Bright, White and Wells Win at '08 World Superpipe Championships
Mar 09 2008 / Park City, UT
It was cloudy, with nasty flat light and vision-dimming drifting snow, but the air was great.
That's the air which skiers and snowboarders played in, high up above the 22-foot tall walls of the superpipe.
Utah's Park City Mountain Resort hosted the sixth annual World Superpipe Championships featuring the stars of amplitude: Shaun White, Torah Bright, Simon Dumont, but not the previously announced Tanner Hall, who stayed away with a sore ankle.
But even formerly dominant skier Dumont could muster no better than fourth place as the new unbeatable ski star, New Zealand's Jossi Wells, did a 1280 so high in the air that the crowd lining the back of the deck went crazy. The 17-year old was pumped, but not about the $15,000 prize for each winner. "Oh, is that how much I won?" he said casually when asked how he felt about the prize.
The purse was huge: the men and women snowboarders and men skiers (no women's field yet) also got $8,000 for second place, $4,000 for third, $2,000 for fourth, and $1,000 for fifth.
Torah Bright won the women's snowboarding contest. Shaun White won men's snowboarding, and diplomatically avoided being pushed into delivering a free commercial for the resort, despite several attempts by the MC at the awards ceremony to get White to say that PCMR was better than all the other resorts hosting similar contests.
White talked about the skateboarding crash that knocked him out for several minutes in a vert contest last fall. "I didn't even remember doing the first run. When I came to, someone told me I was in second place, and I was totally bewildered." The headachey effects of the concussion forced him to take a break for a few weeks earlier in the season; which is why White was a no-show at several big events.
There were two big guys behind the scenes: one was Kenny Nault of SWIX, who laid hundreds of bucks worth of race wax on athlete's boards and skis, all on his little rail of a bench beside the inflatable start. SWIX has 10 different fluro waxes for different temperatures; and a tech with the right instinct is a piperider's best friend.
"Every one of the big hitters is having someone take care of their stuff. Today I took care of Kelly Clark, Torah Bright, Mason Aguirre, Keir Dillon, Luke and Jack Mitrani, Andy Finch, Justin Dorey, Matt Hayward, Mike Riddle. They are all great, I enjoy being around them. They are all so happy just to have someone helping them out," Nault said.
The other go-to guy was Tyson Goodrich, who used a 22-foot Zaugg pipe cutter to shape the superpipe. "There are only four 22-foot pipe cutters in the world right now. I cut the pipe to be 62 feet wide, 445 feet long, and with 22-foot high walls. The snow was a chunk of ice, so I had to torque a few things to keep the pipe cutter in shape," he said.
As for the walls, Goodrich said, "Some people like them steeper, some like it cut back. You can't please everyone, but I still have a job."
The award medals were bling to the max. Organizers wanted bling-ish medals, so the medals themselves were a big emblem of the World Superpipe Championships logo, with the letters "WSC" outlined in crystals, hanging from three large-linked chains. The medals glittered and blinged as they were hung around the winner's and placer's necks.
The invited field of 45 were selected by promoter Don Bostick after a good look at who were the top competitors of the moment. The ubiquitious Red Bull girls mingled through the crowd, carrying large backpacks of the energy drink, cans of which were given away to spectators, much to their delight.
The contest will be back early next spring. One of the coolest things about the event is that immediately after the last competitor goes, while the awards ceremony is still going on at the bottom of the pipe, the pipe itself is opened to the public. After seeing multi-misty flips, 9's and 12's, the local talent gets inspired and everyone has fun riding the same pipe the stars just rode. Put it on your calendar for next year.
2008 World Superpipe Championships Results
March 8, 2008 - Park City, UT
Men's Snowboard
1. Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) - 93.00 ($15,000)
2. Mason Aguirre (Mammoth Lakes) - 90.33 ($8,000)
3. Janne Korpi (Huhmari, FIN) - 85.33 ($4,000)
4. Luke Mitrani (Mammoth Lakes, CA) - 85.00 ($2,000)
5. Keir Dillon (East Stroudsburg, PA) - 81.33 $1,000
6. Louie Vito (Sandy, UT) - 79.00
7. Markus Malin (Lahti, Finland) - 77.67
8. Andy Finch (Fresno, CA) - 77.33
9. Peetu Piiroinen (Hyvinkaa, Finland) - 75.00
10. J.J. Thomas (Golden, CO) - 74.33
Women's Snowboard
1. Torah Bright (Cooma, Aus) - 96.67 ($15,000)
2. Kelly Clark (Mount Snow, VT) - 93.00 ($8,000)
3. Soko Yamaoka (Nagano, Japan) - 85.00 ($4,000)
4. Ellery Hollingsworth (Darien, CT) - 79.33 ($2,000)
5. Sophie Rodriguez (Grenoble, France) - 71.00 ($1,000)
6. Kjersti Buaas (Trondheim, NOR) - 68.00
7. Lisa Wiik (Trondheim, Norway)
8. Leslie Glenn - 62.33
9. Meg Pugh (Sunnyvale, CA) - 51.00
Men's Ski
1. Josiah Wells (Wanaka, NZ) - 96.33 ($15,000)
2. Justin Dorey (Vernon, BC) - 91.00 ($8,000)
3. Mike Riddle (Sherwood Park, AB) - 89.67 ($4,000)
4. Simon Dumont (Bethel, ME) - 88.67 ($2,000)
5. Tucker Perkins (North Hampton, NH) - 83.00 ($1,000)
6. Matt Hayward (Red Deer, AB) - 79.33
7. Byron Wells (Wanaka, NZ) - 75.67
8. Peter Olenick (Aspen, CO) - 75.33
9. JP Solberg (Breckenridge, CO) - 75.00
10. Dan Marion (Windham, ME) - 70.33