Words: Alex Kruse
X Games 2024 Slopestyle Results
1. Red Gerard
2. Mark McMorris
3. Mons Roisland
It’s the final day of X Games and the morning kicked off with Men’s slopestyle. 10 riders went head to head in the most publicized contest of the year. It was a battle to the very end as Mark McMorris dropped in trying to knock Red Gerard out of first. He was able to up his score, but it wasn’t enough to beat Red’s high scoring consistency. Red landed all three runs with his best being an incredible rail section of a boardslide transfer to front board, back board pull back 270 to 5050, switch back board transfer to 270 out, and switch front board 270 out. Heading into the first shark fin jump feature he had a cab 10, switch back 16, and finally a huge backside 18. If that wasn’t impressive enough, not only were the first 4 rails super technical but they were also incredibly close together, which gave no room for even the slightest edge slip in the landing.
Mark McMorris the veteran, who skipped out on both the Laax Open last week as well as X Games big air, really proved why he is the most decorated X Games slope rider ever. 5050 to transfer front 270, back board 270 out, front board transfer to front board, and a very smooth cab over 270 hardway over the rainbow rail. Heading into the jumps he popped a beautiful cab 10 off the toes, into a switch back 16, and a final backside 18. Just reading the trick list it sounds comparable to Red’s but Red was just that little bit cleaner to give him the win.
In 3rd place, Mons Roisland came in super smooth but missed out on having the bigger spins at the bottom. Up on the rails he dropped in with a front 180 to back 270 transfer to 270 out, back board 270 out, gap to back 270, and finally a super creative front lip into the rainbow with a nollie flip out. Heading down into the jumps he dropped a switchback 12 on the shark-fin, front double 14 off the toes, and ending with a clean back 18.
It is worth noting Tiarn Collins had a super impressive first X Games showing landing in 6th with an unfortunately underscored 2nd run. He started off with a switch back 270 through the donkey, switch frontboard 270 out, gap to cab 270 to regular, and finishing it off with one of the best looking front board 630s out. Cruising down into the jumps he launched a huge front 10 off the toes, back 16, cab 18 stalefish spinning into the grab which looks unique and a lot harder to get that spin speed. He cleaned up the whole run for his final go but came up a little short on the 18. If he had landed that it should have easily put him on the podium.