VAIL \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe course is awesome, probably one of the better courses I\u2019ve ridden,\u201d Gerard said.<\/p>\n
Not everyone found the fast and technical slopestyle venue so easy to navigate.<\/p>\n
A mandatory \u201cside hit\u201d \u2013 where the competitors must jump off a quarter pipe style transition onto the side of the jump, rather than hitting it head on \u2013 added a degree of difficulty for snowboarders who aren\u2019t used to that style of jump. Often times in competitions side hits are an option, but not mandatory.<\/p>\n
Gerard said he usually goes for the side hits when they are an option.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever they\u2019re in a course, I always try to hit them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In this case, \u201cthe mandatory side hit is awesome, one of my favorites,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
QUALIFIED FOR FRIDAY\u2019S FINALS<\/p>\n
Watch it live starting at 2 p.m. at BurtonUSOpen.com<\/a><\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n