The biggest competition of the year just finished and the very first run we saw was a flawless one, including a triple 14 from Goepper for 93.66. Biggest first run score ever? And he only made it in to the final when ABM who went down hard in eliminations, decided not to ride. Gus is up next so 'that story' is immediately in full effect, but he went down despite 'puppy power'. Henrik Harlaut also went down extremely hard on his first run under rotating a nosebutter triple 16. Horrible crash but he was at least moving by the time he was stretchered to hospital and proceedings resumed. Alex Bellemare was the next guy to put down a solid run, with his mind-blowing 4 pretz 4 but flails on the second jump a little and got marked down to a 83. Joss Christensen stomped hard including a switch right triple 12 to go second with a 90.66.
Nick Goepper added a double misty 10 to his second run but fell on his triple. Gus went down on a switch triple for second time to ruin an otherwise solid run. Woodsy came off early on the third rail feature so again, it's a low score. Bellemare almost perfects his run again but comes up a little short on the third jump. He bumps his score to 85.66 but stays in third. Joss Christensen puts down the same run as his first but it isn't quite as smooth so stays in second. He shouts out to SLVSH.com, which wins him some points in my book because SLVSH is definitely funnest things to watch in skiing right now. Tom Wallisch drops last for round 2 and catches a tip edge on take off and yet somehow still stomps a switch dub 10 on some never before seen axis thanks to the weird takeoff. The man is a ninja. He gives thanks to whatever higher power he's riding for at the bottom, so clearly was a bit shaken!
Final run, Nick Goepper puts down both the dub 10 misty and the triple 14 in his third run but is docked points for a sloppy landing. His 93.66 from run 1 holds. Gus lands all his tricks but not cleanly, leaving him in 6th. Woodsy is 50cm of air from the run of his life, which would almost certainly have been the winning run but lands sloppily on his triple and sits in 5th. Still a switch dub cork 9 octo is one we haven't seen before. Bobby Brown stumbles and doesn't put down a clean run but still moves up to 4th. Alex Bellemare stumbles in the rails for the first time and in his 'chilled run' throws an incredible lazyboy dub 7. Ridiculous, best trick of X-Games so far? Joss Christensen falls on his third run and so finishes 2nd. Last to drop T-Wall falls and can't top Goepper, who wins with the very first run of the contest!
It was kind of a bummer that only the top 2 guys put down their runs perfectly, possibly an indication that technicality really has gone too far. There can't be much to complain about with the judging though, since pretty much nobody landed clean, a welcome respite for them I'm sure! I'm praying by next year we'll be over puppygate because if not, I may have to stab someone. But I'll leave this on a brighter note, a brilliant quote from Nick Goepper to end the day: "X-Games is truly the world championship of our sport". Middle fingers to FIS, yes Nick.
1. Nick Goepper 93.66
2. Joss Christensen 90.66
3. Alex Bellemare 85.66
4. Bobby Brown 75.00
5. James Woods 72.66
6. Tom Wallisch 70.00
7. Gus Kenworthy 57.00
8. Henrik Harlaut 22.66
Nick Goepper's 1st Place Run
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/750734/Nick-Goepper-wins-gold-in-Men--------s-Ski-SlopestyleJoss Christensen's 2nd Place Run
Alex Bellemare's 3rd Place Run
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