Today was the day we have been waiting for which falls into the recent trend of good weather slopestyle days (Copper excluded). Clear skies allowed us to see that Mt Hood had been towering over us for the past few days. The view is majestic and is an attitude changer from the grey skies and low visibility. Crisp and clear as they say. Perfect weather for slope and the event ran smoothly and on time.
Today's big stories involve Phoebe Novello and Ezra Racine. After making finals in HP yesterday (finishing 5th instead of 6th which I blogged yesterday) Phoebe made finals again today and put herself in 2nd position on the podium at the end of the day. Switch back 180, backside 360, gap to boardslide and lipslide to fakie was the run that she put down time after time. After struggling in comps for the past year, Phoebe has arrived and many are proud of this young ripper. Turned some heads she did.
Ezra Racine showed up with his game face and stomped each and every run of the day. After a run with a cab 5 to front 7, Ezra told me he wanted to convert the 7 into a 1080. This is no small task and I had my doubts. Looking in his eyes and hearing the conviction in his voice, I had to give him the nod. He proceeded to land the next three 1080s he attempted, two being in finals. He had not even attempted one this year and this trick is no joke. He opened my eyes for sure and ended up just off the podium in 5th.
Graduate James Haffner continued his comeback streak by winning today's event. His run oozed with style while others threw their bodies into sloppy double flips. Cab 540 to backside 900 followed by smooth and tech rail tricks won the day. Let me remind you that he came in second in pipe yesterday. He won the Rev Tour for sure.
Other highlights of the day include Mak Tierney who made finals and ended up in 6th place and Dan Landy who landed a great first run which started off with a switch back 540. I have been waiting to see this kid land a run for a while now, and he came through today. Serena Shaw was off to a great second run, but fell off the last rail. This small mishap was crushing as it kept her out of finals. Good to see her riding slope with the aggression she brought to HP yesterday. Kyle Dorfman and Jamie Charron also landed clean runs in quals, but missed the competitive cut into finals.
Our hearts go out to Biba Turnbull who overshot the second jump by 30 yards. As I write this I am under the impression she broke her collarbone. She is in the hospital with Ross Powers who will fill us in later tonight.
1 comment:
Yeh yay yah!
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