{"id":803194,"date":"2020-01-17T17:31:51","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T00:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=377495"},"modified":"2020-01-17T17:31:51","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T00:31:51","slug":"red-gerard-finishes-as-runner-up-at-laax-open-slopestyle-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/red-gerard-finishes-as-runner-up-at-laax-open-slopestyle-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Gerard finishes as runner-up at Laax Open slopestyle competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Red Gerard of Summit County rides a rail at the top of the slopestyle course during his runner-up run at Friday’s Laax Open finals in Switzerland.<\/strong>
Courtesy Laax Open<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Red Gerard will ride into next week\u2019s X Games in Aspen snowboarding at his best.<\/p>\n

On Friday in Switzerland, Gerard was the top-scoring American and the runner-up in the men\u2019s snowboard slopestyle final at the Laax Open. Under clear skies and in ideal riding conditions, Gerard laced together the most inventive line through the course.<\/p>\n

On his first and highest-scoring run, Gerard earned a score of 85.45 with a run through the course that consisted of a rock n roll, a backside nose-press 270, a cab-on backside 360 melon off of a rail feature, a frontside 1080, a backside 1260 with a melon grab, a switch backside 1440 with a mute grab and a cab-on to backside 720 off the butter knuckle feature.<\/p>\n

Gerard tried to up his score on his second run through the course but wasn\u2019t as clean with his line while riding through the softening snow later in the competition. That opened the door for Canadian star Sebastien \u201cSeb Toots\u201d Toutant to best Gerard with a score of 87.45.<\/p>\n

Toutant\u2019s run, which he pieced together after a hard crash in training, consisted of a 50\/50 stall to a frontside 270 out of a rail feature, a hardway switch backside 270 lipslide, a switch lipslide underflip off of a feature, a frontside double cork 900, a cab 1260 with a nose grab, a backside 1440 with a mute grab and a frontside double cork 1080 with a mute grab.<\/p>\n

Other top American finishers at Friday\u2019s slopestyle competition included third-place finisher and rising Californian Judd Henkes (82.33), another rising teen star in Gerard\u2019s close friend and North Carolina native Luke Winkelmann (sixth, 75.00), Ryan Stassel (eighth, 56.13), Dusty Henricksen (ninth, 39.63) Lyon Farrell (11th, 28.56) and Michigan native and Silverthorne resident Kyle Mack (12th, 26.81).<\/p>\n

After the competition, the first FIS snowboard slopestyle competition of the World Cup season, Gerard ranks in second place in the 2019-20 men\u2019s snowboard slopestyle season standings, with 800 points, only behind Toutant\u2019s 1,000 points.<\/p>\n

As for the overall park-and-pipe season standings \u2014 which combine results from slopestyle, halfpipe and big air competitions \u2014 Gerard\u2019s 800 points from Friday catapult him to fourth place with 1,880 total points, behind fellow Summit County snowboarder and two-time reigning park-and-pipe season champion Chris Corning (first, 3,250), Canadian teen phenom Nicolas LaFramboise (second, 2,316) and Australian halfpipe juggernaut Scotty James (2,000).<\/p>\n

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