Dew Tour 2023 - Men's Freeski Halfpipe

Nothing like waking up to throw some dub cork 16s 30 feet above the ground (at least that’s what we tell ourselves in our dreams). It’s one thing viewing the technicality of the rotations and grabs that skiers like Hunter Hess, Ben Harrington, David Wise, Brendan Mackay, Aaron Blunck, Matt Labaugh, and Alex Ferreira are doing from idX, it’s another thing to be at the bottom of the pipe witnessing someone like Brendan Mackay be inches from decking rotating a last 180 degrees after going 15 feet out of the pipe on their last hit.

The competition format was a bit different than your traditional FIS halfpipe comp: riders would get 4 runs instead of three. This boded well for seasoned hunter and legendary halfpipe skier David Wise to come firing out of the gates - landing 2 dub 12s with the auclair/mute grab in his run but also mixing in a switch 9 with a blunt grab and then switch dub 10 japan - placing him in first at the end of the 1st run. 

We can’t confirm that he was thinking this, or even said it, but we could imagine this is what he was feeling after landing his first run with three more to go. 

Other highlights were Hunter Hess saying “kobe” and chucking a dub 16 even though he missed the grab and had a little bit of a bobble mid way through his run and Matt Labaugh getting up and continuing the comp after a pretty nasty slam on the deck.
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Midway through the comp, the style with the sun and the murder hornet/drone came out. Aaron Blunck landed a switch dub flat 9 along with a left dub flat 9 that really stood out amidst the (what is now) standard double corks. Ben Harrington, to pull out the cliche “oozing with style”, threw an alley oop flat 7. Finally, it was really awesome to see Alex Ferreria throw his dub cork 14 and see the pole whip emerge after the X Games comp. 

Last but not least, Brendan Mackay put on a show. We’re not sure if he’s been re-watching the Hunger Games on Netflix, but he has caught fire this season. 2nd at the Copper Grand Prix, 1st at the Worlds (the Bakuriani Bash), and (spoiler alert) - 1st at the Dew Tour. It’s a little bit mind boggling how someone can go alley oop dub flat 9 at the start of the run and then hit the boost button to go 19 feet out of pipe and land a dub 12 on their last hit. At least one Brendan can go big. Oh yeah, on the first run, Brendan landed a dub 12 with only one ski on. Nutty. 

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The final results ended up being:

1 - Brendan Mackay - 93.00

2 - David Wise - 87.00

3 - Aaron Blunk - 84.00

4 - Alex Ferreira - 76.66

5 - Ben Harrington - 76.66

6 - Hunter Hess - 70.66

7 - Matt Labaugh - 32.66

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More links on tricks soon! 

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