Huntsville, UT – Canada’s Kaya Turski left the 2012 Dew Tour Finals at Snowbasin Resort in Utah with a gold medal, the Dew Cup and the award for athlete of the year, which she shared with American Devin Logan.
Turski, who won the X Games two weeks ago and was also crowned X Games female athlete of the year, has had a perfect season so far, winning every slopestyle event she’s entered. The Montreal, Quebec native sewed up Sunday’s Freeski Slopestyle event on the first run where she scored a 93.75. Anna Segal of Australia was second at 90.75 and Logan took the bronze medal at 89.00.
The slopestyle course in Snowbasin was fairly technical, with three rail features and two jumps. It’s the kind of course Turski loves. “The course really worked in my favor because I’m strong on the rails and I worked hard to get my rail game on point here.”
Turski, who didn’t have a slopestyle coach before this season, credits hard work and the resources that have become available to her since the Olympic announcement, from the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association and its partners as well and her main personal sponsor, Red Bull, with her results to date this season.
“I feel like all my hard work’s been paying off — in the gym and the summer and with my coaches and sponsor. It’s exciting to have it all pay off. And I work well with [my coaches] Toben [Sutherland] and JF [Cusson]. It definitely feels good to have people at the start gate cheering for you and people to consult on your run. Before I only had my friends, and they were my competitors, so it wasn’t quite the same.”
Turski also finished on top of the Dew Cup standings with 200 points.
On the men’s side, the U.S. swept the top spots with Nick Goepper of Lawrenceburh, Ind. in first at 95.00, Pittsburgh, Penn.’s Tom Wallisch in second at 92.25 and Bobby Brown, of Breckenridge, Colo., third at 91.00. Wallisch also nailed the Dew Tour Cup to become the first athlete to win the X Games and Dew Tour Cup in the same year, and also scored the Dew Tour’s Athlete of the Year award.
“I’m not much of a go for broke, last run huck yourself, try something new kind of guy. I’d rather see skiing be smoother. Just full, complete, good runs,” said Wallisch, who earned second place with a run that consisted of a switch lip 270 pretzel 270 on the down rail, to switch on frontside switchup backside 450 out, to switch on to cannon rail backside pretzel 450 out to switch. He hit up the jumps with a switch left double cork 1080 Japan grab to switch right double cork 1080 Japan grab. “I never really try to huck myself second run. I just go for cleaning it up. Making is as smooth as possible. And it’s worked for me in the past, so I’m going to keep doing it.”
“I was struggling on the course the last few days,” Brown said in explaining his third place finish. “I’m just stoked that I’m on the podium, and Goepper and Wallisch killed it today. I’m just happy to end the Dew Tour on the podium.”
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Winter Dew Tour Finals
Snowbasin Resort – Huntsville, UT – Feb. 13, 2012
Freeski Slopestyle
Women:
1 | Kaya Turski | 93.75 |
2 | Anna Segal | 90.75 |
3 | Devin Logan | 89.00 |
4 | Emilia Wint | 82.00 |
5 | Keri Herman | 77.00 |
6 | Ashley Battersby | 71.75 |
Men:
1 | Nick Goepper | 95.00 |
2 | Tom Wallisch | 92.25 |
3 | Bobby Brown | 91.00 |
4 | Chris Laker | 90.25 |
5 | Russ Henshaw | 89.50 |
6 | Alex Bellemare | 88.00 |
7 | James Woods | 87.00 |
8 | Joss Christensen | 82.00 |
9 | Andreas Håtveit | 76.00 |
10 | Alex Beaulieu-Marchand | 70.00 |
11 | Jamieson Irvine | 69.00 |
12 | Jf Houle | 13.00 |