After a phenomenal Friday night Rail Jam in Northstar village, the stakes were high for the second day of the Vans Cup 2008 - the Men and Women's Slopestyle on Saturday March 1.
Snowpark Technologies had once again done an awesome job building a park especially for the event - creating gigantic rollers, booters, hips and rail set ups on the site of the usual ski slalom course. Reserved purely for competition riders, and freshly groomed, the course was fast, smooth and allowed for some incredible riding, with an up-flat-down box, adjacent to a flat box to start, a 40, 50 and 60 foot jump, plus hip / wall ride / Quarterpipe combinations to finish.
With qualifiers running over time in the morning, finals were held post lunch - with the women's rescheduled from 11.30 to 1pm. With women and men riding the same enormous course, the ladies forced to progress and push themselves - or miss out. Many of the women riders began their first run of three by straightlining the kickers and still flailing. However, solid on big terrain and always stylish, the Netherland's Cheryl Maas stepped up the game, throwing huge spins off the final money winning kicker - including an epic backside 720 spin which took her ten points ahead, to clinch first place and the Best Trick Award. Norway's Kjersti Buass also impressed, with the Roxy rider proving she's not just a pipe rider and throwing massive frontside 540s off the medium sized jump and rail combos to start - nabbing second place. California's skater, surfer and snowboarder hero Chanelle Sladics then took third - also stepping her game up with big 540s and 360s off the large course.
If the Women's comp was impressive, the Men's was jaw dropping. With a line up consisting of the world's best jumpers 2007 winner, Chas Guldemond was desperate to take his second title of the weekend - going massive off every hit, but he only took sixth place. Instead it was the Aussie who came third, as Robbie Walker threaded together tow 900s and a big frontside 1080 off the biggest jump.
Young gun Mason Aguirre took inspiration from his sister's win at the rail jam the night before, to pull a cab 900, backside 720 and a frontside 1080 with a Truck Driver (two handed) grab - which won him 'Best Trick.' But it was Vans team superstar, Andreas Wiig, dressed in his 2009 signature outerwear lin for Vans who, back to defend his title, didn't disappoint. Nicknamed 'Mandreas' for his perfectly executed tricks, today he stomped with inimitably smooth style, spinning a switch backside 900, a massive frontside 1080 (almost landing on the flat after the landing) and his signature 'Wiig flip': a backside rodeo 900. Vans should be stoked: he retained his crown, won a Gibson Les Paul plus $20 000. Not bad for a few laps of the park...
Full results are as follows:
Women's Slopestyle
1. Cheryl Maas (Biarritz, France) won $15 000
2. Kjersti Buass (Trondheim,Norway $7500
3. Channelle Sladics (Newport Beach, CA) $3000
4. Mary Sallah (Truckee, CA) $1500
5. Vera Janssen $1000
6. Joanna Dzierzawski (South Lake Tahoe) $500
7. Jordan Karlinski (Snowmass, CO) $400
8. Spencer O'Brien (Courtney BC) $300
9. Alexis Waite (Kirkland, WA) $300
10. Erin Comstock (Incline Village, NV) $300
Men's Slopestyle
1. Andreas Wiig (Asker, NO) $20000
2. Mason Aguirre (Duluth, MN) $14000
3. Robbie Walker (AUS) $7000
4. Heikki Sorsa (FIN) $4000
5. Nate Sheehan (Salt Lake City, UT) $2500
6. Chas Guldemond (Laconia, NH) $1200
7. Thomas Harstad (Oslo, Norway) $800
8. Chris Coulter (Sandy, UT) $700
9. Eric Wilett (Breckenridge, CO) $600
10. Tyler Flanagan (Mammoth Lakes, CA) $500
Images: Vans Snow, except Andreas Wiig courtesy of TWSnow.com
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