Nick Goepper and Eileen Gu win World Cup Halfpipe in Secret Garden

Wind during the qualification day forced some changes to the schedule meaning that the men had a 16-man two-run final. The women had the tougher day however, squeezing in qualifications, two training sessions and the final all into one morning – some of the girls will have done as many as 20 runs.

The Women

Fanghui Li, on home soil, took the lead in run one with a technical run linking back-to-back switch hits and sustaining her amplitude throughout. She fumbled the grab on her right 900 scoring an 82.75. She hung onto the top spot until the end of run two when the formidable Eileen Gu dropped in last. Eileen took a heavy slam in her first run where she landed low and grabbed a fist full of front brake, flying over the handle bars. However, after dusting herself off, she put down the best run of the day starting with a right cork 900 buick grab, left cork 900 japan to right 720 lead tail, switch left 360 japan, left alley-oop flat 540 mute and finishing with a right alley-oop 180 blunt. She sustained her amplitude throughout and had a variety of well-defined grabs and rotations making the judge’s job simple, awarding her a 90.00 for first place.

In the third run, Olympic gold medalist Cassie Sharpe put herself into third place with a 77.25, improving on her first run with a down-the-pipe 1080 on her last hit. Unfortunately she missed the grab and possibly punched the snow on the landing. That combined with a very small switch 360 capped out her score and kept her from getting close to Fanghui. Next to drop, Svea Irving went the biggest of the day on her first hit, boosting a left alley-oop flat 540 japan followed up with a big left cork 900 safety. She also added a left 1080 to the end of her run but managed to touch the grab and rode out slightly cleaner than Cassie. This, as well as a right 720 in the middle of the run, compared to Cassie’s air-to-fakey, bumped her into third with a 80.00, moving the veteran out of the podium spots.

Zoe Atkin and Amy Fraser both missed grabs and were not able to put down clean runs handing Eileen her record-equalling 16th World Cup win and a Chinese one-two with Fanghui in second place. Cruising down the pipe on her victory lap, Eileen soaked up the appreciation from her home crowd. Even after possibly her worst performance in recent years, Eileen seems to still be untouchable at the top of female pipe skiing. 

The final women’s podium: Eileen Gu in first, Fanghui Li second and Svea Irving third.

The Men

In run one, winner of the first event in New Zealand, Brendan Mackay took the lead with an impressive run however, it was not without faults. He started with a dope switch left alley-oop double 900 critical into a switch left double cork 1080 safety, then back-to-back double cork 1260s, finishing with a left alley-oop flat 540 mute with a poke. With not the most difficult bottom trick and sketches during the switch 10 and the right 12 Brendan scored an 86.50.

Next to drop, last year’s unbeaten Alex Ferreira put down the run that has seen him so much success: squatting the landing on a switch right double 1080 japan then wrapping a left double cork 1620 sindy to right 1080 lead tail, switch left 1080 lead tail finishing with a right double cork 1620 sindy, riding out with his signature pole swing into the finish area. Full of directional variety and difficulty, the judges awarded a 92.25. The only thing you could pick apart would be a couple of low landings – would this cost him with much of the contest still to go?

David Wise, three-time Olympic medalist in halfpipe, used all of his experience to do enough to put himself in second place. Spinning all four ways, with a variety of grabs, all executed at decent amplitude shows that he is still a wiley competitor. The Wise Guy probably does not have the run to land himself on the podium if everyone lands their best run, but he certainly knows how to compete and with some wind around this morning his experience showed. He scored an 89.00 to split Mackay and Ferreira.

In the second run, Hunter Hess of the Magma crew, narrowly missed the podium spots with a 85.25. The run included a stylish switch left double 900 critical and his signature misty 540 mute but a few low landings, that he had to muscle out of, hurt his score. Freeskiing’s camaraderie was on full show, with Hunter congratulated Mackay at the bottom of the pipe as the scores came in. 

Almost all of the podium contenders were not able to improve their scores in the second runs. With ten years experience of top end slopestyle contests, Nick Geopper was last to drop with it all to play for. Drawing on all of his competitive spirit, the relative newcomer to pipe skiing laced the run of his life. Starting with a switch left double cork 1080 japan, right double cork 1620 safety to left double cork 1260 mute to right 1080 blunt finishing with never-been-done in contest switch right alley-oop bone air 900 tail.

Nick went massive on every hit, landing high on every transition, had a great variety of grabs and finished with an NBD. The judges debated this one hard and broke it down to who won on each individual criteria in order to split Nick and Alex. Deciding Nick took progression for the NBD, amplitude, variety for his grabs, and execution for Alex’s tiny sketch on his first hit and short grabs, the judges awarded the veteran 95.00 and his first win in the halfpipe. 

A podium sweep for the old heads of the USA team with all three Americans over the age of 30 – turns out old dogs can learn new tricks.

The final men’s podium: Nick Goepper in first, Alex Ferreira second and David Wise third.

Goepper’s rise in halfpipe has been meteoric and might seem an anomaly. However, he has a wealth of experience performing these tricks with technical grabs on jumps – once he gets in the air he knows exactly where the end of his ski is. He has learnt his skills and developed the muscle memory in a less gnarly environment compared to someone who is learning to do these tricks in a halfpipe – the margin for error and the risk of injury is much higher for those riders.

For example, Nick has likely been doing both way double cork 12s for over 15 years on slopestyle jumps; however David Wise was winning halfpipe Olympic golds with these tricks only six years ago. Nevertheless, Nick’s transfer into the pipe is hugely impressive and should garner nothing but the utmost respect. Alex Ferreira will no doubt be back with a point to prove next up in Copper and I think if he cleans his run it is still the best in the field. For now though, Nick Goepper can celebrate an incredible comeback.