With Slopestyle and Halfpipe finished, only one event remained; the intense discipline of SkierX. With four people on one course, coupled with jumps, rollers, and banked turns, SkierX is by far, the most nerve racking of all the events at Nationals. What makes the competition even more difficult is the amount of racers that enter.
Ben, you are so fuerte!
On the first day of the competition, they let everyone inspect the course for an hour and then began time trials. With 64 entrees in the men’s division, getting a good seed is important if one hopes to do well in the finals. Equipped with race skis that we borrowed from Grace Parker, Natalie Landsinger, Abe Kislevitz, Patrick Wilcox, and Haley Ells, the five of us had a friendly competition to see who could lay down the fastest time. Feeling super dialed, I got the 6th seed, with Ben 19th, Caleb 22nd, Matt 34th, and Robby 44th. Feeling good after the time trials and stoked for the finals the next day we spent the rest of the day hitting moguls and the park.
Matt in the gate for time trials
SkierX Course
The next morning we headed to the course early to see what changes had been made. In the middle of the run there was an off cambered hip that was the most challenging aspect of the course. There was 16 heats of men’s racers, 4 men in each heat with only the top 2 advancing to the next round; cutting the field in half after every round.
Ben getting ready
Despite having a great seed in the time trials and getting the holeshot, I made a serious error on the hip jump and failed to advance to the round of 32. However, Matt, Caleb, Robby and Ben placed 1st or 2nd in their heats and advanced.
Caleb flying into the round of 8
In the next round, both Ben and Caleb advanced to the round of 16, quite an impressive feat, considering the amount of talented racers in the competition. Unfortunately, the two of them were put in the same heat against one another along with the favored 3rd and 11th seed. It was a great race and with Ben getting tangled up with a competitor, Caleb advanced to the semis. However, pitted against 1st and 2nd team All Americans in GS and Slalom, it was a difficult round and Caleb placed 8th in the competition.
Some extra shots:
Caleb shredding the course
SoCal team shot
Team Huddle
