Words: Alex Kruse
Guten Morgan! It’s been a hell of a night staying up late to watch the Laax Open
Finals! What a way to open up the slopestyle competitive season.
Recap of the Laax Open Men’s Slopestyle Finals
- Liam Brearley
- Ryoma Kimata
- Cameron Spalding
This was a nail biter, straight to the last run. There were some huge runs being thrown down including the an 1800 landed in a slope contest by Red Gerard. Unfortunately even though he rode away the entire run wasn’t clean enough for the judges and it was only good enough for 6th place. Ryoma Kimata was my personal favourite to watch and after being criminally underscored on his first run with back to back 16s he was finally rewarded with 2nd after landing his second run even cleaner and with the biggest McTwist on the quarter pipe that would make Valentino proud.
Before Ryoma landed that run, the Canadians had the podium locked up with Cameron Spalding leading the charge followed by Frank Jobin and Liam Brearly. Liam dropped last with one of the cleanest runs of the entire contest and jumped from 4th to 1st pushing everyone down.
It was a great ending to a very exciting contest. It is worth noting that if you haven’t heard of these new Canadians yet I’m predicting they will be consistently topping podiums for the foreseeable future. Liam Brearley, Cameron Spalding, and Frank Jobin are soon to be names as recognizable as Mark Mcmorris, Seb Toots and Max Parrot.
Recap of the Laax Open Women’s Slopestyle Finals
- Julia Marino
- Annika Morgan
- Anna Gasser
Women’s started slow, literally with the women struggling with speed on the second jump early in the day. This tripped up a few riders with their first run and put a lot a pressure on the women for the second half of the contest. Thankfully the finals wrapped up with a heater, Annika Morgan, last to drop puts down a sick run with an absolutely huge back double 10 to the flats to push her up into 2nd. This pushed Anna Gasser down to 3rd. Julia Marino took a well earned 1st after 2 very consistent runs including a back 9 off the batwing jump, cab double 9, and front double 10. Tess Coady unfortunately fell on her first run and while she landed her second run with an incredibly stylish double back 10 it was only good enough for 4th.
Looking forward, we will be heading to Aspen with X-Games and the Mammoth Grand Prix right after. I’m hoping Zoi makes it back for some of the remaining competitive season.
