Dew Tour 2023 - Women's Snowboard Halfpipe

A seemingly light field (without Maddie Mastro, Xuetong Cai, Chloe Kim, and Elizabeth Hosking) proved to be the best type of event for some "hey world, look at me, I can also go swack 9 and front 10" type party.

We thought we were going to be missing the inversion with not being able to see Maddie Mastro's double crippler or haakon flip, but to start off, Summer Fenton set the tone by stomping a corked frontside 720.  We're also pretty sure a drone hit Sonny Alba when I think she threw the biggest air of the day. It used to be grab tail, checks in the mail, but I guess now the saying is grab tail, drone strike or bail.

Sonny was able to shake this off and then stomp her next run by comboing a front and back 5 with the weddle grab along with ending her 4th run with a swack 7!

US Rookie Halfpipe Teammate Bea Kim won method award of the day with her huge backside air and then the cab 7 stale to launch her into 3rd place.

One of the highlights of the week was seeing Patti Zhou launch her name onto the world stage. For context, Scotty James landed a swack (switch backside) 9 for his qualifying run for the Olympics. Patti Zhou - 11 years old - did that on her second run on the first hit. She then went front 7 to then front 5 and was mixing in some style with the melon grab on both hits. For the people who have no idea about the tricks, it's like adding a watermelon slice to your cocktail that already contains rum, tequila, a lime at 2 am in a basement dive bar in New York City. This is was wild.

Patti Zhou on landing swack 9s at 11 (after I was exposed by Patti for getting Scotty James’ qualifying round in the Olympics wrong) - “Well I don't know, I was scared at first but then I told myself I just need to trust myself and I have everything I need to learn and I just have to say that's what I learned about.” Thanks Patti for the interview and all the hard work you are putting on the mountain. A name for the future (or to be honest now).

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Not to be outdone by some 11 year old, 14 year old Gaon Choi laced probably the best run in Women's Snowboard Halfpipe competition since Chloe Kim's olympic medal run. She went swack 9 indy, cab 7 melon, and front 10 melon (with screams audible from the crowd), and cab 9 melon. Gaon went so far down in the halfpipe on her hits that there wasn't any room left for a 5th hit. Watch out Chloe Kim, because honestly, we don't know who will be the first woman to land a 12 in competition. but it's going to be an exciting next few years.

The final results:

1 - Gaon Choi - 98.33

2 - Patti Zhou - 90.66

3 - Bea Kim - 80.00

4 - Sonny Alba - 77.00

5 - Summer Fenton - 76.00

Links to tricks soon!