Aspen – TJ Schiller burst onto the freeskiing scene at Vail’s 2004 U.S. Freeskiing Open, flooring jib veterans with a staggering backward 1080 mute grab that became his signature trick. Last week, at the same event, he upped the ante with another rotation – a fat 1440 that many call the most amazing ski trick ever seen in competition – to win his second gold.
The 19-year-old from British Columbia beat the best again Sunday at the X Games with a super-amped switch 1080, which included a nose grab lasting for half of his rotations. Schiller, who is no longer the new kid on the jibbing block, took home his first X medal in the Winter X skiing slopestyle contest that was whittled down to a big trick contest because of abundant snowfall.
It was a switch 1080 day for X Games skiers Sunday. Twenty skiers had two tricks on the massive booter, and 27 of those stunts were attempts at the three-spin switch 1080. Most of those resulted in crashes. But plenty involved lengthy grabs and technical style in a trick that has dominated jib comps for the past two years.
Which raises the question: What happened to the turbo- charged progression that saw high-flying trick skiers busting out massive new tricks every year?
Has skiing’s slopestyle and big tricks followed an aerial pathway where it’s all about spinning, and the most spins wins?
“I hope we don’t go to all 14s all the time,” said Andreas Hatveit, the 19-year-old Norwegian whose buttery smooth switch 1080 tail grabs earned him bronze Sunday. “I think it should be more about how you spin than how many times you spin. I hope we see more variations of 9s and 10s than just more spins. I want more of the ‘steeze’ factor.”
“Steeze” is jib-speak for panache. While switch 1080s were the tool for winning medals at this year’s slopestyle/big trick X contest, it was steeze that defined winners.
“I think the kids who are really pushing it these days are the ones like (Simon) Dumont and Laurent (Favre), who are throwing switch 7s (720-degree rotations starting from a backward position) that are unbelievably styled out,” said Matt Harvey, editor of the new-school skiing magazine Ski Times and a leading authority on jib skiing trends. “The coolest trick we saw today wasn’t a switch 1080.”
Dumont, the 19-year-old, hard-charging ski champ from Maine, left without any X Games slopestyle metal, but his two-ski grab (called a truck driver grab) while spinning 720 degrees was one of the most stylish tricks of the day. Frenchman Laurent Favre’s tweaked 720s with hard-pulling grabs were crowd pleasers but garnered little appreciation from judges. Swedish ripper Jacob Wester busted out a funky two-handed grab on one ski while spinning a 720 with yet another variation from the steady flow of switch 1080s.
“A nice spin with big style is better than a big spin with not much style, in my opinion,” said Charles Gagnier, the 21-year-old Quebecker who took gold in last year’s slopestyle and silver in this year’s big trick. “I think the people who do something really creative should win.”
