European X Games Men's Ski Superpipe Elimination

Words & photos by Ananda van Welij

After the sun had set and Men’s Ski Slopestyle Finals finished up earlier in the day, it was time for the men to kick things off in the pipe with Men’s Ski Superpipe Elimination. A big crowd showed up to cheer on the riders on and as Matt Margetts mentioned at the top of the pipe while getting ready, it might have been the biggest turn out for a halfpipe qualification event ever, upping the level of excitement and overall vibe. 


Antoine Blanchi, who qualified through the SFR tour, kicked things off and as more and more riders dropped in, the level of riding went up. The absence of Kevin Rolland and Simon Dumont, both due to a torn ACL, opened up the field and give room for other riders to show what they had in their bag of tricks in order to progress to tonight’s finals. A total of 16 riders gave it their best shot, with everyone getting two runs for their chance at becoming one of the top eight.


Unfortunately Duncan Adams crashed on his last hit after putting down a solid run, and after having a hard time getting up on his own, it became clear that we would not see him drop in for a second. Join us in crossing our fingers for Duncan that the outcome won’t be too bad. And while the crowed cheered him on loudly as he received some last minute advice from his best friend Kevin Rolland, Xavier Bertoni put down a run that turned out to be just be enough to make it into finals, while knocking his fellow countryman Benoit Valentin out of the running in the process.

After getting injured on the final hit of his run at Winter X Games in Aspen and having to sit out the last month due to injury, Justin Dorey came out swinging last night and managed to score a spot for finals. Keep an eye out for him this evening, as some exciting rumors are going around here in France as to what he has in store.


Although he's not the biggest rider, young gun Torin Yater-Wallace managed to boost his amplitude so high that it makes you wonder where he gets the strength from to pull off a double cork 12 mute like that. Scoring himself a 87.33, he qualified in third.


And in the end, David Wise took the top spot after dropping in last with a run that included a switch cork 7, to right side cork 9 tail, cork 9 nose, alley-oop flat 5 tail and finished things up with a double cork 12 mute, scoring a 91.33.



Stay tuned for more coverage on European X Games, which concludes this evening with Women’s and Men’s Ski Superpipe Finals, and for a look at when you can watch it all go down on ESPN, click here.