ASPEN — The first gold of X Games 15 went to Kaya Turski, who won the women’s skiing slopestyle Thursday afternoon. The Montreal native won last year, and on her first run Thursday scored a 93.66. It was enough to hold off Keri Herman, who now trains in Breckenridge.
Herman, who moved to Colorado in 2001 to attend the University of Denver, has been slowly climbing up the ranks. She graduated from DU in 2005 and has been training in Breckenridge since 2004. She finished fourth last year in her inaugural X Games.
Herman played ice hockey in high school in Minnesota, but she didn’t pick up skiing until she was a student at DU.
“I went skating the other day for the first time in like seven years, and I couldn’t believe how much I learned in skating that relates to my skiing,” said Herman, who was in last place after crashing on her first two runs, then put down a 93.33- point run on her final attempt. “A lot of stuff playing hockey, how you move and adjust, that comes into my skiing.”
Brits on boards.
Even without the resorts, England is starting to produce some talented snowboarders. Two-time women’s snowboard slopestyle champion Jenny Jones said the increase in “snowdomes” around her country is getting more riders involved at a younger age.
Jones, who will defend her title in Sunday’s finals, said there are seven domes in Great Britain, and they are seeing more traffic.
“We have a lot of youngsters coming up through that way of riding now,” Jones said. “They have tons of rails and they are literally overachieving, actually. . . . The only thing we don’t have is the jumps.”
But as for snowboarding being the next big thing in Eng- land, Jones is a realist.
The 30-year-old Jones, who grew up in Bristol, Great Britain, started boarding in college and was winning events in 1999.
“The exposure of getting kids snowboarding is growing,” Jones said, “but snowboarding compared to, say, soccer doesn’t stand much of a chance.”
Bumped by Burke.
Canadian skier Sarah Burke returned to the top of the podium at the superpipe Thursday night. Burke, who had won from 2007-09, lost last year to Aspen’s Jen Hudak, who finished fifth Thursday. Hudak has been competing in the X Games superpipe since 2005.
Being Bobby.
Bobby Brown’s first day as a defending champion at X Games went about as well as it could. The Breckenridge freeskier hit the hill early Thursday for the slopestyle elimination round, and he qualified fifth to advance to Saturday’s final. He has a quiet day today, but Saturday he is one of eight skiers in the slopestyle finals at 2:30 p.m., then goes to the big air competition, which starts at 7 p.m.
David Krause, The Denver Post
