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Day 3 - Orage European Freeski Open by Swatch

Posted Mar 19th 2009 7:08PM by Mike Nick - 6 comments - Average rating 8.25 of 4 ratings

There seems to be a disturbance in the force and an unsettling trend has emerged… or should I say, an unsettling trend continues.  The Orage European Freeski Open by Swatch just wouldn't be the Orage European Freeski Open by Swatch if we weren't faced with challenging weather.  Day 1 brought with it beautiful blue skies and a bit of wind late in the day, day 2 brought with it a partially cloudy mix and a bit of wind earlier in the day.  And in the end, the result of both the slope and pipe qualis would call for competition to be postponed. But this is the Orage European Open and we can handle it.
10 minutes of half pipe practice

The men from yesterday's 4th heat of the slope qualis were able to make up for lost time and banged through the last round early this morning.  Not skipping a beat was Alexis Godbout from QC. Canada taking the top spot with a fair amount of clearance between him and second place finisher Julien Lange from France.  With only one point separating second and third Switzerland's own Nicolas Vuignier took the third spot with John Spriggs, Kevin Guri, Hans-Jakob Brandt and Maxime Fornier rounding out the top 7 to move into Friday's slope finals.

From the slope course we moved to the superpipe where the ladies were ready to get their groove on.  Trick provider extrordinaire, Claudia Bouvier from the US threw down solid runs, spinning 5's and making the best of less than perfect conditions to take home the top spot for Saturday's final.  Belgium's Katrien Aerts and Great Britian's Reecca Hammond rounded out the top three. 

When the men were ready to take to the pipe, the wind was also ready and waiting to up the ante.  Old man winter kicked it into high gear and drummed up some hefty wind gusts.  When it was all said and done, the men were only able to get one run wrapped up before being forced to throw in the towel.

Aurelien Fornier

Thomas Krief


Peter Olenick airing over Byron Wells

Volkl's Matt Philippi threw down an insanely sold run despite the conditions.  Switch drop ins to cab seven, huge nines both ways, flat threes and fives earned Matt the top spot… in our humble opinion at least.  But then again, we were just a couple freezing dudes chillin at the bottom of the pipe with no influence on judging.  Either way, props to Philippi.

Matt Philippi

Just as the second runs from heat 1 were about the begin, the wind kicked into overdrive and forced the event managers to opt out of the remaining contest.

The last bit of sunshine on the pipe

The rest of the halfpipe qualifier and semis will be completed on Saturday morning followed by the finals that afternoon.  It'll be crunch time but the cream will rise to the top and he / she who deserves to take home to the cash will certainly do so. 

Tune in tomorrow for slopestyle finals action for both the men and women.