Under the snow, David Wise snagged gold despite Beau-James Wells’ domination of the competition.

After a heavy fall of snow yesterday at the Winter Dew Tour in Breckenridge, the women’s ski slopestyle final was postponed until today, while the halfpipe was scraped clean for last night’s men’s ski halfpipe final.

To be honest, the first minutes of the competition didn’t provide a great show between speed issues, powder in the pipe, crashes and a younger generation that doesn’t seem quite ready. We missed Justin Dorey, Torin Yater-Wallace (recovering after serious disease), even Simon Dumont. But soon Birk Irving impressed with his down-the-pipe flat 3, Taylor Seaton flew with style high over the coping, and Beau-James Wells confirmed his place on top. Kevin Rolland managed to land a nice run, David Wise crashed, and the doors seemed open for the younger riders. Sadly, not all the skiers could enjoy this praise: Kris Atkinson, for example, who didn’t grab and went about as high as the girls in the pipe (sorry for the comparison).

In the second run, Beau-James confirmed his place at first, pushing his score above 90 and making us think we were wrong to doubt the new generation of pipe skiers. We started to think that style would win the night (you will understand watching the run), but dropping last, David Wise went big, technical and clean to steal first place. Yes, he deserved it, but we were dreaming of a different happy ending.

The first major Superpipe contest of the 2015/16 season is over, delivering an awesome show and displaying kids who will become the new legends in the next five years. I heard a lot of people talking about missing “the legends” of the sport, but people said the same back when David Wise and Kevin Rolland entered the game, too. These new faces will hopefully push freeskiing in the right direction. Let’s hope, but for now let’s congratulate the boys who did their best in difficult skiing conditions.

David Wise – 1st place

Beau James Wells – 2nd Place

Alex Ferreira – 3rd Place