Laax Open World Cup Slopestyle is going down on Friday, 17 January

The Course

Creative course design is what makes slopestyle stand out from the other two disciplines and the shapers in Laax have once again created a masterpiece. “Wu-Tang” jumps, “Shark Fin” take-offs, a quarter pipe and a rail perpendicular to the course make this probably the most interesting World Cup course on the circuit.

Not only does this make the contests fun to watch, but it also challenges the skiers in a variety of ways. The quarter pipe towards the bottom will be a separating factor between the riders – an ability to use this feature well could be the difference between winning and not making finals. Eileen (predominantly a halfpipe rider) qualifying in first place is no coincidence – she was the only rider to boost out of the quarter pipe, rather than surviving it. 

The angled wedges of the “Wu-Tang” jump and the transition-style take-offs of the “Shark Fin” push riders to adjust their tricks to new features, making slopestyle riding about much more than just what you can do in the air.

On a normal jump, riders can point their skis straight and all generate roughly the same amplitude. However, on the shark fin take-off skiers can either go straight and drop off the end, maybe travelling six meters, or do a GS style carve into the near side of the transition and fly 16 meters. To be able to generate the amplitude from these hits takes good skiing technique and excellent edge control, demonstrating to the judges an overall skiing ability. They will be paying close attention to the amplitude of these hits, so do not be surprised to see it reflected in the scores.

Section By Section

For the first time this season, Section By Section (SBS) judging will be used – due to weather forcing changes to the schedule the Stubai Slopestyle World Cup was judged on Overall Impression. In SBS, the course is divided up into “sections”, usually consisting of two features per section. Each section will be judged by a minimum of two judges. The idea is that the course is broken down into individual features and each feature is judged independently. This allows the section judges to rank each trick done on a feature from best to worst, and score them accordingly – like judging a big air contest or rail jam on each individual feature.

As well as the section judges, there are three “composition” judges. The role of these judges is to watch the whole run, from top to bottom, paying extra attention to the variety element of a run. This means concentrating on whether a rider can demonstrate taking off in all four directions, sliding rails with either foot forward, showing a variety of axis’ and grabbing with both hands and so on. The section judges are only concentrating on their individual features therefore they are not taking into account variety; a rider spinning only left down the whole course could score well on each section, however, their score would be hammered by the composition judges for showing no variety. 

All of the section scores and the composition score are added together to create the final score. There is nowhere for riders to hide when being judged by SBS – any week section will be picked up on and represented in the scores. Riders can no longer get away with a slightly easy rail run if the jumps are impressive – in order to be ranked at the top, every feature needs a heavy trick with enough variety to keep everyone happy. SBS covers all bases – and although not perfect – is agreed to be the best system, producing the best results, for now.

Qualifications

The women’s qualifications went down this afternoon with Eileen Gu, in her first slopestyle contest in a year, qualifying in first place proving that the 21-year-old is always a threat. Last year’s winner, Mathilde Gremaud – who will be hoping for a return to form, having failed to podium in the last three World Cup events – qualified in second. Sarah Hoefflin qualified in third but admitted to taking it slightly easy through the course due to fatigue – this is much of the field’s third World Cup event in as many weeks. 

Tess Ledeux is once again not on the start list this week. According to a source within the French team, she is taking a rest from the busy schedule to make sure she is fully charged going into the Olympic year next year. 

The women threw down battling it out for a finals spot, with some familiar names making the cut, you can watch the coverage of qualifications here.

Men’s qualification is going down tomorrow, Wednesday 15 January, and is being streamed live and available for replay here. With the return of the Americans, Alex Hall and Mac Forehand, competition to make it into the finals is going to be fierce. Creative course use, as well as boosting out of the quarter pipe, could be the deciding factors. With the start list as stacked as it is, this qualification round could look more like a final – it will certainly be worth a watch.

Laax Open World Cup Slopestyle Schedule and Live Stream Info

Freeski Slopestyle Finals will be live streamed from 13:00 (CET) on Friday 17 January at both Laax.com/open and Red Bull TV.

There will also be live or delayed TV broadcasts on Eurosport (Europe) and SFR, RSI, RTS, RTR (Switzerland).

For the USA finals will be live streamed at skiandsnowboard.live and for dark markets on the FIS website – connecting from Switzerland via a VPN works too.