Birk Ruud came through with the top score of run one, earning a 93.00 when he stomped the left double bio 1800 mute that has come to be the signature trick of his career up to this point.
However, it was in run two where the 22-year-old really blew the roof of the Big Air Chur festival, when he landed a never-been-done-in-competition trick that earned him the highest score of the evening (a 95.75) and which simply has to be seen to be understood.
However, Ruud himself was gracious enough to attempt to describe the trick once the dust had cleared after awards. “It’s a funky pretzeling rotation in there,” Ruud said, “It’s a switch dub 900 just kind of done in special way with a bit of extra spice on it. It’s amazing to do that trick and win here. You can feel that the crowd is really with you and it’s exciting. I’m so happy for Chur to be able to have this event. It’s really a pleasure for all of skiers and snowboarders to be here, so thank you Chur.”
The win was the ninth of Ruud’s career, and gave the big air/slopestyle/halfpipe triple threat a head-start on the Freeski overall crystal globe that just eluded him last year.
Second and third place went to Noah Porter MacLennon and Troy Podmilsak.
In 4th place was local favorite Andri Ragettli and 5th Hannes Rudigier and in 8th Leonardo Donaggio.
With Chur now in the books, the FIS Freeski World Cup now looks forward to the beginning of the slopestyle season in Stubai from the 18-19 November. - Credit: www.fis-ski.com/ for text.
Photo Credit _ Gepa IMAGES
Photo by: Gepa IMAGES