Aspen World Cup - Qualifier Day

Today started off with a beautiful sunny day and unfortunately for me, a bit restless. Nevertheless I was determined to make the most of it and focus heavily on the contest in front of me. Getting to the hill with plenty of time to stretch and get warmed up before it was time for our practice. Once it started, It was down to business. Getting in 5 laps, with each one improving on the next. Until my final lap, going for a right dub 1260 on the final jump and coming up short on the rotation. While thankfully I was fine, It still started to throw me off before going straight into my first contest run where I ended up making a mistake on the first rail feature by not lining it up properly. This turned my first run into a throw away, and made me look more so to the next run. 

After waiting around 40 mins, and taking a few laps, it was time to drop in for run number two. This time much more focused, I got my first rail trick out of the way easily. Going into the second rail, the trick I was going for (back 450), didn’t feel locked on for landing switch so I ended up doing a 270 out to forward instead. This put me in a bit of a pickle. All day I had been hitting the first feature switch, and now was going forward. Still decided to go for a run, and did a right dub 12. Going switch now into the second jump I wanted to go for a Switch Dub 9, which I had been doing during practice on the first jump. Unfortunately I didn’t set it right and had to spin out of it taking it to switch. This was unplanned, and since there was two different slanted takeoffs I was already lined up for the right kicker, and wasn’t ready for another switch hit, so settled for a switch 7 the same direction.

Was pretty bummed today, really had high hopes and not being able to execute my run is frustrating. In the end I finished off the contest 13th in my heat. The only nice thing is that I have a chance at redemption. Our second Aspen Contest and 3rd US Team Qualifier starts early Sunday morning.  

Now time to figure out how to make my run better for the upcoming contest. 

Till next time,

-Noah