Superpark 9 - Day Three

The sun just won’t stop. Day three of Superpark 9 was a showdown. Riders came ready to throw down, and the perfect sculpting from the builders the night before had smoothed out all the features, making them ready to be torn up.

Early in the day, Breck’s 75-foot booter was getting worked. Faster runways made for a show as many of snowboarding’s big names put it all out there but paid the price for pushing the envelope. JF Fortin had a show-stopping crash after coming up short and knuckling hard, and then crumpling into the flat bottom, which shut down the jump for a half-hour.

Not everyone met Fortin’s fate as many tamed the Breckenridge beast and tattooed perfect landings on it all day, including JF’s cousin David Fortin, TJ Schnieder, Max Henault, Marie-France Roy, Justin Baun and Andrew Mutty.

As the day rolled on, riders took advantage of the beautiful weather to show off for photographers by sessioning the double-sided hip late into the day. Those stepping up to the hit were rewarded with applause from the crowds. The gathering progressed into rider-run fashion, where they tested the limits in the beginning and then fed off each other. With each shredder who dropped, the bar was raised. Mike Osachuck saw the bar and blew it away with a huge truck driver wildcat. From then it was a whole new ballgame with riders carrying more speed as the weather cooled, meaning the airs got larger and larger. David Fortin, Sean Genovese, Pat Moore, Rube Goldberg, Charles Gagnon, Mike Osachuck, Scotty Lago and Paul Henderson were a few of the standouts from this hip session. Andrew Hardingham was back for more and was killing it on the double-sided hip until he pushed a little too far and got thrown off-balance. Hardingham paid for it, and he slammed onto the deck, but it must not have been hard enough because he got up and kept snowboarding.

Riders shredded late into the evening, finally clocking out after an 8:00 p.m. Lake Louise kicker session. Hana Beaman and Pat Moore demolished the jump, and their hard work paid off with stomped landings and stoked-out photographers who were shooting against a beautiful golden sunset.

As the snowboarders, spectators and photographers finally waded through the slush back to the base lodge and the sun dipped low, day three ended as the best day yet at Superpark 9. But will it be topped tomorrow? Check out the September issue of SNOWBOARDER to see what happened.

CLICK HERE FOR DAY 2!

CLICK HERE FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SUPERPARK 9!