The last four years, I’ve been watching all the edits from the Dumont cup and always wished I could be apart of it. Thankfully this year I was fortunate enough to make the trip out to Maine and compete in the fifth annual Dumont Cup at Sunday River Resort.

After the fun week I had in Ontario, I was really looking forward to another competition. Luckily I was able to catch a ride down with Austin Karker, Jaden Schneider-Clark, and Austin’s dad. When we arrived in Sunday River, I got dropped off at good friend Alex Hackel’s place where I was greeted by a bunch of familiar faces, and a couple of new ones. After a eating an amazing meal prepared by Alex’s parents and a bit of socializing it was off to bed.

The first practice day went pretty smoothly at Sunday River. Although it was windy, I was very pleased to know I could clear all the jumps. This day was fairly mellow, from just trying to get the speed and rail tricks figured out. 

The second day was our qualifier that was split into two different heats. My heat was in the afternoon, and it was definitely one of the most laid back qualifiers I’ve ever done. The reason for this is because I thought we would have two hours to just ride the course to get in as many runs as possible. So on my first runs I didn’t focus on throwing my hardest tricks and just landed something first. It wasn’t till after my third run that I found out we only got three runs instead of a jam. Thankfully I had landed two solid runs, and ended up qualifying 2nd place overall for the Amateur session.

The third and final day was the semi-final. After having a good hour to warm up in the morning, it was time to drop. Starting off the Semi's was the number one qualifier Lyman Currier and had me dropping in second. When I dropped in my rail second went over smoothly, and then on the first jump I went for a right rodeo 9 mute grab and accidently pulled off my ski. This was the first time I had done this the entire competition so I wasn’t too worried about it, although on my next run I definitely didn’t tweak my grab, just incase. I finished out my second run with a switch cork 9 tail, to wobble 1260 on the bottom jump.

After I landed my run, I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Thankfully I just squeaked into the finals with a 10th place spot. After two more practice runs it was time for the Finals to begin.

 The last major final I made was at Aspen and I regretted not landing a run and getting last in finals, so for this comp my main focus was to land an actual run first. With that in mind, I went to redo my qualifier run to have something solid, and almost had the best run of my day until I came up a little short on the final jump. My second run I just went out to do it again and thankfully landed my run of: Disaster 270 onto the down-flat-down, Rodeo 630 off the cannon box, Right rodeo 9 mute off the first jump, Switch cork 9 tail grab, and finished off with a double 12 on the bottom jump.  This run left me with a score of 84 and in the 7th place position.

My final run I tried to step up my second jump and do another double, but unfortunately over rotated and didn’t land the way I wanted to. Even though I wasn’t able to improve on my second run, I’m still so happy to have just made another finals and get a Top 10 finish in a major competition, ending up in 7th place for the day.

So many good guys were at this comp, and it was so much fun to be pushed a little bit to get my tricks down. When the day was over it was Nick Geopper, Gus Kenworthy, and Joss Christensen taking the podium spots in well-deserved performances.

After the comp we all headed back to the Hackel’s place, and Mr.Hackel created steak feast for a large group of people. Then after all the dancing, laughing, and making some good memories, it was time to go out to hang out with a few friends at the Foggy Goggle.

I can honestly say this was one of the best competitions I’ve been to. Mainly with how open to suggestions Simon and the park crew were to making the course better for everyone. For example the first day the cannon rail was too small, second day they changed it up but it had a little too much pop, and the third day it was perfect. Then during the semi-final day when Simon saw that a few people weren’t making the first jump, he came down to the tent and asked if we wanted to take out a feature at all. That definitely stood out to me a lot, and I can see why so many people keep on coming back to this comp year after year. 

I had such a blast skiing with all my friends, and making some new friends along the way. Now it’s off to Washington to film another edit with my good friend Matthew Ballard, and after that WSI.

Stay Classy,

-Noah