{"id":804729,"date":"2020-02-28T11:45:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=379725"},"modified":"2020-02-28T11:45:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T18:45:45","slug":"scotty-james-tops-mens-halfpipe-semifinals-at-burton-us-open-dillon-resident-chase-blackwell-qualifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/scotty-james-tops-mens-halfpipe-semifinals-at-burton-us-open-dillon-resident-chase-blackwell-qualifies\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotty James tops men\u2019s halfpipe semifinals at Burton US Open; Dillon resident Chase Blackwell qualifies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Scotty James hand plants on the tombstone feature of the modified halfpipe for the mens halfpipe semifinals during the Burton US Open Thursday in Vail. James qualified first.<\/strong>
Courtesy Vail Daily<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

VAIL \u2013 Twenty-nine of the world\u2019s best halfpipe riders competed Thursday in the Burton US Open halfpipe semifinals, with several Eagle and Summit County residents and athletes with local ties competing.<\/p>\n

Jake Pates, of Eagle, qualified in fourth position. He said Burton\u2019s version of the halfpipe competition this year, where a 13-foot mini-pipe precedes a shortened version of a normal competition venue, made the event more exciting. Pates has competed in the Burton US Open every year since 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think mod pipe is the new direction,\u201d he said of the \u201cmodified halfpipe\u201d concept.<\/p>\n

After high school, another qualifier from Thursday, Rakai Tait, moved from Eagle County to New Zealand, where he is a member of the national snowboarding team. He said he has enjoyed traveling back to Eagle County for events like the Grand Prix at Copper Mountain Resort and the Burton US Open.<\/p>\n

Earlier this season, Tait notched his best performance ever at the World Cup in Mammoth Mountain, where he finished seventh. That was the first time he had ever made finals at a big event. He said he wasn\u2019t expecting to make the finals among the deep field of riders at the Burton US Open, and the fact that he has a guaranteed top 10-finish at the event already makes it among the best competitions of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just stoked that I landed, and then when the score popped up, I was like \u2018Oh my God, that\u2019s crazy,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tait said figuring out the course is as much fun as competing in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coolest thing about this course is deciding what line you\u2019re going to take,\u201d he said. \u201cI can go mini-pipe hit, or I can do the hit out, and you have to ask yourself which you\u2019ll have more fun doing, and which might score better.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Defending champion Scotty James, who topped the field in Thurday\u2019s semifinals, said the course tests air awareness, board control and \u201cthose key fundamentals you learn from a very young age that you don\u2019t get from bouncing on the trampoline or sending yourself into an airbag.\u201d<\/p>\n

James said the first time he tried halfpipe snowboarding, in a hand-dug, Australian terrain park, the walls were probably about the same size as the 13-foot mini-pipe on Burton\u2019s course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say there\u2019s a lot of similarities between this top section in this course to my first pipe experience,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n

Below are the finalists scheduled to compete at 2 p.m. MST Saturday, including Longmont native and Dillon resident Chase Blackwell:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Scotty James<\/li>\n
  2. Pat Burgener<\/li>\n
  3. Yuto Totsuka<\/li>\n
  4. Jake Pates<\/li>\n
  5. Jan Scherrer<\/li>\n
  6. Rakai Tait<\/li>\n
  7. Joey Okesson<\/li>\n
  8. Shuichiro Shigeno<\/li>\n
  9. Chase Blackwell<\/li>\n
  10. Danny Davis<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This story is from VailDaily.com<\/em><\/p>\n

    via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Scotty James hand plants on the tombstone feature of the modified halfpipe for the mens halfpipe semifinals during the Burton US Open Thursday in Vail. James qualified first.Courtesy Vail Daily VAIL \u2013 Twenty-nine of the world\u2019s best halfpipe riders competed Thursday in the Burton US Open halfpipe semifinals, with several Eagle and Summit County residents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-20 07:26:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804729\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}