Halfpipe season set for explosive start at Laax Open
Jan 20, 2021·Snowboard Park & Pipe
It’s been over 11 months since the 2019/20 FIS Snowboard halfpipe World Cup wrapped up in Calgary (CAN) last winter, and it pretty obviously goes without saying that it’s a whole new world we’re living in since China’s Cai Xuetong and Scotty James of Australia hoisted the crystal globes as the top World Cup riders of the season.
And while the uncertainty of day-to-day life continues to be one of the few real certainties, one thing we do know is that the longest off-season in halfpipe World Cup history is finally coming to an end and that, by Saturday evening, we’ll be capping off another Laax Open by crowning the first winners of 2020/21.
Though the situation at this season’s Laax Open is, understandably, a bit different than what everyone has come to expect from what is universally regarded as one of the premier events in snowboarding, the fact that the best riders in the world are on site and set to drop in for competition runs on the world’s best halfpipe means there is stoke to be had regardless of the circumstances.
So, while we won’t see the iconic Saturday night images of thousands of people lining the halfpipe while the Galaaxy building looms in the background, what we absolutely will see is a great majority of the biggest names in snowboarding, riding at the pinnacle of their abilities at one of the world’s greatest venues - and for that we should all be thankful.
Chloe Kim set to make return
Straight up one of the biggest stories in snowboarding at the end of the 2018/19 season was the announcement by reigning Olympic gold medallist Chloe Kim (USA) that she planned to step back from competition for a year and pursue her education at Ivy League university Princeton.
While she was only 19 years-old when she stated her intentions to put shredding on the back-burner, there was some speculation about whether or not she would actually return to competitive snowboarding after a year of university. At the time of her announcement Kim had already checked off essentially every significant accomplishment available for a halfpipe rider - Olympic gold, world championships gold, X Games gold (x5), Burton US Open titles (x3), World Cup crystal globes (x2)…few in snowboard history have accomplished so much at such a young age.
However, Kim is, indeed, back in the bib and ready to begin her quest towards defending her gold medal this week at what is the first competition of the qualification period for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, and the field she’ll be facing down will look much the same as the one she left at the end of 2018/19.
While Queralt Castellet (ESP) is entering her 16th season of World Cup competition, the 31 year-old proved last winter that she’s nowhere near to slowing down, stomping what was one of the best runs of her career to finally claim her first Laax Open victory, and then following that up the very next week by claiming her first X Games gold medal. Despite all her seasons on tour, though, Castellet has never won a World Cup crystal globe, and a strong result here in Laax would certainly help her along the path towards that goal in 2020/21.
Kim’s US teammate and fellow 20-year-old Maddie Mastro may also be her toughest competition this week in Laax, as Mastro is the only other rider in the woman’s field who can reliably count on a double invert in her trick arsenal. While Mastro became the first woman to stomp a double in World Cup competition on home soil in Mammoth Mountain last season, it’s the improvements to the rest of her run that will really put the pressure on Kim this week.
Then there’s the Japanese contingent, lead by last season’s X Games silver and bronze medallists Kurumi Imai and Haruna Matsumoto. While the pair only has a handful of World Cup podiums between them - one for Imai and four for Matsumoto, who also won silver at the Sierra Nevada 2017 world championships - their performances last season in Aspen prove they’ve got the chops to make it into the top three here in Laax.
Unfortunately, a couple of riders who will be missing from the women’s field are last season’s top two finishers on the World Cup halfpipe rankings, as crystal globe winner Cai and her compatriot Liu Jaiyu aren’t able to travel out of China due to pandemic restrictions implemented by the Chinese government.
Scotty James looking to get back to winning ways
While he was able to take the third crystal globe of his career the 2019/20 World Cup season finale in Calgary, the event also marked the moment that Scotty James’ (AUS) astonishing streak of 12-straight wins in top-tier international competitions came to an end at the hands of Japan’s Ruka Hirano.
James would finish his season once again looking up at the top of the podium after ending up in third place at the US Open behind behind Hirano’s Japanese teammate Yuto Totsuka and Jan Scherrer (SUI). While no one expected Scotty James to continue winning every event he entered for the rest of his career, it was a little bit surprising to see him off the top spot in back-to-back competitions. With nearly a year now passed since he last put on a bib, expect James to be hungrier then he’s been in a long time to come out swinging as he looks to defend last year’s Laax title.
With his unmatched combination of technical ability, variety, amplitude and deceptive smoothness, James continues to be regarded as the man who sits alone in the god-tier of halfpipe snowboarding - however, you can expect those two Japanese riders we just mentioned to push James to absolute limits of his capabilities this weekend.
Totsuka and Hirano come into this season still just 19 and 18-years-old, respectively, and both are still refining their skills at the mind-bendingly technical game that is halfpipe riding in 2021.
Totsuka is quite simply the most explosive halfpipe rider in the world, with the biggest airs stapled to the gnarliest tricks and a pedal-to-the-metal mentality that makes it a borderline terrifying viewing experience every time he drops in on a pipe.
Hirano, meanwhile, is a little more like James, with a subtlety to his runs that means sometimes it isn’t until you’ve done the math on the spins and the trigonometry on the inverts and realized that he’s actual a regular-footer that you being to understand the magnitude of the piece of riding you just witnessed. Between the two of them, the Japanese team has the best one-two punch in the world right now.
Speaking of one-two punches, the host Swiss aren’t looking too bad either, with the aforementioned Scherrer and his teammate Pat Burgener both consistently amongst the finalists at nearly every World Cup competition held over the past four or five seasons. Last season Scherrer finished just off the podium in fourth place at Laax, and you know he’ll be looking to harness a little of the energy from his US Open second-place finish from last season to climb onto one of the top three spots this year.
The USA is fielding a huge team in Laax this week, with fully eight riders on hand and ready to drop in on the pristine Laax pipe. Last season’s Laax third-place finisher Taylor Gold and his signature “Chuck Taylor” double Michalchuk 1080 will be leading the way, while the likes of the Chase’s Josey and Blackwell, Ryan Wachendorfer, and Jason Wolle could also push for a little bit of Laax glory if all the pieces fall into place.
And finally, keep an eye on Germany’s Andre Hoefflich, the 23 year-old who turned a lot of heads in a 2019/20 season when he came out of what seemed like nowhere to earn top-6 results in four out of five World Cup competitions to finish fifth overall on the World Cup standings. While we don’t have an actual award for the “most improved” rider on tour, if we did, Hoefflich would have won it.
Action in Laax begins with men’s and women’s semifinals which will be going down on Thursday beginning with the women at 09:25 CET, followed by men’s heat one at 11:25, and heat two at 13:30.
QUICK LINKS:
Laax Open halfpipe World Cup official website (including livestream for semifinals and finals)
Laax Open halfpipe World Cup data page (programme, start lists, live scoring, results)
