmobiles to shuttle riders to the top. It didn’t net Canada a halfpipe medal in Torino, but Lipscomb says it did have a huge impact on the team.
"It was great, our feet would get sore from riding before our legs got sore from hiking the pipe, so we really had a good opportunity to work on our skills," said Lipscomb. "Whistler-Blackcomb has been so supportive, and so appreciated by everybody."
Takaharu Nakai and Taka Ishihara of Japan were second and third, while Whistler’s Dan Raymond finally nailed his best run to pull into fourth spot.
Although Raymond is getting sick of finishing fourth – he missed a podium in the last World Cup by a fraction of a point – he was happy to finish his season on a high note.
"It’s pretty much a replay of the last World Cup of the season with Crispin in first, Takaharu in second, and me in fourth," he said. "I feel like I’m right up there with the top riders, and I’m stoked to still be progressing where I feel I’m getting a little better every time."
Following the regular competition the snowboarders faced off in an athlete-judged SuperHit contest. Lipscomb managed to land three frontside 1440s, and now he says he’s so confident with the trick that he plans to add it to his pipe routine next season.
However, it was Brad Martin’s big air that won the day.
Martin, a member of the national team who also competed in the Stompede and Big Air events, also finished fifth in the superpipe.
The conditions softened up considerably for the skier superpipe, slowing athletes down a little while also giving them the confidence to try harder tricks.
The women’s event went to Marie Martinod of France who landed a clean first run that finished with a solid 720. Although a few skiers would come close to matching her performance something always went wrong on the last hit.
"I guess I had the best run of my life," said Martinod, "In all of my runs leading up in training I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do, but today I felt I was skiing well, the way I’ve wanted to all season, and got my run in early so I could relax a little and enjoy the sun."
The winning combo for Martinod was a sequence that included back-to-back 540s, followed by a 720 at the end, and she was in perfect control the whole time.
Ontario’s Sarah Burke finished second after finally stomping her 720 on the bottom wall.
Kristi Leskinen of the U.S. was third, finishing far better than she expected. She is coming off an ACL injury earlier in the season, and "didn’t do a single trick in training until today," she said, and wasn’t sure she was even going to attempt the 720. But with conditions softening up and some good training runs boosting her confidence she decided to risk it.
"I couldn’t be happier with the way I skied. To come back from an injury and be able to put down a run like that, I just said to myself ‘I’m back’. I have so much confidence for the rest of the season."
The men’s competition was tight with all 12 finalists pushing their boundaries to the end.
Andreas Hatveit of Sweden was just a little better than the rest, landing a huge 1080 in the middle of the pipe before wrapping his run with a huge flare 540.
"It was so much fun," he said. "I went over every expectation. My last two practice runs were disappointing, but then I went into the finals I nailed it three times in a row."
Hatveit was the only rider to drop into the pipe switch, spinning a 720 off the first wall. He also finished strong with a switch 900 at the bottom.
Alberta freestyler Mike Riddle was second, while Justin Dorey of Vernon placed third.
Jon Olsson of Sweden was probably the smoothest rider in the pipe, but finished just off the podium, in fourth place.
"I was just really excited to ski and have fun in the pipe," he said. "I don’t ski halfpipe normally, just at the X-Games and U.S. Open, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but I was landing my tricks and trying a few new tricks today.
"It felt like it used to feel, that I was just out skiing for fun, skiing with my friends, no pressure to win or anything."
The SuperHit contest was also close but in the end the top prize went to Justin Dorey for landing a huge flare 540 about 15 feet out of the pipe. He crashed hard on one attempt, but got right back up and tried again.
"I feel unbelievably happy," said Dorey, who won the superpipe event last season at the age of 16. "My head’s ringing a bit (from the crash) but it’s all good."
Scott Hibbert was also a threat, attempting and almost landing a double back flip with a switch landing. He went down hard on his attempt, and decided to call it a day.
While the Salomon Superpipe was the last event this season for most of the snowboarders, most of the top skiers are headed to the Orage Masters in May.
Playstation Big Air
The village and the jump site were jammed with people for the return of the big air to Whistler after a year’s hiatus.
The Playstation jump was a little smaller and the run-in a little slower than some competitors would have liked, but that didn’t stop riders and skiers from trying to squeeze in extra rotations before hitting the transition.
In the snowboard competition the standard was a switch 900, although a few riders went for 1080s, or opted for more stylish switch 720s. The key was switch.
For the skiers, it took a minimum of a switch 1080 to qualify for the finals. Sarah Burke, the only woman in the contest, got the biggest cheer of the day with a giant 900 with a switch landing, which she executed perfectly.
After two runs the judges picked three skiers and three snowboarders, which would face off in a 5, 7, 9 contest – 540, 720, 900 spins, with athletes choosing their own variations.
In the snowboard ranks, the qualifiers were past big air champion Mike Page, Travis Williams and Calgary rider T.J. Schneider.
Strangely the difference would be in the 540 and 720 contests, where Schneider landed cleanly while the others did not. The other riders struggled landing the same tricks that got them through the qualifiers.
"I think it’s just because I landed the first two jumps, everyone had problems with that last jump," said Schneider, who walked away with a cheque for $4,600 and a Playstation Portable.
"I really like the format, I thought it was way better than most contests. Usually it’s just whoever can spin the most who wins. We did 10s in the qualifier to get through… but most people can’t tell a 900 from a 1260 you’re moving so fast. The format in the finals showed control, it was more like actual snowboarding."
Though humble, Schneider is credited as one of the reasons so many of the top riders are coming out of Calgary these days, including several members of the national development team.
While his friends were all moving to Whistler to become pros, Schneider moved back to Calgary to show that you can ride anywhere and still push the limits. He’s ridden with a lot of the younger riders coming up, which has helped to keep sponsors interested in the local scene. He is also working closely with Dustin Craven, a 17 year old who won the Showcase Showdown earlier in the year.
Page finished second while Williams took third.
In the skier contest the three finalists were Jon Olsson, Sammy Carlson and T.J. Schiller. Schiller and Olsson matched up on the 540 and 720, but Schiller crashed in the 900 while Carlson landed a near perfect switch 900. In the end Olsson was just too smooth and claimed his third big air win in Whistler.
When asked how he always lands perfectly, never over or under rotating his spins, he laughed.
"I ski a lot, and I visualize a lot when I’m not skiing," he said.
"I always have a strategy in training to do what I want to do. I landed a trick in the finals for the first time out of training, so I’m so happy.
"I don’t think I can say how stoked I am."
Carlson hails from Oregon, and it’s only the 17 year old’s second year coming to the TWSSF.
While he says 1080s were standard to make the finals, he says the progression is continuing in leaps and bounds.
"Right now it’s a switch 10, next year it’s going to be a switch 12 or a switch 1440, it’s going to be crazy next year for skiing."
Complete results are available online at www.whistler2006.com.
