Cover Photo From Swiss Freeski
While Big Air has gone up in my estimation, Slopestyle (outside of the hallmark events) seems to be stagnating. I've definitely bitched about this enough before, so suffice to say maybe it was the judging criteria and maybe it was the course (it was a pretty small, generic course in Quebec and conditions weren't great) but there was little evidence of the unique rotations and grab combinations from last night's city event (Teale Harle did that funky dub again though) today. ABM was the only guy to do a non-standard rail trick in the whole thing (2 on frontslide 2 out). It wasn't a classic.
On the plus side, I watched it on UK Eurosport, which was dope because the commentators clearly didn't have a clue what they were watching. They more or less failed to call a single trick. Andri Ragettli was the only guy to triple with his forward trip 14 mute(told you he can triple anything), combining it with a dub 12 and a switch dub misty 12 and a front swap transfer pretz 2 at the bottom to lead the field. You can't deny it, the guy has some mad skills. Oystein sat in second and Felix Usterud third.
Sarah Hoefflin ended the Women's first run in the lead by some margin with her trademark TJ Schiller mutes (right 5 mute to switch 7 mute to switch cork 5 safety on the jumps). In general, clean runs were few and far between with missed grabs and at least one missed rail keeping the majority of other scores down in the 70s and below. On the last run of the day, Johanne Killi went switch cork 5 to capped 9 blunt followed by a front four out of the rainbow, to 2on to the gap down rail and then a front swap transfer at the bottom to bump Sarah down to second. The two of them killed it but they were the only two complete run scores of the day.
Top 3 Women
On Run 2, Oystein stomped another solid run. (Dub cork 9, switch dub 10, switch dub 12, front swap pretz 2, switch 4 continuing 2, other way front swap (transfer) pretz 2) but a slight bobble on the last hit kept his score below his first. Joona Kangas (he rides comps you know) put down a silky one with trademark style (switch dub 9, dub 10, dub 12, sw 2 on both ways and then a back 3swap transfer at the bottom) but it was only good for a 83.6 (not enough spinny twists Joona!). Even Jossi Wells couldn't come up with a creative line through this course but he still looked cool as fuck on his way down, the man definitely has a gift.
Top 3 Men
Woodsy threw down clean and went deep for a score good enough for second despite only using his stock jump run (left dub 10 safety, right dub 12 blunt and switch right dub 10 octo) up top combined with a switch 4 up on to the rainbow, 4 on to switch and a switch 2 pretz two on the donkey at the bottom. ABM then went fully loco with a switch dub 10 to switch dub bio 12 to dub bio 10 combo followed by 2 on grabbed frontslide 2 out and back to back switch 2 pretz 2s at the bottom. First genuinely exciting run of the whole thing, good enough for 3rd and it should have been top spot for me. Jesper put down a solid one too, dub 12 mute, switch dub 10 dub mute, and switch dub 9 dub japan, hand drag misty 5 on the rainbow, but a plain switch 2 on to the down rail killed his score despite a blind 3 swap transfer continuing 2 at the bottom. Nobody could knock Andri off the top spot though, and he took home the win with an undeniably solid run. First place men and second/third women for Swiss Freeski to round out a laughably strong event for them.
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