The second stop of the Opens Freeski tour was greeted with temperatures in the mid 50’s, beautiful California sunshine and awesome action in the superpipe as the 1st day of the Big Bear Open started in beautiful Big Bear CA. It felt like spring break, people were in bathing suits, noses were covered in zinc, the tunes were blaring… For a minute I forgot that I was at a ski event.
The comp got underway in the morning, the Opens Freeski tour is a bit different than your average competition. Qualifyers are done in a jam format. Simply show up to registration, nab your bib and head to the pipe and ride. Judges are watching the entire time, keeping an eye out for amplitude, grabs and clean spins.
Around lunchtime, everyone congregates around the base of the pipe for a free lunch while the judges tabulate their results and hand out bibs to the 20 men and 5 women who are going to the finals. No semis, no drama, just a clean competition format that everyone enjoys.
Finalists get two runs to ensure that they can lay down a run they can be satisfied with. While the pipe had more vert than some of the competitors were used to it didn’t stop them from throwing down some sweet switch tricks, flatspin 9’s, and big ol’ flares. Highlights of the day included Tyler Homen’s enormous 1260 and Marshall Lacroix’s smooth and spinny runs.
Congratulations to all the competitors coming out to Big Bear for the 2nd stop of the Opens Freeski Tour and getting down and dirty in the stunt ditch. Also, thanks to the sponsors for all their support, POC, Paul Mitchell, Navy, Spyder and the kind folks at Bear for letting us take over the halfpipe for the day.
Also, as a reminder… You can tune into Fuel TV to watch all the action from the Big Bear Open. When we figure out the date we’ll let you know so you can set your TiVo.
