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Jason Wolle, 19, of Frisco and Winter Park, flys high above the Copper Mountain Resort 22-foot superpipe earlier this week. Wolle redeemed his third-place finish in the open-class men’s halfpipe contest at last year’s USASA Nationals at Copper by soaring to a first-place finish in the same contest this year.
Courtesy USASA -
Snowboarders depart the boardercross gates earlier this week at the USASA Nationals at Copper Mountain Resort. This week’s snowboard national championship competitions wrapped up Thursday, while freeski competitions will take place next week.
Courtesy USASA -
Snowboarders march through Copper Mountain Resort’s Center Village as part of a ceremony to ring in the 2019 USASA Nationals at Copper Mountain Resort. This week’s snowboard national championship competitions wrapped up Thursday, while freeski competitions will take place next week.
Courtesy USASA
Battling a recent concussion, a broken arm and an ankle injury, Bella Mauro may just have put forth the toughest effort this week of the several Summit County locals who podiumed at the USASA National Championships at Copper Mountain Resort.
The 15-year-old Mauro, who splits her time living at Copper Mountain and in New Jersey, took third place in the 14-15 girls slopestyle competition at the annual Super Bowl of United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA) events: the National Championships. Mauro earned third-place via an 85.2-point run through the slope course that featured a half-cab with a nose grab, a straight air with a tucknee and a backside 360 with a melon grab on the USASA slopestyle course’s three jumps. Mauro also threw in a boardslide on the course’s third and final rail.
But there were several times in the lead-up to the event when it seemed Mauro might not be able to go. A week before USASAs began, Mauro caught her heels while overrotating when practicing one of her USASA competition tricks, receiving a cracked helmet and concussion in the process. After passing the return-to-snow protocol, Mauro was back on snow for the first training day of USASA. Mauro credited her Method4Life Snowboard Academy Coach Cameron Hunter for helping her to have the mindset to push past the injury, as he recommended the book “Mind Gym” to her. It’s a book she said helped her to visualize landing her runs before she attempted them.
“Stories about athletes who have gone through injuries and other things,” Mauro said, “things that help prepare them for contests or games.”
But on the competition day earlier this week, Mauro suffered an ankle injury that forced her into a walking boot by the end of the day. Despite the injury, and despite the fact she was still wearing a cast from a broken wrist, Mauro landed that third-place run through the slopestyle course.
“She got back up there and was still throwing,” said Mauro’s fellow USASA competitor and friend Ellie Weiler of Frisco. “She’s determined. It’s really sick to watch.”
Weiler herself podiumed twice at this week’s USASAs. Weiler, who splits her time between Frisco and Highlands Ranch, took third place in Tuesday’s open-class women’s rail jam and second place in Thursday’s open-class women’s slopestyle competition. She was able to ride to the rail jam podium on the strength of a front-lip and boardslide through the rail jam course’s down-flat-down-flat-down rail feature.
Heading into next season, the Team Summit rider Weiler and Mauro are slated to return to Revolution Tour, Rev Tour Elite and NorAm competitions across the country and Canada.
A local rider who has excelled at those competitions, Jason Wolle of Frisco, stole the show during Wednesday’s USASA competitions at Copper. The 19-year-old Wolle, who splits his time between Winter Park and Frisco, is a member of the U.S. Snowboard Halfpipe Rookie Team. Earlier this season, Wolle competed at such prestigious events as the Laax Open and several Toyota U.S. Grand Prixes. In fact, Wolle was able to qualify through to the finals at the Mammoth Mountain Grand Prix earlier this winter in California.
Though those competitions may be of a higher caliber than USASA Nationals, it was the USASAs at Copper that Wolle had circled on his calendar for the past year since he was unable to win the open-class men’s halfpipe competition last April. With family and friends cheering him on from the slushy snow in Copper’s Center Village, Wolle threw down a winning score of 100 to take the competition. He did so on the strength of a 5-hit run through the pipe that featured a backside dub-Michalchuk — which is a double backflip on a snowboarder’s backside wall — a frontside 900, a backside 540 with a double grab, a frontside 720 and a cab 720.
“Third place last year was not enough for me,” Wolle said. “So I decided to come back again this year and to be national champion is a huge honor. It’s my first time getting a first at Nationals, and I’ve been competing for upwards of five years. So it’s good to be back.”
Looking ahead, Wolle learned three double-cork tricks this year, which brings his total to four for competitions. Though he has yet to put three double-corks together into a run, Wolle is hopeful his progression this year to be able to throw down two double-corks at the Mammoth Mountain Grand Prix will position him well to continue to work toward his ultimate goal: Riding at the Olympics.
“My immediate plan is to perfect what I have now, working those three dubs with my coach JJ Thomas,” Wolle said. “To win a Grand Prix and to compete at a really high level, you do need a different kind of trick set. I’m not quite there yet. I would like to try some 12(60)s and hopefully eventually a 14(40). But right now I’m going to take it slow and work toward my bigger goal, which is eventually making the Olympics.”