Words: Tegan White
The final event of the XGames schedule went down tonight in Aspen and it was a big one.
This year the Big Air competition included a style score where competitors could gain up to 10 bonus points for dropping something juicy first hit. Annika Morgan dropped a floaty 180 and Kokomo Murase gave us a beautiful 360 with a little over-rotation and bring back for bulk style points.
The remainder of the runs were ‘technical runs’ where the best two scores count but those two scores must be spun in different directions.
Early on we had triples from Anna Gasser and Reira Iwabuchi – those two hits alone make this event one of the wildest big airs in recent times. Anna then put down a double backflip and unfortunately slammed super hard on the following run. It was easily the scariest slam of the weekend but we’re glad to see her get up and ride away – we hope you’re okay Anna!
Kokomo Murase went all in and hit us with a backside triple 1440 to bolts, followed by a frontside 1440. We almost peeped a 1620 in her last run but looks like we’ll need to wait for the next time for that one. Kokomo has had a spot on the podium as all three of her events this year! The podium was rounded out by Reira Iwabuchi in the silver spot and Anna Gasser, who’s score held onto bronze even with an early finish thanks to that heavy slam.
With the level of riding so high, we saw some solid slams so let’s hope these ladies have hot tubs and physios on demand because they earned it!
