Anna Gasser Goes Hard on Jumps, Wins Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle

Eight women lined up on the top of the jumps course to kick off the first snowboard event of Dew Tour Breckenridge 2018 under perfect blue skies and bright sunshine. Big double corks and clean rail lines kept the energy high from start to finish in Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle.

Following three runs on the three jump course, the women transitioned to take three runs on the jib course made up with four unique sections. In the end, runs were judged on their overall impression of difficulty, creativity and execution with the best scored run from each section added together to determine the winner out of a 200 point total.

Anna Gasser stood out after the first run but continued to polish and push her tricks throughout the jumps section. Gasser’s final run went cab underflip 900 mute, backside corked 1080 melon grab and finished with a frontside 900 melon. Silje Norendal also came out strong with her first run and refined the tricks with every go, but on Jamie Anderson’s final run she jumped ahead of Norendal and into second behind Gasser. Anderson’s final run started with a backside indy 540, to a cab underflip 900 mute and finished with a lightly scrubbed frontside 1080 mute to finish.

Going into the jibs course Gasser was leading the field by more than 10 points.

Enni Rukajarvi finished the jumps course in sixth, but after her first run on the jibs course she jumped into second overall. Rukajarvi’s jib run started with a 50-50 backside 360 out of the Stanley feature, front boardslide 270 out, a switch 50-50 180 out and finished with a lip slide to switch 50-50 180 out of the rainbow rail in the Mountain Dew jib section.

Then, on her final run, Julia Marino hit the jibs hard to disrupt the leaderboard one more time. Following her lip slide 270 out on the Stanley rail, front boardslide to fakie, half cab bump, gap to lipslide, 50-50 frontside 360 off the Mountain Dew rail she found herself sitting in second overall.

“It is really cool to see women’s snowboarding come this far,” commented Marino after the event. “I feel like nobody thought it would go as far as it has.”

Along the same lines, Gasser agreed that the progression in women’s snowboarding is a movement and that it involves everyone.

“I think we are just pushing each other, and it is really cool. When I saw Jamie [Anderson] try the front 1080 today, at first because I was on top, I was thinking, ‘should I just do a style run?’ Then, I thought, ‘no,’ I should push myself and do a harder run. I think it is a movement right now that everyone is on,” explained Gasser.

“I have to say, I’m not happy with my rails run today,” continued Gasser, explaining that this unique format offers a lot of new opportunities for athletes to push themselves in new ways. “For me, especially in contest situations, jumps are easier. I think I would have even tried harder on the jumps if I would have seen that I only scored 80 points on the rails.”

At the end of the event Gasser maintained the top spot, but Marino and Rukajarvi proved that the jibs section became clutch to secure an overall high score in the event.

Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Finals Results

1.) Anna Gasser, 177.67
2.) Julia Marino, 170.66
3.) Enni Rukajarvi, 169.67
4.) Jamie Anderson, 167.99
5.) Spencer O’Brien, 163.00
6.) Silje Norendal, 154.33