Vans Tahoe Cup: Kass Kills Superpipe on Sunday, Elena Beats all the Ladies -
On a scale of radness of 1 to 10, 1 being living in Kansas with no mountains to snowboard on and 10 being the Olympics or the X Games, today’s pipe action was about a 9.75. If you take into account the fact that people could access their favorite riders and the vibe was so low key and fun, it was probably a 10 day. I mean Pat Bridges, Evan Le Fabre, Lane Knack and Brian Regis were sitting in the middle of the pipe, beers were flowing and hot dogs were grilling at the bottom. That shit does NOT happen at the X Games. All while incredible action was going down.
A few people were missing, Shaun White was out partying or whatever, Mason Aguirre and others were at the Arctic Challenge, Gretchen was cat boarding and so on. Even with some people missing the riding was sick as hell, straight from Satan himself. The girls were pretty rad but they have ridden better in the past. Elena Hight was going big and the only female to do a nine, she ripped, she won. That’s about it. The men’s final was off the hook though. They all got a one intro run then it was a 45 minute battle royal; jam session with sleds to take them back up the hill. This meant everyone could try to throw the gnar hammers cuz if they bailed they could just do it again. The situation was so sick that one of Michael Goldschmidt’s runs consisted of the combo of 10, 10, 9, all back to back, plus other shit. Massive airs and spins were part of the show. Jim Rippey, Jeff Brushie and George Oakley were judges so you know that was legit. From seventh place on up it was pretty much a crap shoot. The only thing that separated people was consistency. Scotty Lago could have won, but he fell a lot. Scotty Lago did the best trick of the day; A huge 540 to landing on the deck (on accident) to rolling between the banners and crowds straight back in to a 1080 ” holy shit. It was like a fucking Duane Peters run only snowboarding.
Russian Rider Iouri Podlatchokov won the European Open and kicked some ass today to get 3rd. Last years winner Antti Autti was so strong; huge airs and spins to get second. Ok, Danny Kass did rule it from the start of the finals no doubt. He said “I am going to try a new trick I have been thinking about all year. I could see what he was doing, he did an alley-oop 5 in practice on his first wall. Then in the finals he was doing big airs to fakies to cab 10’s then he un-veiled his new maneuver. It was an alley-oop backside 720 straight into a cab 10, a moment of silence, punk as hell. Oh, and Danny had a damn broken arm from the X Games of which he said “It feels better now with a cast, before it was hanging loose. You gotta be kidding. So, some new tricks, good vibes and great times were had by all. The world’s best always show up for the Tahoe Cup for a weekend to ride and party and like Kaiser Soce (from the Usual Suspects) Poof, they are gone leaving only blown minds after the weekend.
Quotes
“Little Luke Mitrani is like 5” taller than me now. I am claiming I am 5 - 5.5 I got short legs, I know, it happens! ” Louie Vito
“This is the 256th time I have heard this song (Run to the Hills) at a contest” Pat Bridges
Do yourself a favor; look up on Vans website to see when this contest is on Fuel TV
Results
Women
1 Elena Hight
2 Kelly Clark
3 Clair Bidez
4 Tricia Byrnes
5 Meg Pugh
Men
1 Danny Kass
2 Anti Autti
3 Iouri Podlatchokov
4 Markus Keller
5 Keir Dillon
6 Louie Vito
7 Michael Goldscmidt
8 Tommy Czeschin
9 Elijah Teter
10 Scotty Lago
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