You can't buy John Symms' suit in a store. You might, however, find it on eBay.Words: Julie Weinberger, Kristie GilesPhotos: Julie Weinberger, John KleinmanVideo: Kristi GilesGood thing Simon was able to pencil the World Superpipe Championships into his busy schedule of dominating pipe competitions, because now he's $15,000 richer. Not that he needed the money—he won 25 grand and a new car at the Honda Ski Tour the day before.On Saturday afternoon, The Ski Tour in Squaw Valley was finishing up. On Sunday at noon, the World Superpipe Championships in Park City was set to begin. With two huge events and a small showing of skiers in Park City for Saturday’s practice, ski fans were wondering which of their favorites they would get to see charge on Sunday. “We all talked about if we were going to go,” said Mike Riddle. “We said, 'Yeah, we’re going to go put on a good show.'”Those fans who showed up for practice on Sunday morning got a sneak peak at the gang, an awfully similar crew—including the likes of Simon Dumont, Stefan Thomas, Jossi Wells, Scott Hibbert, John Symms and Riddle—that threw down in Squaw Valley less than 24 hours earlier. In all, the World Superpipe Championships featured 17 invited stunt ditch superstars in a best-of-three-runs format, and it all went down at Park City Mountain Resort's Eagle Superpipe under brilliantly clear skies. DJ Knucklz provided the soundtrack.
Simon Dumont: Camera one...
...Camera two.
As for the competition, it was as if Dumont never even left the pipe at Squaw. The 12 in the middle of his last run was gigantic, and definitely the biggest he has gone on that trick. He followed it up with a 10. And, he actually grabbed it. Tanner Hall landed in second place with a final run of a 1260 to an alley-oop 5 to a 9 to a flair to a 10. Tanner was not going nearly as big as Simon, but as usual, every trick was flawless. What is most impressive about this finish for Tanner is that he hasn't skied pipe in while.“Simon and Riddle and all the competitors are boosting to levels I haven’t seen since I’ve been in the backcountry skiing pow,” said Tanner. “I haven’t really skied pipe since X Games, and you can definitely see the level getting upped as they’re skiing pipe every day.”
After a month of only powder skiing, Tanner can still keep up.
Tanner, spinning like Dumont.Also coming straight from Squaw was Riddle who nabbed third place. His first hit—a 540 nose grab stomped every time—is possibly the most photogenic trick of the season. He grabs the very tip of his ski and holds it until every shutter in the vincinity has clicked. From there, he flowed into a right 5 reverse mute to a 10 mute, finishing with a dialed switch 7 mute.
Mike Riddle gets the grab and the shot.“It’s been a busy few days,” said Riddle of the hectic competition schedule. “I just want to go home and sleep.” After finishing second in Squaw, Jossi spun his way into fourth on Sunday. He went pretty big, but was not quite as technical as the guys above him. He did, however, spin both ways, something that was missing from the winner’s run. “I skied to my potential in Squaw, then drove out here and got fourth,” said Jossi. “I’m stoked.”
Jossi, tired of being down under, goes over for a while.With an almost entirely switch run, Stefan Thomas found himself in fifth place. For that, the flowery MC said, “He puts the ‘ooooh’ in ‘ooooh la la.’” With a night in the car instead of a night at the bar, Scott Hibbert landed all three of his runs. While he attributes this phenomenon to listening to music while skiing now, some may think otherwise. “In practice for WSC on Thursday, I started listening to music, and I think that distracted me from all the thoughts going through my head like money and whatever else,” he said.Anyway, Hibbert stomped the crap out of his double back flip on the first hit of his final run, following it up with a switch alley-oop 9 to switch 7 to a flair into a 9 reverse mute. On one of his other runs, he did back-to-back 10s, too. “I was just happy to land,” said Hibbert. “I landed all three runs. I can’t complain.” Other highlights included John Symm’s pants, an alley-oop boycott led by Jossi Wells, and, of course, Simon's rocket-like boosts. As usual, the judges (and the crowd) seemed to value amplitude more than technicality. So the results went like such:1st: Simon Dumont ($15,000)2nd: Tanner Hall ($8,000)3rd: Mike Riddle ($4,000)4th: Jossi Wells ($2,000)5th: Stefan Thomas ($1,000)6th: JP Solberg7th: John Symms
Symms knows what style is, and I'm not talking about the pants: hella reverse japan.
Taylor Felton, providing a crucial element of interstate commerce.
John Spriggs grabs deliberate tail.
Dan Marion grabs academy tail.
JL Ratchel grabs no tail.
Stefan Thomas boned out 360.Watch the video here! (30MB .mp4)