But Morisset didn’t waiver under the pressure and went on to perform amazing tricks for the crowd. "That kid can put anything together," said Centurione. His winning run started off with a switch backside 900, to a Cab 900, along with an amazing variety of rotations of straight airs. Outside of his winning run, Morisset was switching his tricks up in each run, showing his true command of the halfpipe.

DCP, who came in second, started out with his back to back 900s. He also included frontside alley-oop 360s to switch frontside 360 alley oops. DCP stepped it up when he needed to, although he’s had little time in the halfpipe this year. DCP was strong throughout his entire run.

Crispin had a frontside 9 combined with a back to back 7 for a three spinning trick combination along with huge straight airs and backside air-to-fakie to a switch alley-oop 720.

Earlier on Saturday for the Men’s Superpipe Qualifier, Chris Runge, 23, Alexandria, Minnesota, led the field of 31 riders by showing outstanding amplitude and technical difficulty. "One thing that Chris is doing ahead of other riders is starting his run off with an impressive Wildcat," Centurione said.

The competition between the top three women was tough with only fractions of a point setting them apart. Natazsa Zurek, 25, Vancouver managed to outperform Maelle Ricker, 24, West Vancouver, and Tricia Byrnes, 28, Conneticut, who took second and third places, respectively. Centurione described Zurek’s winning tricks as having a great variety of straight airs and great amplitude. "And with a super straight frontside 540 and a crippler 7, she’s pushed the envelope of women’s snowboarding…she had strong amplitude throughout," he said.

Ricker, in second place, was described as dominator of straight airs in the women’s field. Her grabs and executions were to perfection. With strong amplitude, she also pulled off a frontside 540 and a frontside 720 to add technical difficulty to her run.
While Byrnes was only 0.1 behind Ricker, Byrnes is another rider who’s pushing the envelope of women’s riding. Byrnes started off with a huge method – the biggest air of the day for women – to a full frontside 540 and finished off with a progressive switch front 540, to a switch method.

RESULTS
1 Guillaume MORISSET 19.8
2 David CARRIER-PORCHERON 18.1
3 Crispin LIPSCOMB 18.0

1 Natazsa ZUREK 18.0
2 Maelle RICKER 17.8
3 Tricia BYRNES 17.7

SuperHit, April 13:
In this rider-judged competition, Crispin Lipscomb, 23, Whistler, won himself a $12,500 Skidoo MX7 800 by throwing a frontside 1080. After taking the new Skidoo for a spin up and back down the halfpipe, Crispin’s joy over his new yellow rev machine over-rode any regrets about the outcome of the Superpipe Finals. Explaining his winning trick for the SuperHit, Crispin said: "With the second run, I did a front side 1080 and flipped it a little and went really big. And then I did four more in a row. I won a Skidoo, it’s yellow and it’s cool."

bzone team