Alex Ferreira Wins Dew Tour Modified Superpipe

Freeskiing at the 2018 Winter Dew Tour wrapped up today with the Men’s Modified Superpipe contest, where Alex Ferreira took the win ahead of Aaron Blunck and David Wise. In a final marked with crashes, the most memorable moment was unfortunately a massive slam by Torin Yater-Wallace.

Coming in hot from a rodeo 900 on the modified pipe’s lower “Cat Paw” feature, TYW missed his line on a huge switch 540 that looked straight out of a ski movie—until he came smashing down into the flats, missing the entire landing transition. Reportedly suffering a heel injury, Yater-Wallace was quickly hustled off to the hospital, leaving the contest to continue without him.

Second-place finisher Aaron Blunck also took a brutal slam on the coping of the pipe in his first run, but somehow managed to recover and return for a successful third run, which boosted him into second with the help of his signature switch down-the-pipe double cork 900 japan, a double flair, and a stylish right 270 safety on the bottom hip.

Blunck edged out David Wise, whose first run with a switch misty 9 on the top “Mister T” hit, a left double cork 1260 mute, and a big 720 cuban on the bottom hip was enough for 84.67 and third place. The win went to Alex Ferreira’s second run, featuring back-to-back double cork 12 mutes in the halfpipe portion and a creative application of two 360s on the last two hits.

“I’m extremely happy, and I hope that my friend Torin Yater-Wallace is okay,” said an enthused Ferreira. “That’s my main focus right now.”

“I think of all the [halfpipe] events, half of them should be modified superpipe.” Ferreira added. “It’s pushing the sport in a creative way, and think that’s amazing.”

Several other competitors swung and missed the podium, like New Zealand’s Nico Porteous, who had an action-packed run with double corks on all of the special features in the modified pipe, but who wasn’t able to link it all together in a run. Neither was it Simon D’Artois’ day, who showed off a beautiful switch 12 blunt pipe hit, or Taylor Seaton, a late substitute for Noah Bowman. Gus Kenworthy had repeated trouble landing a double flat 900 on his first hit, and wasn't able to put a run together. Birk Irving, who dropped a massive double cork 12 on the Cat’s Paw feature for one of the biggest hits of the day, ended up in fourth.

This concludes the freeski competitions from this year’s Dew Tour. It’s been a wild ride with huge action on the slopestyle course, a level that, it’s fair to say, wasn’t reached in today’s modified superpipe contest, where the transitions of this unorthodox course proved a true challenge for the competitors. Though we saw the glimmers of some truly great runs, the best ones didn’t get landed.

Big thanks to the Dew Tour for shaking things up with different formats both in slopestyle and superpipe. With both of these disciplines always in danger of standardization, the Dew Tour’s boldly individual approach is a breath of fresh air.