Mount Snow, Vt. – Things started out slowly, literally, over on Lower Exhibition for the Skiing Big Air competition on Thursday. Just like in Wednesday's practice session, the Big Air competitors were having a tough time getting enough speed to make the 50-foot gap. It seemed like the quirky Vermont weather might get the best of the Big Air course again on Thursday.

In response, competitors and their team managers were rushing around trying to figure out how to get their boards going faster in hopes of finding that secret portal to the land of bigger air. Some were digging deep in their bag of tricks and trying to find that misty hundred dollar an ounce wax.

Others were pulling down fences so they could extend the runway further towards the summit. Still others were talking of using the old back country snowmobile tow in trick. Regardless, everything they tried seemed to fail to give them a real boost. As competition began everyone was still skating the legs off and going no bigger. As a result practice and early round jumps were not super spectacular. In fact there were only five jumps out of the first 40 that were even in the standard 80.00 range.

Evan Raps flew into second place in Skiing Big Air.

Then quietly in the early moments of the second round, Mike Nick, a Vermont local, scored 83.25 to take the lead. At this point it looked like he might stay on top for good. The sun had just come out and things started to soften up and make things even slower. In fact things did slow down and it took another whole rotation through the field before anyone even came close.

It was when things started to get colder and cloudier that the action really heated up. First, Rex Thomas threw down a perfect Misty 900 to squeeze by Nick and into the lead by a quarter point. That's when things really started to go off. Five skiers later it was C.R. Johnson, the Squaw Valley youngster, that raised the bar even higher with a corked out 900 and a score of 83.75. His glory didn't last long as Evan Raps immediately threw an unbelievably large switch 900 to take the lead by one more quarter point at 84.00. "I just skated a little harder and found my pop this time," Raps explained.

At this point pretty much everyone figured "Gangsta" Raps had the gold medal completely locked up. The cameras were in his face, high fives were being thrown, and the autographs were flying off his pen.

J.F. Cusson lightened things up for a moment in the finals when he paired his new flaming red mullet hairdo with a towering double "screamin' semen." Between the hair and the trick, he kept it real for both the old and new school.

The real question of the contest was "Where is Tanner Hall?" After winning the last two Big Air events in a row, the 17-year-old was certainly a medal favorite. Surprisingly, his early jumps were not super big or especially technically tight. That was until Hall took off from the kicker for his third run. Out of nowhere he tossed a perfect, boned out switch 720 rodeo tail grab. However, some were not convinced that this would push him ahead of Raps, including Hall himself.

It took the judges more a few minutes and a couple of video reviews to make their decision. Then it squawked over the speakers, "Tanner Hall takes the lead with a score of 84.25." Tanner seemed completely surprised, he sort of shook his in disbelief, and then realized that maybe he should smile.

It all came down to one last competitor with a chance to take Tanner down. And wouldn't you know that person turned out to be none other than last year's winner Candide Thovex. Everyone turned and fixed their gaze on the takeoff as Candide's name was announced. ESPN couldn't have hoped for a better setup. Unfortunately, as soon as Candide took off, it was obvious that something was horribly wrong. His spin was way off axis and floating dangerously low and left. With the nasty sounding smack of a deck casing, Candide's medal hopes were completely eliminated.

"My head just wasn't there for the first couple of jumps, the speed issue was bumming me out, but after my second jump I knew I could get the speed I needed," said Hall. "With the course firming up, I figured I might be able to put something together." Perhaps it worked. Tanner's last run concoction allowed him to take home his third consecutive Big Air victory of the season, $12, 000, and his first his Winter X Gold. With Raps following Hall with the silver, and Johnson with the bronze, maybe the U.S. has centered itself in the world of freestyle skiing once again.

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