Dozens of the world’s best snowboarders descended on Summit County today for a pair of contests, one old, one new.
At Copper Mountain the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix, aka Copper Grand Prix, brought more than 70 snowboarders to the first Olympic halfpipe qualifier of the season.
Despite a top-3 qualifier, reigning Olympic champ Chloe Kim did not start on a windy, low-light day, opening the door for one of her U.S. teammate, Bea Kim, to finished third behind Japan’s Sena Tomita in second and Korean 17-year-old Gaon Choi in first. For the men is was two Japense riders, Ryusei Yamada and Yuto Totsuka, finishing first and second ahead of Australia’s Valentino Guseli in third.
At Breckenridge it was opening day of the new Rockstar Energy Open, the first pro-level snowboard contest at Breck since Dew Tour in 2018. The party got started with a rail jam, warming up the crowd for a two-day park style competition: qualifiers on Saturday, finals on Sunday.
Krystal 93 was there to catch the action, slopeside.
