Best of the Rest: Forgotten Standouts pt. 2

To start off a new month we're putting together our second collection of "Best of the Rest" performances from the FIS Snowboard World Cup tour, where we're looking back at some of the second and third place efforts from the past couple of seasons (and, in the case of snowboard cross, where all the podium results go down in the same run, we'll simply be looking at some of the exceptionally compelling big final finishes).

Check out part one of our BOTR offerings HERE, scroll down here to see what we've got for you this month, and keep checking back as we update this column throughout September.

And, without further ado...

Red Gerard (USA) and Kalle Jarvilehto (FIN) take second and third in Cardrona (NZL)

The 2019/20 FIS Snowboard World Cup opened up just over one year ago south of the equator at New Zealand's Cardrona Alpine Resort, where once again World Cup big air competition went down in conjunction with the multisport Winter Games NZ.

The big air jump in Cardrona is, quite simply, one of the largest in the world, at once supremely challenging for riders while also allowing space for the gnarliest of tricks to be styled out and varied in a way not always seen on the scaffold jumps featured in our city competitions.

With that being said, the 2019/20 verison of the Cardrona big air World Cup saw a carbon-copy performance of the 2018/19 version by winner Chris Corning (USA), who once again took top spot with his two jump combination of a frontisde 1440 and a mind-melting backside quad corked 1800. However, though the tricks were the same, anyone who was there knows that Corning's 2019/20 performance was a significantly more impressive beast, as he put down his difference-making quad in wind conditions that were variable at best. Corning made his decision to drop the quad about 15 seconds before dropping in, without even attempting the trick in several months, and for that was rewarded with the win.

With Corning once again going nuclear with his trick selection, the second and third place finishes by his US teammate Red Gerard and Finland's Kalle Jarvilehto got somewhat overlooked, but as we'll see here, that's a disservice to two supremely impressive performances in their own rights, by two riders with widely divergent styles.

Gerard's top two jumps include a frontisde 1440 and a triple cork backside 1440 - the types of tricks that would and a video part a few years ago, but which you're likely to see more than half a finals field throw down in a big air World Cup competition these days. However, when it's Red Gerard tossing said tricks, they become utterly unique and new every time.

Gerard's frontside 1440 is a thing of beauty, popping smoothly off the heels and snatching tail just as he comes around on the first 360, tweaking it so hard he bends his board, through the next three, and then dropping his shoulder to throw the third rotation into a cork. It's unique, it's exciting to watch, and goodness gracious is it stylish.

Speaking of stylish, the sauce that Gerard throws on his backside triple cork is something that few other riders in the world are capable of. Every rotation of the trick comes around a little bit differently than the last - hone in on that final cork to really see what we're talking about here. Factor in the shifty he throws in at the end to correct what could have been a slight over rotation and you're looking at a rider with board control that ranks among the best to ever do it.

Up next is Kalle Jarvilehto, the 25-year-old Finn who counters the unpredictable, controlled chaos of Red Gerard's second place performance with an almost clinically precise set of tricks, as he goes first regular, then switch, with back-to-back triple cork backside 1440s.

Jarvilehto's regular backside triple isn't one of the biggest tricks we saw at Cardrona, airtime-wise, but it's undoubtably the smoothest. Grabbing melon until he's halfway through the final cork, Jarvilehto makes it look like he could be in the middle of something as simple as a backside 360 at pretty much any point in the trick. Pure, cold-blooded control throughout.

On the next hit, he simply pops it to switch on the run-in and repeats what he did regular the hit before, grabbing mute this time and once again holding it until the last possible second before setting it down clean. Somehow, his switch triple is bigger, gnarlier, and deeper into the landing than his regular version, and he makes one of the hardest spins in snowboarding look like warm-up run on his way to earning the third highest score for any trick stomped in the Cardrona finals...

Fun stuff to watch, from two exceptional riders.

Misuki Ono (JPN) and Patrick Burgener (SUI) shine in Calgary season-ender

The women’s World Cup halfpipe scene was ruled by four riders in 2019/20, with Cai Xuetong (CHN), Liu Jaiyu (CHN), Queralt Castellet (ESP), and Maddie Bowman (USA) combining to take every podium spot on the season’s four pipe competitions - save for one.

That single outlier podium spot went to 16-year-old Japanese ripper Mitsuki Ono, who capped off her first winter of World Cup competition with her first ever podium in an impressively smooth display of technical, boosty halfpipe riding.

Beginning things off with a massive frontside 900 and throwing equally large back-to-back 720s midway through the run, Ono’s run was as clean and confident as any we saw all season in World Cup action. And with a second-place result that saw her sandwiched on the podium between Cai and Lui - two of the world’s most dominant halfpipe riders over the past decade - Ono announced that she’s on her way to becoming a halfpipe force to be reckoned with in the years to come.

Over on the men’s side of the Calgary competition we look to Switzerland’s Patrick Burgener, a rider who hasn’t finished outside the top-10 in any World Cup competition of the last two seasons, showing a remarkable consistency to go along with his always-entertaining and endlessly enthusiastic on-hill persona. However, while he once again proved himself amongst the world’s elite week in and week out in 2019/20, it took him until Calgary at the last competition of the season to land on a World Cup podium.

There, after a silky smooth frontside 180 into the pipe on his drop-in, he stomped five massive hits on the Calgary pipe, with four of the five hits coming in the form of double inverts - including a first-hit double corked switch backside 1080. Throw in an uber-stylish air to fakie on hit number three, and then his pirouetting exit from the pipe which leads into an ollie onto the hay bales that he THEN follows up by nearly taking out a $100,000 TV camera, and you’ve got one of the most entertaining runs of the season courtesy of the Swiss star.

Trespeuch (FRA) squeaks past Jacobellis (USA) in Cerro Catedral

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why they tell you to “fight ’til the end” in SBX:

We’re flashing back to the opening snowboard cross World Cup event of the 2017/18 season and the big final at race number one in Cerro Catedral (ARG), where the first lady of SBX Lindsey Jacobellis squared off with the talented French duo of Chloe Trespeuch and Nelly Moenne-Loccoz in a thrilling final heat that featured a half dozen passes in the upper half, a big crash, and a drag race to the line that ended up in a one of the closest photo finishes you’re likely to see.

Out of the gate it was Jacobellis falling back into third position behind her US teammate Faye Guilini and Trespeuch, though the cagey veteran immediately began working to set herself up for a pass - a pass which she proceeds to do quickly, working her way to the front of the pack through the second corner.

From there Jacobellis begins to open up a sizeable lead while behind her the action in the pack heats in a big way, as a multitude of position changes take place before the goofy-footers Guilini and Charlotte Bankes (also of France) get tangled up and Bankes goes down heavily - opening up the homestretch for a battle between Jacobellis, Trespeuch and Moenne-Loccoz.

With 30 SBX World Cup wins up this point in her career, Jacobellis is no stranger to winning a finish line drag race. However, on this day in Cerro Catedral the winningest rider in snowboard cross World Cup history would not add another triumph to those totals, as the then-23-year-old Trespeuch pulled off the perfect robbery, slingshotting out of Jacobellis’ draft just before the finish jump and powering the nose of her board across the line at the perfect moment to take what was her second career win in dramatic fashion. Jacobells would finish runner up, while Moenne-Loccoz would be just back in third.

While the very next day Jacobellis would get her revenge by winning the second of the back-to-back competitions in Argentina, the win by France’s Trespeuch in race number one was the perfect way to start a season, reminding us all just what makes snowboard cross the baddest sport on snow.

Liam Brearley (CAN) and Ryoma Kimata (JPN) earn first career slopestyle podiums

While the FIS Snowboard Park & Pipe World Cup events consistently see a steady stream of new blood hitting the World Cup circuit every season, it’s always exciting to see a rider step onto the world’s top stage and make an immediate impact, and today we’ll be looking at two teenagers who scored their first World Cup slopestyle podiums in their first season of regular World Cup action.

Canada’s Liam Brearley had an astonishing second half of the 2019/20 season, beginning at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games in January where he scored an incredible THREE medals - bronzes in both the big air and halfpipe competitions, and silver in the slopestyle.

As an encore, the 17-year-old then followed up that (Canadian record-setting) YOG performance at his first-ever World Cup competition just three weeks later, at the Calgary Snow Rodeo Slopestyle World Cup.

There, in his first run of the finals, he kicked things off by stomping the heck out of a truly mindbending set of tricks through the three rail sections, before then putting down three silky-smooth and progressively gnarlier jump tricks. Scoring a 76.58, Brearley was able to claim a hugely impressive third place result on what was a challenging Charles Beckinsale-built course in front of friends and family in Calgary.

Similarly to Brearley, Japan’s Ryoma Kimata scored big at Lausanne 2020, where he copped the gold medal in an impressive display of big air mastery.

However, Kimata’s coming out party began earlier in the 2019/20 season, as the 18-year-old claimed his first career World Cup podium with a third place performance at the Atlanta big air competition back in December.

Following Lausanne 2020 Kimata wouldn’t have to wait very long for his next World Cup success, as he dropped in on the Mammoth Mountain slopestyle competition and stood toe-to-toe with some of the world’s very best on his way to a second place finish and his first career slopestyle World Cup podium in his very first slopestyle World Cup competition entered.

From top to bottom Kimata’s run is a clinic in smoothness, locking in his tough rail combos and bringing around extra rotations on his jumps so casually you’re not sure if he actually knows that the landing is coming up on him. However, as proven by each successive stomp, he most certainly does know - just as his four top-5 finishes in 2019/20 proves that he also most certainly does know what it takes to be a top contender on the World Cup circuit after just one season of competition.

Ladina Jenny and Maurizio Bormolini kick off the season with a top-3 performance in Bannoye

From big air jumps in Cardrona (NZL), through icy pipe walls in Calgary (CAN) so far in our BOTR compilation story, today we’re going all the way to the small but well-loved ski resort in the southern Ural Mountains - Bannoye, which hosted the season’s opening event for the 2019/20 FIS Snowboard Alpine World Cup tour.

Kicking things off with the women’s event we present you a small final heat between Jenny Ladina (SUI) and Daniela Ulbling (AUT). The 27-old-year Jenny looked very sharp in this one, smoothly arching tight PSL turns and finishing this matchup 0.61 seconds ahead of her Austrian opponent. To make things even more exciting Jenny backed up her third place finish on day one, with a second place finish in PGS race the next day.

However, despite this hot start into the new World Cup campaign, Jenny managed to get back into top-3 only once afterwards in PyeongChang at the end of February. Still she never finished outside of top-ten in 2019/20, which put her straight up in a third place in PSL overall ranking, and just outside of top-3 in fourth place in both PGS and overall parallel standing. As it turned out her impressive performance right at the first race of the season, was just the beginning to what was a pretty successful campaign overall.

Switching over to the men’s event we have an exciting and extremely even small final heat between Maurizio Bormolini (ITA) and Alexander Payer (AUT). And what a showcase of world’s best snowboard carving it was with both athletes going head-to-head and toe-to-toe through the entire length of the course in Bannoye and the Italian winning over the Austrian by just a 0.15 of a second.

Bormolini impressed with his smooth riding, looking like he was part of the course on this run. And while Payer was pushing hard with his tight turns trying to beat the Italian rider, Bormolini was on a mission, taking the win in the small final heat and starting the season on a high with a well-deserved spot on the podium.

Gasser's and McMorris's second-place honours from last season

With October upon us and all systems ‘go’ as we gear up towards the 2020/21 FIS Snowboard World Cup season, we’re going to wrap up our “Best of the Rest” look-back series here with a pair of second-place performances from two of the very best to ever strap on a snowboard, as we bring in Anna Gasser (AUT) and Mark McMorris to wrap this thing up in style.

Two riders who really need no introduction, who have each stomped more trick “firsts” than the average rider has in their whole arsenal, who have so many competition wins on so many levels that it would take a spreadsheet (or two) to track them, and who every season seem to simply get better and better - even when the results see Gasser or McMorris finish up in second, you know you’ve seen something special go down to get them, every time.

Gasser’s runner-up finish that we’re looking at took place at the Air + Style Beijing big air World Cup which went down last season at the future Zhangjiakou 2021 World Championships and Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games venue in the northeast of China’s capital city.

While there was some talk around the Air + Style that Gasser would look to become the first women ever to land a triple cork in competition, and though there’s a better than good chance that that feat did cross her mind, when it all went down she kept it to ‘only’ doubles with her pair of tricks there in Beijing.

But what a pair of tricks it was, as her massive backside dub 1080 and her cab double underflip 900 would have been enough to walk away easily with the win at most competitions. The Beijing big air wasn’t a typical competition though, and Gasser was outshined by Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN) and her frontside and backside double corked 1080s that evening at the Air + Style. However, with Gasser’s safety tricks earning her second place, she showed that the pieces are very much in place in her bid to repeat her PyeongChang 2018 big air gold medal in less than a year and a half’s time.

For McMorris’ performance we’re looking to the season-opening Modena SkiPass big air World Cup, where the then 25-year-old showed up to his first scaffold big air World Cup competition in almost exactly two years and showed once again why he’s one of the absolute best we’ve ever seen.

After going too big and washing out on his first attempt, McMorris’ proceeded to stomp an essentially perfect backside triple cork 1440 on attempt number two. He then followed that up with the frontside version of the same trick which - had he put a little more amplitude on it - may have been enough to bump his young Canadian teammate Nic Laframboise from the top spot.

As it stood, however, Laframboise would hold on for the win, while McMorris would walk away with his eighth World Cup podium in 13 career starts, having served notice that he was and is still one of the most talented riders in the world on any terrain.