Vans Cup Superpipe!

VANS CUP HALFPIPE:

Well that’s it, the 2007 Vans Cup is officially a wrap, and what an ender to the weekend with the culmination of the men’s and women’s halfpipe finals. Cold hard cash was up for grabs for the lucky winners who advanced to the podium, and all of the riders were going for broke in order to stake their claim and collect.

The halfpipe was in pristine condition when the women started dropping, and although the warm Tahoe weather mushed it up a little bit in the flats, gracious Northstar volunteers gladly slipped the pipe every few runs, keeping it in pretty good shape. The for mat was unlike the usual halfpipe contest, as the contestants were given an hour “jam” session to fit in as many runs as they could, and they were judged on overall impression meaning that if a rider took 7 runs and fell on 5 of them, they would be scored lower. In the typical pipe contest, riders are usually given 3 runs and the judges either take the best run or the to best runs. That being said, the unorthodox judging system forced the riders to focus on consistency while maintaining variety, which truly shows who leads the pack in the competitive world of halfpipe riding. This was certainly not your usual contest.

The women started things off and Colorado’s Leslie Glenn dropped first, bagging a few nice big straight airs before getting the spins and rotating 540 or so degrees. All day, Leslie boosted bigger and bigger with each drop and rode really well. Flow’s Claire Bidez impressed the giant crowd with her frontside 5 to frontside 7 followed by a flawless method. Claire rode really well all day too and only skidded out and fell a handful of times in her numerous runs. Almost legendary Tricia Byrnes showed that she’s still got it, mixing her run up with a few big switch straight airs. That’s right, I said switch. Have you ever tried a switch straight air in the pipe? It’s hard, trust me.

Crowd favorite Kelly Clark was going as big as some of the guys with double-overhead frontside airs, and later in the day throwing some huge 5’s and 7’s that weren’t much smaller than her airs. Every time she dropped, the crowd was at full attention gazing at the showstopper that is Ms. Clark. Autumn rose rode impressively, occasionally throwing down back to back fives and attempting a few sevens while Meg Pugh stayed formal with some nice 360’s and big straight airs.

Elena Hight, the most consistent woman rider of the day was killing the pipe launching frontside 7 japans that content with anyone of the opposite gender. Later in the day, Elena would go for back to back nines and everyone went ballistic. Elena’s style is unmatched at times, and she showed why she is leading the fore-front of the women’s halfpipe uprising.

After a quick 60 minutes, the men were set to drop, starting in the order they qualified in. The air was electric as the trees even shifted position to watch, as Flow’s Scotty Lago, who qualified first dropped in for one of the biggest straight airs of the day, straight into his signature double-cord 1080. Again, the place erupted and it was officially on. Scotty’s teammate Antti Autti, the second place qualifier dropped next and he didn’t stop landing tricks for the next hour. His first run consisted of a backside 7 into a cab 7 to frontside 9, all huge, all perfectly stomped. This would go one for the rest of the day for Antti, only he would spin more and go higher with each run. At one point, at the end of his run, I heard Antti say to Flow Team Manager Andrew Mutty, “Jeez. I feel like I can’t do anything in this pipe,” and that made me wonder what he could do in a pipe he felt like he could ride well in.

Markus Keller began his terrorization of the pipe early and it just kept coming all through the contest. With tricks like frontside alley-oop threes, frontside nines, cab seven shifties and backside nines, Markus was for real and he showed why he wasn’t far from the podium in Torino. Tommy Czeschin is either back, or he never went anywhere to begin with. Fresh off an overall Grand Prix halfpipe victory and equipped with a new Chevy truck, Tommy took to the pipe with vicious pride, stomping his early runs clean with combos like front nines to backside sevens, and eventually throwing a few tens in the mix. Iouri Todlotchokov traveled all the way from Russia to dabble in the American ditch, and it paid off. Iouri killed it all day and quickly became a leader in the field with tricks like back to back tens, nines, sevens and some gigantic airs. His name will appear at the end of this article, but not until then because I have to cut and paste his name every time I have to mention him. Just take my word for it that he is a true ripper.

Louie Vito took around 12 runs through the pipe throughout the session, and only fell once. On top of that, he was throwing combos like back to back tens, backside nines, and even a few backside tens. Yes, tens. Young Louie is growing quickly, and so is his bag of seemingly endless tricks. I was disappointed with his finish and think he should’ve been scored higher than a meager 6th place. Keir Dillon’s first hits were some of the biggest I have ever witnessed, and somehow, his second hit McTwists were even bigger, sometimes pushing the 20 foot mark. Keir has been killing it for over a decade and shows no signs of slowing down. Michael Goldschmidt charged hard all day long, linking some of the most unique tricks of the day like straight backflip double grabs, alley-oop 360 busdrivers and he did the stock tricks like back to back nines, tens, sevens, etc. Goldy was also scored rather low and I would’ve liked to see him finish a little bit higher.

The man of the day was none other than two time Olympic silver medalist Danny Kass. Kass competed in all three events of the Vans Cup and never finished lower than 15th. I’m almost positive that Danny didn’t do the same run twice during the contest. He was getting in more runs than any other rider and he only fell once. Danny was unbelievably consistent and creative, even adding some flare to his drop-in with cab 3’s straight into his back to back tens. Danny also achieved something that apparently has never been done in competition before with a set-up alley-oop backside seven into a cab ten, followed by a slew of other tricks that left my eyes bouncing. Danny’s best run (in my opinion) was his cab ten to frontside ten to cab seven to alley-oop backside rodeo seven, all the while maintaining smooth style and switching it up in his remaining runs.

The men’s jam session came to a close, and the crowd stuck around for awards. Photographer Mike Azevedo and I didn’t though. You see, I listened to a crazy man on skis when he told me that awards were down in the village in the same place as the day before. Sipping coffee, I ran into young Louie Vito and asked him when awards started and he informed me that they already happened. Failure again. Sorry. Anyway, here are the results, and I promise I didn’t get them from the crazy man on skis.

Women’s Halfpipe:

1. Elena Hight
2. Kelly Clark
3. Clair Bidez

Men’s Halfpipe:

1. Danny Kass
2. Antti Autti
3. Iouri Todlotchokov