Cover: Simon Bartik flying high in qualis, captured by John Brown
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The first city-based FIS Big Air of the winter went down this evening in Modena, Italy. The weekend was certainly not without its difficulties with rainy weather canceling practice sessions meaning that when it came to today's qualifying and finals it had been 2 days since anyone had hit the jump. There were also some minor speed issues thanks to the warm weather. However, despite the circumstances, the ever-increasing level of ski big air was on display on a behemoth of a jump.
Qualifying saw Swiss freeski leading the charge with Kai Mahler and Fabian Boesch taking the top spot in their respective heats. Fabian's capped double 16 blunt was perhaps the highlight of the whole session. There were a handful of triples, but on the whole, it was the unique doubles that scored best. Mathilde Gremaud topped qualifying for the Swiss on the ladies side too, rounding out a heavy showing.
The finals went off under the lights and in general, the trend of tricks on the men's side was the continued move towards more technical grab combos and more solid grabs making the difference. Oh and Kai Mahler blew everyone's mind with a crazy innovation switch dub 10 pre-inside safety to stale (watch more of his craziness in the Glacier Days Movie: Out Now). On the women's side, nobody really stomped two perfect runs but the Swiss dominance continues. Here's the best of the stunts:
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https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/913380/VID-62660909-005044-133-mp4
Video live from Till Matti's living room. Better highlights when they drop
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Men's Highlights
- Colby Stevenson: Dub 14 tail to japan
- Andri: Triple 14 dub safety, switch dub misty 16 safety (tindy kinda), triple 16 dub safety (slight shuffle)
- Jesper: switch left dub 7 thing (set like a switch dub 10 but opened out to stop the rotation at 7)
- Birk Ruud: Dub 14 tail to tail (backseat), switch dub 16 tail (90.75), dub 14 tail to tail (cleaner)
- Finn Bilous: Switch triple 'flat' 12 safety (86.75)
- Henrik: Switch triple 'flat' 12 high mute (87.5), forward dub bio 12 safety (84.25)
- ABM: Dub 7 cossack safety (unfortunately crashed twice on sw dub 12)
- AHall: Switch dub 14 seatbelt + tail (91.25), dub 16 stale (86.25)
- Kai Mahler: switch dub 10 pre-inside safety to stale (92.75), carving dub 10 safety + nose (78.25)
- Fabian Boesch: Dub 16 blunt (85.5), switch triple 14 safety (87.25).
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Top 3 Videos:
Finn Bilous: 1st Place
Alex Hall: 2nd Place
Andri Ragettli: 3rd Place
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Full Results:
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Women's Highlights
- Lara Wolff: Switch 7 tail (hand down), forward 7 tail
- Kea Kuhnel: left cork 7 tail, right cork 7 safety,
- Sarah Hoefflin: Switch left 7 safety, switch right 7 high mute
- Elena Gaskell: 7 tail, switch 9 mute (shuffle landing)
- Johanne Killi: 9 tail
- Mathilde Gremaud: Bio 9 safety (flawless), switch 7 mute.
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Top 3 Videos:
Mathilde Gremaud: 1st Place
Sarah Hoefflin: 2nd
Kea Kuhnel
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Results:
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