Monster Energy skier Justin Dorey blasts big, winning the FIS Visa US Halfpipe GP opener

Dorey dominates the 68-man field in winning at Summit County’s Copper Mountain (Colo.), earns World Championships berth as well.

CORONA, Calif., (Dec. 10, 2010) – Monster Energy freeskier Justin Dorey, one of the newschooler Canadian Air Force members, lit it up today at Summit County’s (Colo.) Copper Mountain, besting the 68-man field in the season’s first major halfpipe event – the 11th annual FIS Visa U.S. Halfpipe Grand Prix.

The 22-year-old from Vernon, B.C., Canada, backed up his U.S. Open SuperPipe win from 2009 with the win at Copper – and in doing so received an automatic berth to the 2011 World Championships in Deer Valley, Colo. (Jan. 30 – Feb. 5). Dorey topped fellow Canadian Mike Riddle (2nd) and local Simon Dumont (3rd) for the win.

“Pumped I was able to win and, when I heard I qualified for the World Championships as well, that made it even better,” said Dorey. “It’s cool to have everybody together, skiers and snowboarders, competing at the FIS-sanctioned Visa U.S. Halfpipe GPs. Definitely had a Winter X (Games) feel to it and that helped push the level of competition.”

Dorey’s run to the top of the Copper podium included: a double cork 1260 on his first hit, into an alley oop flatspin 360 – setting up a switch 900 to switch right 720 combo. He capped off the top-scoring run with a rightside alley oop flatspin 540.

Dubbed the Main Vein, Copper’s 22-foot perfectly transitioned superpipe featured freeskiers competing alongside snowboarders for the first time in the event’s 11-year history as freeskiers are set to join the snowboarders in the superpipe at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The snowboarders take to the Copper halfpipe tomorrow (Saturday), with Louie Vito representing for Monster Energy!

Up next for Dorey, the Winter Dew Tour opener down the street at Breckenridge, Dec. 16-19.

Monster Energy supports the scene. Be it freeskiing, FMX, Dakar off-road, Budapest Fridge, TORC, Rallycross, skate, MTB, trials, boardercross, MX, SX, surfing, BMX, go-karts, pit bikes, mountain bikes, PWC racing, rally, insane distance jumping, MotoGP, road racing, supermoto, rock crawling, wake, surf – name it – seems athletes and bands are rockin' Monster Energy more than anything these days. Monster Import, Import Light and DUB join all the types - Original Monster Energy, Lo-Carb Monster, Monster Assault, Monster's fruit juice hybrids dubbed Monster Khaos, Monster M-80 and Monster MIXXD, the ground-breaking Java Monster and X-Presso Monster premium coffee & cream drink line supercharged with Monster Energy's blend, 3 oz. Monster Hitman Energy Shooters, nitrous oxide injected Nitrous Monster and the new no carb/sugar Absolutely Zero. Justin Dorey digs ‘em - so will you. On the ‘Net at http://www.monsterarmy.com and http://www.monsterenergy.com