Skiing is only for little fat kids; at least that's what a sticker on a neon snowboard sometime in the early 90's told me. To be truthful it wasn't all that far off. Skiing had lost it's edge, replaced by snowboarding, which was newer, cooler and progressing at an almost daily rate. New snowboarding stars were born every season and riders were moving from concentrating on who had the best carving turns at a resort to who could slide the handrail in the parking lot and could spin a 900 off the backcountry kicker.

A very big plane just flew by.

Skiing on the other hand was stagnant for the most part, a sport inhabited by neon clad racers and bump skiers. The "freestyle skiing" revolution of the 80's was dead, killed by the seriousness and rules of FIS regulated competition which limited what kind of tricks could be done in competition, banning inverted tricks in the process. FIS involvement got freestyle into the Olympics, but killed the creativity and soul of the sport, stopping the progression and turning off the next generation of snow sport kids (watch out Snowboarding it could happen to you next).

A lot has happened in 10 years and skiing's popularity and participation is back on the rise. Sometime in the mid 90's a group of new schoolers said goodbye to the structure and tyranny of FIS regulated skiing and decided that the sport desperately needed a facelift. They adopted grabs and off axis spins into their bag of tricks and started taking the sport out of the bumps and into resort parks and pipes. Jonny Moseley in his final Olympic run in Nagano, Japan threw an unprecedented 360 mute grab and brought a gold medal back to the US, showing the world there was more to skiing than twisters and dorky looking daffys. Little Jonny became a rock star overnight, complete with all the amenities. Skiing was no longer only for little fat kids.

I wonder how many pieces of flair are on his jacket?

At this year's Winter X Games skiing will be taken to the next level in front of a global audience with the addition of skiing Slopestyle and SuperPipe. This weekend in Breckenridge, Colorado the sport's hopefuls came out in droves to try to qualify for the final two spots of the Winter X ski pipe competition at the inaugural EXPN SuperPipe qualifier sponsored by Freeze magazine. The competitors ranged from the local ripper down the road to the biggest guys in the sport all fighting for two little spots and a shot at fame and fortune.

Competition was fierce and the pipe was first rate (the same one used for the Van's Triple Crown two weeks before). New England golden child Rory Will was boosting 14ft stylie airs out of the first hit in the pipe, while Japan's Shimo was throwing switch flip tricks that even he didn't have a name for, while the rest of the 50 some potential qualifiers, including a ripping girl from Utah, showed that the next generation's been hitting the pipe hard this year.

Pierre Espargiliere above the lip with style.

In the end it was Greg Tuffelmire, the Copper Mountain sponsored local ripper and Mammoth Mountain's Evan Raps who placed first and second respectively. Greg was one of the most consistent riders all day, throwing set-up airs and a big 900 in the finals. Evan, last year's WX Big Air silver medallist, had some of the best style of the day finishing off his final run with a big flair and an invert to the delight of the big crowd which had gathered.

Big thanks go out to all the competitors, Freeze magazine, Global Event Management, and all the spectators who showed up for helping to make the first EXPN Skiing SuperPipe Qualifier a big success.

Greg Tuffelmire gets the big congrats from a broski.

Final Results:
1. Greg Tuffelmire
2. Evan Raps
3. Shimo
4. Pierre Espargiliere
5. Rory Will
6.Stefan Thomas
7. Rory Silva
8. Shannon Schad
9. Tony Quinn
10. Nick Mercon

   Send to a friend  | Submit your photo or video
   Top Rated Photos |  Top Rated Videos |  Most Sent