Fresh snowfall made for true winter conditions on the opening day of competition at Dew Tour Copper. Due to the unforeseen weather, there was a last-minute shuffle of events that resulted in the Snowboard Team Challenge kicking things off.
New for the 2020 Team Challenge, three teams of riders arrived to compete to form teams for Volcom, Burton, and Oakley, with each squad being made up of three men and three women. The venues for competition this year were the Toyota Modified Superpipe, Slopestyle, and Streetstyle, where each team sent one man and one woman to throw down, with their best runs combined which contributed towards an overall score.
Teammates dropped in back-to-back on each course, with their final team score determined by combining the scores of each duo for a 200-point maximum total. Then, points per section were awarded by the rank of that score. The first-place team earned 100 points, 85 for second and 75 for third. In addition to the overall event team winners, an individual man and woman winner was also awarded for each section.
The first of the three courses was slopestyle, but as the snow continued to come down a decision was made across the board for riders to limit their runs to the first four jib sections. By the end of six runs, it was Team Oakley emerging with the highest combined score of 175.33 and the highest individual scores, earned by Jamie Anderson and Stale Sandbech.
“Hell yeah, the team event is so fun,” replied Sandbech when asked if he enjoyed himself. “It is a bit more laid back and loose than the individual contest. It is a lot of joking around and talking shit to the other teams. It’s just a good vibe, we are all just out there playing around.”
Anderson’s first run earned her a score of 80.33, which was highlighted by a pole-jam to tail grab into the shark fin hip on the Mountain Dew jib section, followed by a burly backside lipslide across the flat bar in the Dew Tour jib section. Sandbech earned his best score of 95 on his second run with a backside lipslide up the Mountain Dew pole-jam to pretzel 180, and a proper lipslide to fakie on the Woodward wall.
Part two of the team challenge took to the Toyota Modified Superpipe, but before the challenge began, a group gathered to ride through the pipe in the name of the late, great, Jake Burton. After some twenty plus riders, lead by Danny Davis, carved their way down the pipe Davis hopped on the mic to say a few words.
“Jake is giving us some snow for the week so we can ride some pow,” said Davis standing at the bottom of the pipe. “This is a beautiful thing, lots of snow falling, and that was really nice to see for Jake. All plumey and cloudy with tons of riders, that was really fun. A good way to kick it off.”
Davis went on to earn the highest individual score in the pipe, a 90, and his Burton teammate Jiayu Liu scored the highest of the women with an 80.33. The two owned the pipe and earned a victory lap after their first run scores secured the section win with a combined score of 170.33.
Liu started off with a frontside 360 over the channel gap before she poked out a switch 180 off the shark fin feature. Liu also landed a big frontside 720 to set up for a Haaken flip. Davis dropped in next to wow the judges with a front 360 over the channel to set up and send a switch frontside 900 off the shark fin. Davis then went higher than his competitors in the pipe starting with a crippler that lined him up to throw one of his classic chicken wing McTwists.
Leaving the Modified Superpipe presented by Toyota, Burton bumped themselves ahead of Oakley in the overall ranking, while Volcom trailed. Still, streetstyle was the final portion of the Team Challenge and there was still potential for any team to win.
“The Team Challenge is super fun,” said Anderson after earning another individual victory on the streetstyle course. “I was feeling a lot of pressure at the end because I didn’t have my rails dialed. But, Rene [Rinnekangas] got a good score, I got a good score, and the entire team held it down all day. We have such a solid team and I am thankful to be a part of the program.”
Unlike the other two sections, in streetstyle, the best individual scores were not from the same team. On the men’s side in streetstyle, it was Benny Milam for Volcom that earned the top score. Milam landed a cab-270 onto and through the kinked handrail rail, frontside boardslide drop to a switch 50-50 to pretzel back to regular and finished with a lipslide 270 out on the box.
In the end, though, it was Oakley that rode out as the Team Challenge champions after taking the top scores in slopestyle and streetstyle, as well as second in the Toyota Modified Superpipe.
Snowboard Team Challenge Results
Overall
Oakley – 285
Volcom – 250
Burton – 245
Slopestyle Men
Stale Sandbech – 95
Torgeir Bergrem – 77.66
Red Gerard – 75
Slopestyle Women
Jamie Anderson – 80.33
Anna Gasser – 74.66
Hailey Langland – 76
Slopestyle Combined
Oakley – 175.33
Volcom – 153.66
Burton – 149.66
Toyota Modified Superpipe Men
Danny Davis – 90
Scotty James – 88
Valentino Guseli – 60.66
Toyota Modified Superpipe Women
Jiayu Liu – 80.33
Leilani Ettel – 77
Haruna Matsumoto – 56.33
Toyota Modified Superpipe Combined
Burton – 170.33
Oakley – 144.33
Volcom – 137.66
Streetstyle Men
Benny Milam – 93.66
Rene Rinnekangas – 85.66
Luke Winkelmann – 83.33
Streetstyle Women
Jamie Anderson – 62.66
Maria Thomsen – 60.33
Hannah Peterson – 51.00
Streetstyle Combined
Oakley – 148.32
Volcom – 144.66
Burton – 143.66
To see the full competitions, head to YouTube.com/DewTour for all of the action.
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