Hall Takes on Dumont in Skier Halfpipe

 

 

One of the most exciting battles of the Winter X Games was definitely in the men’s skiing halfpipe tonight as the longtime pipe dominator Tanner Hall came head to head with Simon Dumont. After last week’s US Open where Hall took first, which was no surprise to the ski community, odds still seemed in Dumont’s favor, especially considering the week before the Open Dumont easily nabbed first place and $25,000 at the Ski Tour in Sun Valley, ID. It was no doubt that everyone, including Hall knew Dumont was a threat this weekend.

 

Tonight the battle was clearly on between the two as Dumont owned the first round, then Tanner came in to sweep up on the second round. There were other possibilities going into the competition with Peter Olenick throwing an amazing double backflip of some sorts (yeah, we are still learning the name of that trick) and of course the always impressive Candide Thovex working the pipe in his nearly flawless style.

 

But it was clearly Dumont and Hall who wanted to own the 2007 Winter X Games. Some say Dumont was robbed, others say Hall’s win was obvious, but either way it was clear the level was upped and the runs were near perfect. It helped that the weekend has been fairly warm, the sun shining, the Winter X Games crowd cheering loud as it always does and the Red Bull flowing non-stop. Interestingly both athletes are Red Bull sponsored, as well as Oakley athletes, and have been competing together steadily for the last few years. But Dumont definitely represents a new era of young riders coming in that are running cleaner and cleaner runs with less risk and more attention to pleasing the judges. Amplitude is everything though and both skiers proved this, busting huge airs. Dropping in switch also seemed to be a popular move tonight.

 

Stay tuned for more on Simon Dumont as Lat34 catches up with him Saturday for an exclusive interview while he preps for his slopestyle event Sunday, another event that we will see Tanner Hall and Dumont battle it out for top dog slot.