All action photos by Brian Walker
The third and final day of The North Face Park & Pipe Open Series at Northstar-at-Tahoe concluded today with men’s and women’s pipe. A sunny yet chilly day made for great conditions for the athletes to send it.
Coming out on top for men was local, David Wise, and for the women was Dania Assaly. This was the last opportunity for riders to get a spot in the X Games, which ended up going to 2nd place male, Matt Margetts, and 4th place female, Maddie Bowman. Riders were also out trying to win a cut of the 20k prize purse and Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) points. According to Head Judge and AFP General Manager, Steele Spence, this was a silver level event with possible bonus points available depending on the level of riders who were there. To see how this weekend affects the standings, check afpworldtour.com for updated points.
Men's Pipe Podium: 1: David Wise, 2: Matt Margetts 3: Patrick Baskins
The event began with the men’s semifinal at 10:30 this morning. Out of the 23 men, the top 16 scores of two runs would advance to finals later in the afternoon. In the end, it was David Wise, who wanted to let everyone know that today was his day. He stomped both runs, but it was his second run score of 94.60 that put him on top. Wise was throwing doubles and smooth back-to-back 9s, a flare, back-to-back flat spins and a huge 1080 at the bottom. Noah Bowman, who was also going for all day was 3 points behind with a 91.60. Coming in third, was Matt Margetts, who came out of the gate with a huge double into a 9, switch 7, right 10s into switch left 1080s. He was just behind Bowman with a 91.20. Since they took 16 men into finals, it seemed the guys wanted to send it, but still just land a clean run to get into finals.
David Wise
Noah Bowman
Peter Crook
2. Noah Bowman – 91.60
3. Matt Margetts – 91.20
4. Patrick Baskins – 87.40
5. Brian Kish – 84
6. Peter Crook – 82.20
7. Kyle Smaine – 80.80
8. Taylor Seaton – 77.80
9. Kris Atkinson – 77.40
10. Christian Allen – 76.40
11. Walker Wood – 76
12. Joss Christensen – 75.20
13. Charlie Lasser – 74.20
14. Wing Tai Barrymore – 74
15. Sean Collin – 72.80
16. Tyler Peterson – 71.00
Cutoff _____________________
17. Gus Kenworthy – 69.60
18. John Leonard – 66.60
19. Billy Mann – 65.60
20. Nick Goepper – 60.20
21. Alex Gorham – 48
22. Lyman Currier – 19.40
23. Neal Cadra – 10.00
Next up, were the females. Since there were only eight competitors, they jumped straight into a three run final. The girls were going big and sending lots of 540s, flares and even some 9’s. In the end, it was Dania Assaly who came out on top with a score of 90.0 on her second run. She was having some trouble landing her 900’s, but in the end, she was able to stick a clean run boosting three 540’s and a 700. Coming in second, less than two point behind was Keltie Hansen with an 88.4 She also threw three 540s and a nice 7 at the bottom. Third place went to yesterday’s slopestyle winner, Devin Logan. Her run consisted of a five, flare, and another five into a 360. She skied really well all weekend, and was really going for it. She pulled off back-to-back flares in her third run but wasn’t quite as smooth as her first. Local girl, Maddie Bowman, came in fourth with her smooth style and consistency. She walked away with the coveted X Games spot.
Dania Assaly
Hannah Haupt
Women's Pipe Podium, 1: Dania Assaly, 2: Keltie Hansen, 2: Devin Logan
2. Keltie Hansen – 88.4
3. Devin Logan – 87
4. Maddie Bowman – 84.4
5. Brita Sigourney – 83.4
6. Kimmy Sharp – 72.8
7. Em Longsdale – 65.6
8. Hannah Haupt – 50
Lastly, the men’s final was up with three runs each. All the guys were boosting and throwing huge tricks, but in the end it was David Wise who came out on top. He said when he woke up he was feeling good and ready to go for it after being tired the past couple of days, because he competed in slopestyle also. With his family up here cheering him on and back visiting his home area, he knew this could be his day. In the end, it was his fluidity and consistency that gave him the edge, besides the fact that he was going huge with every hit. He had back-to-back 9’s, flat spins, switch 7’s and 10s. Not far behind Wise, was Matt Margetts who came in second with a 91.4. He was throwing doubles and smooth flat spins, switch 7’s, right 10’s and switch 9’s at the bottom. Patrick Baskins, who was one of the styliest skiers out today, came in third with a 90.8. He was one of two riders to drop in switch with a huge 10 into switch right 7, aleyoop cork 5 to switch right 7. Walter Wood, Joss Christensen, Taylor Seaton and Noah Bowman all deserve mention. All the guys in finals were sending it, and any one of them could have potentially made it on the podium.
Walter Wood
Brian Kish
David Wise
Matt Margetts
Tyler Peterson
David Wise fans!
2. Matt Margetts – 91.4
3. Patrick Baskins – 90.8
4. Walter Wood – 88.8
5. Joss Christensen – 86.4
6. Taylor Seaton – 84.4
7. Noah Bowman – 83.8
8. Brian Kish – 82.8
9. Wing Tai Barrymore – 80
10. Tyler Peterson – 79.4
11. Kyle Smaine – 74.8
12. Sean Collin – 73.8
13. Christian Allen – 72.8
14. Kris Atkinson – 70.2
15. Peter Crook – 68.8
16. Charlie Lasser – 65.8
This concludes the first stop of The North Face Park & Pipe Series. Congratulations to Chris Logan and Devin Logan for winning slopestyle yesterday and also Maude Raymond and Chris for their X Games spots. Props also go out out to David Wise and Dania Assaly for winning today’s pipe event, and Matt Margetts and Maddie Bowman for winning the last spots into X Games. Don’t forget to sign up for the second stop, Feb 17-20, at Waterville Valley next month. Jump in the ring at thenorthfaceppos.com.
For information on what this does to the AFP World Rankings in Halfpipe, visit the current rankings page.
