Skiing and Snowboarding

Winter Dew Tour Stop in Breckenridge Brings Young Athletes, Impressive Talent

By Jackie Williams, 12-20-10

	Queralt Castellet sails through falling snow at the Nike 6.0 Open Snowboard Finals to come out on top. Photo courtesy Winter Dew Tour.

The four-day first leg of the Winter Dew Tour wrapped up in Breckenridge yesterday.

Since December 2008, the Dew Tour has billed itself as the first winter action sports tour. Made up of three events over the course of as many months, all three stops feature snowboard, superpipe and slopestyle, as well as freeski slopestyle and superpipe. The first stop in Colorado will be followed by events in Killington, VT, Jan. 20-23 and in Ogden, UT, Feb. 10-13.

The tour crowns champions in each of the six disciplines (Men SNB Superpipe, Women SNB Superpipe, Men SNB Slopestyle, Women SNB Slopestyle, Freeski Superpipe, Freeski Slopestyle), giving away $2.5 million over the course of the year and awarding the Dew Cup at season’s end based on a cumulative points system.

At each Winter Dew Tour event, there is also a live concert featuring top artists and a huge Festival Village with video gaming, giveaways, tons of new products to try out, athlete autograph signings… and the list goes on and on.

More than 380 of the top winter action sports athletes in the world will return for the third season of the tour.

At Breckenridge, with the snow falling again, the athletes conformed to the conditions and were able to bring it hard for the Superpipe and Snowboard Slopestyle finals. I had the opportunity to cover both.

Amid a downpour of powder the entire day, the athletes had a hard time riding the pipe. Louie Vito and Queralt Castellet prevailed and won first place. Vito threw out a lineup of tricks that consisted of a front double ten, cab double ten and a crippler that earned him a score of 90.25. Castellet won it with a back 3, front 9, back 3 grab, front 5, back 5 and a front 7, scoring 85.25.

Final results for Snowboard Superpipe:

Women’s

1. Queralt Castellet: 85.25
2. Elena Hight: 80.50
3. Kaitlyn Farrington: 74.25

Men’s

1. Louie Vito: 90.25
2. Matt Ladley: 75.00
3. Greg Bretz: 73.75

At the Snowboard Slopestyle finals, Jamie Anderson, 20, made Winter Dew Tour history with her 5th first-place win. She won the Women’s Finals with a lineup that included a strong backside 180 to switch backside 180, a backside 360 and a frontside 360, as well as an awesome cork.

Torstein beat out anticipated winner Eric Willet after Willet missed the final landing of his amazing lineup: back-to-back double corks, a backside rodeo 5, and the attempted switchback 10 double cork on the last hit. Torstein won the event with a high score of 96.50 after a strong run on the rails and then a switch frontside double cork 10 and a switch backside 9, finishing up with a jaw-dropping frontside double cork 10.

Women’s

1. Jamie Anderson 93.00
2. Charlotte Van Gils 84.50
3. Cheryl Maas 70.00

Men’s

1. Torstein Horgmo 96.50
2. Mark McMorris 93.75
3. Chas Guldemond 88.50

The Winter Dew Tour brought back last year’s competitors along with new ones. The ages are getting younger and the talent impressive. With Breckenridge’s new 22-foot Superpipe, riders are pushing their limits and showing how fast the sport is progressing. Follow the Winter Dew Tour on the next two stops and see who else raises the bar.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.