{"id":2452185,"date":"2019-12-12T21:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T04:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/finals-for-snowboard-pipe-set-at-copper\/"},"modified":"2019-12-12T21:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T04:36:00","slug":"finals-for-snowboard-pipe-set-at-copper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/finals-for-snowboard-pipe-set-at-copper\/","title":{"rendered":"Finals for snowboard pipe set at Copper"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Snowboard Qualifiers<\/strong>
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COPPER MOUNTAIN \u2014 As Scotty James returns to international halfpipe competition this winter, it feels as though every top American and foreign snowboarder is chasing the Australian star\u2019s ongoing mastery of each superpipe he drops into. Thursday at the Land Rover U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain Resort was no different.<\/p>\n

A year after James won every halfpipe event he entered \u2014 6 for 6 \u2014 the reigning Copper Grand Prix, Dew Tour and Burton U.S. Open men\u2019s snowboard halfpipe champion posted the top score during Thursday\u2019s qualifying round. James earned a 93.25 on the strength of a five-hit run through the pipe that featured massive amplitude and landing high up on the superpipe wall to keep necessary speed despite the slow nature of the powdery conditions.<\/p>\n

The run included a frontside double cork 1080 (two inversions and three rotations while rotating to the board\u2019s front side), a cab 900, a switch backside double cork 1080, a backside 900 and a frontside double cork 1260.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to be the best run of today,\u201d U.S. pro big air and slpestyle snowboarder Jake Canter of Silverthorne said in the finish corral after James\u2019 run. \u201cThat was psycho.\u201d<\/p>\n

James will be joined in Saturday\u2019s final round, scheduled for noon to 1:45 p.m., by second-place qualifier Yuto Totsuka of Japan (87.50) and third-place rider Andre Hoeflich of Germany (83.75). The fourth-place qualifier was the top American on the day: rising star Toby Miller out of California. A year after he finished runner-up to James at this competition, Miller landed a first run score of 81.75 to get through to the finals.<\/p>\n

Miller said though Thursday\u2019s powdery conditions were a challenge, especially in terms of keeping speed, the competitors benefited from similar conditions during Monday\u2019s first practice day. Miller\u2019s run, during which he opted for six hits instead of five due to the slow pipe, consisted of a frontside double cork 1080, a cab double cork 1080, a frontside 900, a backside 540, a flat-spin frontside 1080 and a switch 720.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to Saturday, Miller said that depending on weather conditions and if the speed is there, he expects podium placers to land one, if not two, 1260s. At last year\u2019s Copper Grand Prix, Miller made a statement with back-to-back 1260s. He\u2019s been working on landing those and a 1440 in one run, something he\u2019s never done in competition. That said, Saturday\u2019s powder-filled forecast could prevent him from attempting it.<\/p>\n

After missing out on last year\u2019s final, Dillon resident Chase Blackwell qualified on the strength of three 1080s in one five-hit run. Miller commended Blackwell for soaring high above the pipe, a skill Blackwell is able to maintain in powdery conditions thanks to his prowess riding powder off piste. Blackwell\u2019s full 73.00 run consisted of a massive frontside double cork 1080, a cab 1080, a frontside air, a backside 900 and one last frontside 1080.<\/p>\n

\u201cChase Blackwell is one of my best friends,\u201d Miller said. \u201cHe\u2019s the man. Seeing him put down that first run and make it into finals made me just as happy as I was when I saw I made finals. He was riding absolutely phenomenal going just as big as everybody else if not setting the standard for amplitude. Everyone in here has unique style, but Chase definitely takes that as a big factor in his riding.\u201d<\/p>\n

American veteran Chase Josey was the third and final U.S. rider to qualify. He placed seventh on the day with a score of 74.25.<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s competition, Maddie Mastro picked up where she left off last year, when she became the first female to land a double crippler in a halfpipe competition at the Burton U.S. Open in Vail. That earned her a win over previously dominant U.S. teammate Chloe Kim.<\/p>\n

With Kim in attendance \u2014 the 2018 Olympic gold medalist is taking a break from competition this season to focus on college \u2014 the Californian Mastro posted the highest qualifying score Thursday, a 92.00. She\u2019s the only American who made it through to Saturday\u2019s final, as Spaniard Queralt Castellet (85.75) and Jiayu Liu of China (85.25) rounded out the top three.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty happy, and it feels good to lay two runs down at the first contest of the year,\u201d Mastro said. \u201cThere is a lot of anticipation and nerves that build up throughout the offseason, but finally things are moving, and it feels great. We had a great set of training camps leading into the Grand Prix, and I feel that work paid off today with some fresh snow causing some challenging conditions. I\u2019m looking forward to finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

aolivero@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Snowboard Qualifiers COPPER MOUNTAIN \u2014 As Scotty James returns to international halfpipe competition this winter, it feels as though every top American and foreign snowboarder is chasing the Australian star\u2019s ongoing mastery of each superpipe he drops into. Thursday at the Land Rover U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain Resort was no different. A year […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 02:19:07","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}