Monday, February 5

Red Bull Huckfest 2001

By McBain
freezeonline.com

Under gray skies and light snow, 17-year old Tanner Hall proved to be the hometown hero today at the Red Bull Huckfest in Snowbird, Utah. Tanner used switch takeoffs all day to beat some of the top skiers in the world in head-to-head big air competition, including Phil Belanger, who placed second in the best-of-three finals. Nick Mercon, from Summit County, Colorado, beat out defending champion, Candide Thovex in the consolation round for third place. For his victory, Tanner took home $6,000, with Belanger getting $4,000 for second, and Mercon getting $2,000.

Judging was tough today as some early-round matchups, including Tanner vs. Jon Olsson, CR Johnson vs. Marc Belliveau, and Rex Thomas vs. Belanger, all had to be decided on just one jump (instead of the best 2 of 3 in the later rounds). To make matters worse, weather closed the top half of the 2-jump course forcing competitors to just be judged on one hit. But some incredible jumps like Mercon's Misty 1080, Belanger's cork 900, and Candide's switch 720 Rodeo gave the 2,000+ fans a great show.

"That is the first time I ever threw that trick," Thovex said. "I am happy that my knee feels good and that I didn't get hurt today." Candide is recovering from a knee injury that kept him out of action all spring and summer, 2000. But that knee looked as good as new today and Candide should once again be a factor in the X-Games.

As always, the Red Bull guys put on a great event and all the athletes seemed to be very happy with all the free dinners and parties that were laid out. Props to LP and Gunning from Red Bull for kicking down for the show and props also to Dooley, Comey, Swany, and the whole MSI crew for delivering the package. Here is the head-to-head rundown?

Round One: Mickael Descheneaux over Phil Dion, Tanner Hall over Jon Olsson, Candide Thovex over Matt Sturbenz, Marc Belliveau over CR Johnson, Phil Belanger over Rex Thomas, Shimo over Andy Woods, Evan Raps over Boyd Easley, Nick Mercon over Steele Spence

Round Two: Tanner over Descheneaux, Candide over Belliveau, Belanger over Shimo, Mercon over Raps

Round Three: Tanner over Candide, Belanger over Mercon

Finals: Tanner over Belanger for 1-2, Mercon over Candide for 3-4

Oh yeah, there was also a snowboard division of the comp as well and Borgstede won but you can read about that on Snowboarding.com or something.