In one of our favorite traditions, we caught up with snowboard legend and Dew Tour stalwart Danny Davis for first-chair laps on Friday morning at Copper Mountain, just before the first halfpipe practices got underway.
A Dew Tour competitor from the beginning, Davis is a three-time Dew Tour Superpipe winner: Who better to ask for some perspective on Dew Tour’s 20-year history? And where better to ask for it than on a chairlift?
“It makes me feel a little bit old when people say that Dew Tour has been going for 20 years, and I’ve been at all of them,” Davis says. “What’s cool is that we’ve gotten to experiment with Dew Tour all these years. It’s always been the one contest that’s super relaxed. We’ve had 18-foot pipes, we’ve had 22-foot pipes, we’ve had modified pipes, we’ve had Streetstyle and Slopestyle and Banked Slalom and Adaptive events and Team events. There’s really no rules at Dew Tour that confine us to a set way of how we lay out the format of the contest, and that’s always been really fun. It’s one of my busier weeks of the year because I have a lot of sponsor and media stuff to do here, but it’s always been the chill event in a way I like. This one’s a fun one!”
This year he’s looking forward to riding with friends in three different events. On Saturday he’s competing in both the Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Final and the Superpipe High Air & Best Trick Jam, then riding in the 20th Anniversary Celebration Jam.
“Another thing I’m really excited about is Scotty Lago’s back at Dew Tour,” Davis says. “I haven’t gotten to hang out with him in a while. He’s staying with me this week and I’m looking forward to getting some boarding in with him and watching him ride. He’s always been one of my favorite snowboarders, so it’s nice to have him back.”
Davis says he’s also excited that Dew Tour 2024 snowboard contests kick off on International Women’s Day and during Women’s History Month.
“As a spectator, I’m most excited for the women’s events, because women’s snowboarding has really taken off this year especially and the youth are really pushing the progression. Women like Jamie Anderson sort of set the stage, and now there’s all these young women and even younger girls biting at her heels and starting to take it over. It’s a beautiful thing to see how far it’s come: These women are putting down runs that are transforming snowboarding! The more women we get into the sport, the faster it’s gonna grow and keep growing. It’s beautiful to see the women really showing up, really pushing the progression.”
He’s also wrangling with a new feeling: Now that he’s the father of a full-on toddler, he’s equally excited to head straight back home after the hectic Dew Tour 2024 snowboard weekend.
“The first six months of raising a child was terrifying, and now it’s so freakin’ fun! The whole thing is fun, but it’s a little terrifying in the beginning because you’ve got this thing that’s making noise and you never know what’s supposed to be happening or not supposed to be happening. But man we’ve been having so much fun now that she’s climbing up everything, she’s blabbering away, and she likes hanging out in the mountains. We go outside and play in the snow and she loves it. It’s been really fun to introduce her to all the things that I’m into.”
“One thing I’ve learned about myself from fatherhood, which is a trip, is that I’m a bit more of a homebody than I thought! I’ve traveled for a living for the last 20 years and I love traveling, but I just spent three weeks at home before Dew Tour and it was awesome. I’m learning that I actually like to be home with my family even more than traveling.”
Sound off in the comments below!