Dew Tour Comes To A Close - Northstar Pipe Finals

bengal

• February 23 2009
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Mason Aguirre And Torah Bright Take Pipe Finals

Shaun White And Kelly Clark Take Overall Dew Cup

Everyone woke up to a soggy Sunday with rain pouring down the superpipe all day long. Not the ideal conditions for a big ballin’ contest, yet riders still managed to hold enough speed and sling fifteen plus feet out of the pipe. For a quick minute the drops turned into quarter-sized snowflakes teasing onlookers as they dissolved and rain returned.

Photos Nick Hamilton

Even though she hails from the driest continent in the world, Torah Bright had no problem swimming through the swampy pipe with an air to fakie tail grab on the first hit into a cab seven, corked three and switch backside seven. With such a squeaky clean run, none of the ladies could smear her score. Kelly Clark was sending it with the biggest hits of the day and racked up a second place finish with a few tech spins and amplitude to boot. South Lake Tahoe’s own Elena Hight was also cranking the amps with huge methods and frontside nines but scrapped the landing on a McTwist seven that otherwise would have capped off a podium quality run. For the final stop though the Dew Tour rankings stacked up in Kelly Clark’s favor granting her the first Dew Tour Cup in women’s superpipe.

When the guys were ready to drop for their final runs the deck and lip of the pipe had become pretty saturated and gave way to some vile slams. With a mushy lip, many riders weren’t quite getting the kick and vert they needed to land back in the tube. Iouri Podlachakov, Jack Mitrani, Greg Bretz, Steve Fisher, and Scotty Lago all took pretty nasty falls on the deck and flopped to the flat bottom. Jack’s spill hammered the soft-serve lip and even sent a handful of blue-dyed slushballs exploding down the pipe.

Mason Aguirre was one of the few who avoided a slam and linked an locked down a run consisting of a huge front ten, cab ten, front nine, flat-spin five, air to fakie and a alley-oop switch backside rodeo seven. Mase stomped that last rare spin and greased the whole run with arguably some of the best pipe style to carry him into the top spot. Steve Fisher’s run heated up towards the bottom as he laced a lien air, backside five, front ten, cab seven, front nine to back nine to snag a second place spot. Slopestlye Cup champ Shaun White dropped a pretty solid run capable of taking the top spot but splatted on his last McTwist and had to settle with his first run score of 81.75. Even though he only snatched third place, it was enough to grace him with the overall Dew Cup in superpipe.

Inaugural Dew Tour Champions
Women’s Slopestyle – Spencer O’Brien
Men’s Slopestyle – Shaun White
Women’s Superpipe – Kelly Clark
Men’s Superpipe – Shaun White

Women’s Superpipe Results
1. Torah Bright 95.50
2. Kelly Clark 90.00
3. Hannah Teter 83.50
4. Ellery Hollingsworth 80.50
5. Elena Hight  78.50
6. Lizzy Beerman 70.75

Men’s Superpipe Results
1. Mason Aguirre 94.5
2. Steve Fisher 87.00
3. Shaun White 81.75
4. Luke Mitrani 77.00
5. JJ Thomas 73.75
6. Ross Baker 72.25
7. Louie Vito 71.25
8. Elijah Teter 70.25
9. Michael Goldschmidt 58.25
10. Scotty Lago 56.00