VAIL – Red Gerard felt great on the Golden Peak slopestyle course at the Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships on Wednesday, landing the top scoring run on the day.
“The course is awesome, probably one of the better courses I’ve ridden,” Gerard said.
Not everyone found the fast and technical slopestyle venue so easy to navigate.
A mandatory “side hit” – where the competitors must jump off a quarter pipe style transition onto the side of the jump, rather than hitting it head on – added a degree of difficulty for snowboarders who aren’t used to that style of jump. Often times in competitions side hits are an option, but not mandatory.
Gerard said he usually goes for the side hits when they are an option.
“Whenever they’re in a course, I always try to hit them,” he said.
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In this case, “the mandatory side hit is awesome, one of my favorites,” he said.
Mark McMorris, a four time US Open slopestyle champion, had to make a mid-air adjustment on his qualifying run to avoid crashing off the side hit. He held it together and rotated a 720 to his feet, and was able to land the rest of the run and advance in eighth place.
QUALIFIED FOR FRIDAY’S FINALS
Watch it live starting at 2 p.m. at BurtonUSOpen.com
1 Red Gerard, USA
2 Ruki Tobita, JPN
3 Hiroaki Kunitake, JPN
4 Darcy Sharpe, CAN
5 Staale Sandbech, NOR
6 Lyon Farrell, USA
7 Luke Winkelmann, USA
8 Mark McMorris, CAN
9 Sven Thorgren, SWE
10 Brock Crouch, USA