16 January 2003
The Val Thorens Boarderweek is becoming an
institution amongst French and German riders, especially snowboarders.
Organisers
reckon that around 10,000 riders of all persuasion congregate in
Val Thorens for the week long party, product test and competition.
Just how big it is these days was demonstrated by the headlining
band for the opening two nights of the week. Old-Skool HipHop legends
De La Soul were laying down their fantastic grooves and setting
Val T alight.
Fast track X-Games entry
However, it was the prospect of grabbing a guaranteed entry to this
year's 2003 X-Games that prompted many of the world's leading skiers
to participate. For the second year running, included in the programme
were the European X-Games qualifiers for half-pipe and slopestyle.
With 3 places up for grabs in the half-pipe and four in the slopestyle,
riders were queuing up to try to book their places in Aspen.
Half-Pipe
It looked like the Snows-in-the-House camera crew were
filming "Dude, where's our pipe?", the freeskiing sequel to "Dude,
where's my car?", at the X-Games European qualifier in Val Thorens
just before Christmas (Monday, 16th Dec 2002).
As the Oakley International Team rode up to check out the half-pipe
on Monday morning, there were yells of "man, what is this?" and
"dude, can you believe the state of the pipe?" The same expressions
were being uttered in French, German and any other language common
amongst the riders. The half-pipe was in an appalling mess. The
walls curved in and out down the slope, the transition was not always
smoothly rounded and the sides were sometimes over-, sometimes under-vert.
Basically, it looked lethal and as if it had been dug out by schoolkids
with shovels rather than the latest in pipe-designing machinery.
Sadly the half-pipe was in no fit state for the riders to compete,
so the competition was postponed till the following day. The intention
was to give the shapers time to fix the problems. As everybody headed
off, more than a few riders wore sceptical looks.
The state of the pipe severely hindered the opportunity for the
riders to express themselves fully. They gave it their best shot,
but the lack of predictability and smoothness in the terrain hampered
them at every turn. This was meant to be the showcase half-pipe
event on the 2002/2003 European Freeski scene. It didn't happen.
The lack of professional preparation of the pipe itself ended up
as frustrating and embarrassing to the European freeskiers: but
worse it also resulted in lower standards than the competition,
the riders and the resort deserved. As Iannick B put it, as everybody
was packing up to head back to town, "the riding was all from two
years ago at the least."
In the end, the Oakley and Armada boys all pulled out, deigning the pipe unfit for serious competition. In fact, with 3 X-Games qualifying places still up for grabs, this spurred on many of the younger Europeans, who may not originally have been in the reckoning. Actually, one rider pulled out and then had a change of heart. As he and Chris O'Connell were riding a chairlift to head off freeskiing, Boyd Easley was overheard to say "Dude, you know, I think I can win this!". With encouragement from team manager, O'Connell, Easley headed back just in time to take part in the qualification run.
The field for the half-pipe did have some world-class riders. Alonside Easley, were French riders Baptiste Collomb Patton (Dynastar), Laurent Favre Reguillon (Scott), Seb Lounis (Rossignol) and Mick Moy (Rossignol), as well as Canadian, Thomas Rinfert (Rossignol) and Sweden's Henrik Winstedt (Rossignol)
Knockout semis
The 40 riders in qualification were honed down to 18 for the semi-finals
and then the top 9 for the final. Given the idiosyncracies of the
pipe, riders were playing it one of two ways - either going large,
but performing fairly simple tricks (by their standards): or smaller
more technical manoeuvres. As usual, the judges were looking for
the best mix of height, execution, landing, difficulty and style.
Boyd Easley (Armada) was proved right. He could indeed win this. He threw the only corked 900 ° (2 and a half off-axis spins) in competition and nailed it - very, very good, given the conditions.
23 years old Rinfert, from team Rossignol, finished a close second with a strong run, including a flair and 2 styled-up inverted flat spins. The final qualifying place and overall third went to Henrik Winstedt (Rossignol) confirming his reputation as one of the hottest new stars of the circuit.
Slopestyle
Happily the slopestyle was a different story to the half-pipe. Fresh
snow and blue skies greeted the Wednesday competition and the only
problem this time was trying to pry the riders (& the journalists!)
away from the powder. The course was located on the Stade de Slalom
(the main race piste). This is a steep face and meant riders had
to guard their speed carefully on approach to the various hits.
Shaped by Nicolas Marduel, the slope was an exciting mix of rails and jumps. Up top was a Big Air kicker (25-30 feet); this followed down to a choice between a step-down rail and a 30 foot big spine jump (in fact, the easy straight option actually set up this as another kicker). Following that was a choice between a rainbow rail and another steep straight rail. After the rainbow, there was a double box slide option (with a 3 foot gap between the boxes) for the jib specialists or a huge hip jump that the bravest few carried clean over (about 50+ feet of air).
The qualifying rounds were good. It was disappointing not to see some of the world's best throwing down their stuff on this testing course, but too many had gone back after the debacle with the pipe the day before. Candide Thovex was hanging around throwing down some neat tricks for the cameras, but not actually competing (not needing to qualify for the X-Games event, I guess). Still despite this, by the time the 18 riders for the final had been selected, the crowd was fully amped up by the likes Baptiste Colombe-Patton throwing huge corked 720's as he carried straight over the of the final hip jump.
Favre victory
From the 36 freestylers who started, 12 competed in a 'best of two
runs' final. After his awesome display in Saas Fee for the Ripcurl
Freeski the weekend before, Laurent Favre (Scott) proved his brilliance
once more with an inspired run to just squeeze out Australian Rory
Bushfield (Rossignol) into second. Favre threw a lazy switch seven
off the first jump and finished with an enormous switch nine off
the big Hip. Bushfield's run included a perfect 540° central spin
and his technical ability marks out a talent to watch. Baptiste
Collomb Patton (Dynastar) rode into third with a magnificent 720°
rodeo.
Fourth position and the last X-Games qualifying place went to Gigi Couttet (Rossignol). At only 14 years old, Couttet is a precociously gifted skier. Keep an eye firmly on him - you'll see a lot more of him over the next few years.
Report by Phil Martin
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