In a fast halfpipe under lights, a banger X Games Superpipe went down at Aspen. Some riders struggled with the under-vert nature of some walls of the pipe causing Alex Ferreria and Noah Bowman the most issues.
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The opening bouts of Superpipe saw Birk Irving put down the only full and clean run, switch left cork 9 nose, switch right cork 7 Japan, left dub 12, right cork 9 and his classic DTP dub flat 7. He took an early lead with this. Alex Ferreira, went for a hammer of a run, opening with a switch left 9 blunt, massive, his run followed with right dub 16 tindy, left 10 to switch dub 10. He tried to squeeze in the left dub 16 as a final hit, looking like a gold medal run. He didn't get enough pop out of the wall and decked hard, bounding into the flat-bottom but he skied out and we would surely see that run go down again. Simon D'Artois had trouble with his AO dub 10 final hit a couple of runs in a row.
Jon Sallinen's run contained a switch left dub 12 Japan backed up with a right dub 12, the left 10 stale that followed was super clean. Closing the run out with a switch right 7 and a left dub 16 safety. This bumped him above Birk who wasted no time responding with a switch left 10 to right 9 Japan, throwing the DTP dub flat 7 in the middle of the run, closing with switch right 7 and left dub 14 to take first right back.
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David Wise put down a perfect run second go round, switch right 9 blunt, left dub 12 to right 9 blunt that was huge coming 16 feet above the deck, closing with back-to-back dub 12s and the veteran took first. Alex Ferriera decked on his second hit in his second run. Some athletes had discussed the top of the pipe being under vert and this was causing some issues. David Wise made swift moves up the pipe to check on him but Alex was back on his feet quickly and skied out of this one helmet in hand and doing a flair to show he was okay. Blunck’s back-to-back switch dubs; alleyoop 9 to left 10 always look dangerous but he continued to have trouble putting down a full run.
At the third time asking, Simon D'Artois got his full run down, stomping the AO dub 10 but not threatening the podium likely due to lots of left spins in the run. Noah Bowman proved yet again he's the most stylish pipe skier in the game, opening with a right dub 14, backed up with a switch 5 shifty that was the most gorgeous hit of the night. Even with the bone air and switch right dub 10 this was not enough to take 3rd from Jon which was a little surprising but the 16 was likely the deciding factor here. Brendan Mackay's run also didn't do enough to get above Jon, but he did put switch AO dub 9 to switch left dub 10, with an AO cork 5 to set up for his back-to-back left dub 12 blunt to right dub 12 safety combo. David Wise, tried to amp up his current winning run with a final hit 16. He couldn't put it down but looked hard to unseat from first at this point. Ferreira decided to sit out the rest of the runs after his falls.
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In the final round Jon still struggled to get his 16 down as clean as possible, and Noah Bowman struggled to stay away from the wall on a switch left double 12, he spent a while in the flat bottom after this slam and was helped out the bottom of the pipe. Sending love to you Noah! Birk wouldn't improve his position in his final run. Brendan Mackay came out swinging and looked about to take the top spot but the final wall was his undoing on his dub 16. Aaron Blunck put it down with the last throw of the dice, having competed all night with a broken bone in his shoulder no less but wasn’t enough to shift into the top 3. Jon Salinen, the Finnish rookie, took third, Birk Irving added silver to his accolades and the veteran David Wise took home another golden.
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Results
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Podium Runs
David Wise
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1062678/David-mov
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Birk Irving
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1062679/Birk-mov
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Jon Sallinen
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