Cover Photo: FIS Freeski / Kim Gubser

Nestled in one of nature’s most scenic spots with the views of the iconic cooling towers, the Beijing big air brings us our first future spin fest of the season. Jokes aside, the jump in Beijing is perfect and this was a truly spectacular display of our sport. So get your calculators out and your physics textbooks, it's going to be a wild one!

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Highlights

Women

My stream dropped me in after a few runs and Flora Tabanelli and Tess Ledeux were holding down the top spots when I joined with dub 14s each; Tess, switch left, Flora regs left. Menting Liu also put down a 1440 in run 1, the level of women’s skiing is insane. Sarah Hoefflin opted for a dub 10 Japan - locked in at the second time of asking. It was enough to bump her into 3rd. Mathilde was the first to really shake things up, sending a sick nosebutter dub 12, she missed the grab and dragged a hand but this would score well if laced.

For run 2 Tess Ledeux put left dub (wobble?) 12 with her signature high mute. Flora Tabernelli a switch 10. Anni Kavara, always steezy, wiffed her lead blunt on a switch 7 a little. Her tenure in 3rd would be short-lived and Sarah H lost it a little on the landing of a switch right dub 12 mute.

Mathilde laced up the butter dub 12 safety, she stomped it. It was so proper and she claimed it almost instantly, this earned her a 94.25, leaving her some work to do but the lead was up for grabs after this.

Most of the third run went down without much shake up to things. Mathilde with the best run through 2 came in cooking with a super flippy switch dub 10 capped blunt, she he went really deep but punched the ground which wrecked her score, leaving her in 3rd with a lot of riders to drop.

Sarah Hoefflin sent a switch right dub 10 mute, she underrotated a touch but held her hands off the ground, scoring an 85 to put her into second behind Tess. Flora Tabernelli put down switch bio 10 mute for 74.25 to put Mathilde into 4th and take podium spot.

Tess Ledeux took a victory lap but was anything but complacent with her last run, despite already claiming the W. She got kind of bodied but got up smiling with another gold to her collection.

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Men

The men’s was kind of stupid. Really hard to follow and had lots of new trick names coming out of the FIS/judging booth.

Leo Landroe has made his way to the World Cup finals after many viral clips on the gram. He came out the gates with a near perfect left triple 18 mute. Troy Podmilsak looked locked in at the top of the in run, fist bumping TJ Schiller then dropping some wizardry, looking like a left flat 3 set to right cork 5 type thing. FIS called it a Berco bringback 900 whatever that means…

Kim Gubser dropped in switch and got very bucked on the landing on a really sick switch left triple 1260 block 1080 lead mute (I’m as confused as you are) unable to hold the Gs through his noses. Tormod Frostad laced up a super clean right triple 1980 safety for a 91.00 and the top spot. Dylan Descamps went huge, locked in the mute grab on a left triple 18, he looked like he had so much time and earned 89.50. Luca Harrington put down a heavy switch right triple 1620 double safety - named an Esco by the FIS random word generator earning. Miro Tabanelli took us to the future with a 2160 to steal first from Luca for now.

For the second run, Leo landore’s switch triple 18 mute looked a little buttery on the take off he locked in the mute earning an 87. T Pod cleaned up his stunt a little this lap. Kim Gubser went to the bottom on his switch triple SOMETHING, 89.75. Oliwer Magnusson missed a grab. Tormod set a switch tailbutter bio 1440 but it was a little loose for the judges.

Mac Forehand couldn’t put it down putting himself out of the running. Andri’s switch dub bio 18 lead buick was enough to occupy top for a little bit. Dylan Deschamps was throwing a switch triple 1620, he held onto an outrageous landing but lost points for the looseness. Luca Harrington’s Right dub 10 misty bring back to 900 earned 87.75 which would give him second after 2 following Miro’s switch left 1980 toxic.

Another epic final run kicked off. A couple unthreatening (scoreboard wise) future spins went down, T Pod butt checked, Kim Gubser did a guitar grab bring back thing. Dylan Deschampes did a switch triple bio 1620 which was fucked. This earned him a 91.50 and preliminary 2nd, the first podium shake up of the last runs. Torms switch tailbutter dub bio 1440 is probably my favorite trick of the night, he’s just got an unmatched style. The judges liked it too, he earned a 92.00 for this and jumped into 1st. Miro Tabernelli wouldn’t be able to improve his score so would take second.

Results

Women

Men