Ah, the East Coast. North America’s skiing step-child, the New England area is littered with resorts, big and small for a massive amount of skiers and snowboarders to enjoy. And at a little slice of Heaven in Maine, lies Sunday River, where coincidentally freeskiing icon Simon Dumont calls home. And this weekend, Sunday River has been invaded by Simon, his pros status friends and tons of ams from around the country and Northeast for the 2nd annual Dumont Cup.
Today marked the qualifying rounds for all the non-invited athletes, But more than giving kids two pressure-filled runs in which to showcase their talents, Dumont gives the little ones a two-hour jam session to show the judges, invited pros and Simon, what they’ve got. A popular format among competitors and judges alike, it’s a win-win-win situation, and that’s how things go here in Sunday River.
However today, the thing that didn’t work out for the competitors, was the wind. While Maine was sunny and warm-ish today, the wind was gusty and straight up sodomizing everyone’s speed into the jumps today. In fact, the wind was bad enough where the bigger second jump wasn’t even opened today, but the smaller side of the hit was open for all to enjoy.
The course consists of: a flat-down box or down rail option, into either a canon box or big round rail, into the first medium sized table, which leads you into the second massive booter, ending things off with a triple-rail option… down box, down bar or down-flat-down rail. Similar to last year here at the Dumont Cup, the course is short, sweet and ready for the slaughter tomorrow.
As Simon and the likes of Jossi Wells, Tom Wallisch, Peter Olenick, Mike Riddle, Justin Dorey and co. and the panel of judges watched on, the ams (and pros) did their best with the wind issues. Rodeos, 900s, flips of rails, switch rodeos, fronties, backies and tons of carnage went down. With a decent sized qualifying crowd looking on, the Dumont Cup’s first day went off without a hitch. The pros scanned the slopestyle course with eyes like hawks, handing out the periodic semi-final bib to lucky riders. The melodic voice of Luke Van Valin wafted through the air, putting at ease any and all who listened. And as a kicker, Simon gave out a ton of Empire gloves to needy kids, keeping hands happy throughout Sunday River.
As the day wound down, and as ams received bibs (including luminaries like Alex Schopy and Joe Schuster) the hype for tomorrow only rose. Sunday River will experience the 2nd annual Super Saturday, compliments of the Dumont Cup and all who partake in the festivites.
