Golden’s JJ Thomas continued his comeback season by winning the final snowboard superpipe stop of the 2010 Winter Dew Tour and leapfrogging Breckenridge teammate Steve Fisher to claim the overall title in the three- event series.
Thomas’ winning run at Mount Snow, Vt., on Saturday included a McTwist, a flawless 1080 and a frontside 900, for 96.75 points. Second place went to 19-year-old Brennen Swanson of Stillwater, Minn., whose huge double-cork run put Fisher, 27, in third. Heading into the final, Fisher was the top contender for the Dew Cup and needed a first- or second- place finish to secure it. Instead, 2002 Olympic bronze medalist Thomas, 28, won the cup by five points.
Fifteen-year-old Maddy Schaffrick from Steamboat Springs finished second behind Idaho native and women’s Dew Cup winner Kaitlyn Farrington in the women’s pipe contest.
Bobby Brown of Breckenridge won the freeski slopestyle final at the event, while second-place finisher, Andreas Hatveit of Norway, was crowned the overall Dew Cup champion for the 2009-10 season. Brown finished second overall.
Other 2010 Dew Cup winners: women’s snowboard slopestyle — Jamie Anderson, 19, South Lake Tahoe, Calif.; men’s snowboard slopestyle — Sage Kotsenburg, 16, Park City, Utah; and freeski superpipe — Jossi Wells, 19, New Zealand
Coloradans net Dew invite.
Torin Yater-Wallace, 14, of Basalt won the freeski superpipe contest at the Gatorade Free Flow Tour Finals held in conjunction with the Dew Tour stop at Mount Snow Resort, besting Vail skier Patrick Baskins for a spot to compete against the pros of the Winter Dew Tour at the first stop of the 2010-11 circuit. Cody Boan of South Park won the men’s snowboard slopestyle event to earn his invite to the Dew Tour next winter.
Express to Black Mountain.
Arapahoe Basin’s new high- speed quad chairlift that will open this summer will be dubbed the “Black Mountain Express.” Scott Willoughby, The Denver Post
