Alex Schlopy was the big underground buzz in freeskiing slopestyle two seasons ago. But he seemed like many of the budding phenoms that excite the sport, then disappear. Maybe they can’t stand the pressure. Maybe they never got better than their first flash of brilliance. In Schlopy’s case, it was disaster that derailed him.

First, he suffered a severe concussion in a car accident last autumn. Back on skis and training for the U. S. Open in January, he blew out his knee and got another concussion, leaving him bedridden with vertigo. At 15, Schlopy had to deal with a double lesson of his own mortality.

That was then. Now he’s back. His big sponsor, Dynastar Skis, stuck with him.

“It was kind of weird at the beginning of the season, but now feel I’m getting back to the state of mind I want to be in. I’m catching up, getting back to where I feel I’m ahead of where I was before the accident,” the now-16-year-old said.

So did he choose some small, out of the way contest to make his comeback? Nope. He started big, trying for the first Winter Dew Tour stop at Breckinridge. But open qualifying was full. Alex was put on the waiting list. The night before the contest, one of the organizers called. A last-minute slot had just opened up. Alex was in.

“It was the first contest I’d been in since two years ago. I was a little scared, but at the same time I felt like it would be good to get back in. We got two hours of training before the contest.  It felt good to be hitting big jumps on a nice course, and I was ready. They were pretty big jumps, anywhere between 60-70 feet, but well built. I’d been off jumps that high, but not that well built,” he said.

Any action athlete coming back after down time knows how hard the first contest always is. Schlopy didn’t put down the run he wanted. He came in 17th. But only the top 16 would go on. Then he got another nighttime call. One of the top 16 athletes was injured and dropping out. Again, Alex was in. But contest day was a windy blizzard snowstorm. “You couldn’t even see the jumps,” he said.

Dew Tour organizers called it a day after the first heat and rescheduled the contest for two days later. Each athlete would have only one run to qualify for the finals. It was during his run that Schlopy learned that he’d made a mistake. ” I didn’t wax my skis, which was kind of stupid. I couldn’t get speed, I was having trouble with the course, and landed five feet short off the first jump; that was sort of it for me,” he said.

But he’s ready for the rest of the season. “I feel that I’m back, so I’m not too disappointed. But watching the contest, I saw how far the sport has come in the past two years. If I want it, I’m really going to have to train and go after it. And I will. If I want to go to X Games, I’m going to have to train really hard. The next Dew is in Vermont, and hopefully I’ll be able to go to that one. We’ll see if I qualified to go,” he said.

He’s spending time practicing his favorite trick, switch sevens with different grabs. “That’s getting the roots down for bigger spins. It’s always good to have the roots,” Schlopy said.

And it’s also good, when you come back, to have already paid your dues.

Men’s Superpipe Finals

Women’s Superpipe Finals

Men’s Slopestyle Finals

Women’s Slopestyle Finals

Men’s Ski Slopestyle Finals

Men’s Ski Superpipe Finals

Danny Davis – cr. Jennifer Huskey / Lat34

The first stop of the Winter Dew Tour wrapped up Sunday in Breckinridge, Co., and six athletes are each $15,000 richer.

It’s a record setting event—the first winter tour for the huge Dew/Alli empire, the first exhibition for women freeskiers, and unlike the one-week, one-stop X Games, there are three stops in the Winter Dew, where repeat winners can total up huge prizes  to rival the heavy money X Games. In addition, women winners in snowboard pipe and slopestyle will get paid the same as the men.

Shaun White got his loot for winning Saturday’s snowboard slopestyle contest, while nearly unknown Canadian rider Spencer O’Brien had the run of her life and ruled women’s snowboard slopestyle, scoring seven points higher than her closest competition.

But gasps of awe and screams of joy went to Breck local Bobby Brown, who won freeski slopestyle with ever bigger tricks as he rode his run, most of them switch, including a switch misty 1080—upside down and twisting—to a switch double rodeo 900 from the top of one jump, and spinning like a gyroscope off the others.

The show continued Saturday night under bright lights, when freeskier Tanner Hall shook off all the rest to land the first 1080 of his career—at the bottom of the superpipe. He went on with back to back nines, and tricked all the way to the bottom.

While there are lots of women who go big on boards, there are not yet enough women freeskiers who throw down well enough to contest for the best at the Winter Dew, so while there are women freeskiing pipe and slopestyle exhibitions, they’re not yet part of the official contests.

Sunday’s finals were bluebird all the way, after a week of qualifying and contests where the snow never stopped. “Today was the first day it didn’t snow, but we still had great competitions the whole time. In the open qualifiers, there were close to 250 athletes,” said Chris Prybylo, the Dew’s Vice President of Events.

The wrap up was total pipe, and Gretchen Bleiler continued her domination, with halfpipe amplitude rarely seen in women riders. Danny Davis won superpipe.

Prybylo said, “We didn’t have any double winners; nobody won more than one event. Shaun White won slopestyle and finished second in superpipe. I think everyone competed really well every day.”

He went on to rave about newcomer Bobby Brown. “He’s only 17, and I think he’s going to be a great athlete. He had an incredible run Saturday. All of these guys are competing for the Dew Cup. No one has the most points yet because it’s the first event. They are also competing for an overall bonus purse that will be awarded at the finals.”

When Prybylo was asked if hearty partying was underway, he hedged a bit, then diplomatically said, “they were in a contest, they wrapped it up. I think everyone’s going to enjoy themselves tonight.”

The Winter Dew Tour stops next at Mt. Snow Resort in Dover, Vt. on Jan. 8-11, then to the season finals at Northstar-at-Tahoe in Lake Tahoe, Ca., on Feb. 19-22. Each stop will have the Dew’s signature “Village,” concerts, bands and dancing in the streets.

For more about the contest, check out the Winter Dew Tour website.

Here are the podium results of all the events:

Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle Finals
1. Shaun White, Carlsbad, Calif. 95.17.
2. Mikkel Bang, Norway, 92.33.
3. Janne Korpi, Finland, 86.17.

Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Finals
1. Spencer O’Brien, Canada, 85.00.
2. Jenny Jones, Great Britain, 77.33.
3. Bev Vuilleumier, South Lake Tahoe, Calif., 74.17.

Men’s Freeski Slopestyle Finals
1. Bobby Brown, Breckenridge, Colo., 90.50.
2. Josiah Wells, New Zealand, 89.50.
3. Henrik Harlaut, Sweden, 85.67.

Men’s Freeski Superpipe Finals
1. Tanner Hall, Kalispell, Mont., 90.75.
2. Justin Dorey, Canada, 85.50.
3. Duncan Adams, Breckenridge, Colo., 81.00.

Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Finals
1. Danny Davis – 94.75
2. Shaun White – 93.50
3. Scotty Lago – 90.00

Women’s Snowboard Superpipe Finals
1. Gretchen Bleiler – 90.25
2. Kelly Clark – 86.75
3. Elena Hight – 82.00

I’ve got a good feeling that this won’t be the only record the “Flying Tomato” will break during his long and illustrious career.  Shaun makes winning Gold medals look like it’s going out of style.  And you know Shaun is all about STYLE.  The guy virtually dominates every big competition that he practically enters.  I foresee Shaun being the biggest “action sports” fashion designer.  In order to do so, he’ll probably have to branch out into FANNYPACKS and MENS UNDERWEAR. 

On top of all his achievements, Shaun just completed another landmark achievement.  Shaun White was the first athlete to win a Summer Dew Tour event in skateboard vert and he continued that success on the Winter Dew Tour by becoming the first person to earn a winter victory.  White scorched the competition on Friday at Breckenridge Ski Resort, earning a 95.17 and capturing the first Winter Dew Tour men’s snowboard slopestyle title.

“I might as well go for it now,” White said.  “It was cool to just put my head down and bust through it.  I’m excited.  I’m doing all the stops so it’s nice to start out right.” 

Check out the Press Release Below…

With today’s victory, White now has a chance to become the first summer and winter Dew Cup champion.  White won the skateboard vert Dew Cup in 2007 and with his 25-point lead in snowboard slopestyle, he is the favorite to win a Dew Cup on the Winter series. 

 
In a day filled with firsts, Spencer O’Brien won the women’s snowboard slopestyle event and the first win of her career.  The Courtenay, Canada native dominated the competition, posting a score of 85.00, more than seven points higher than Jenny Jones, the second place finisher. 
 
Now O’Brien finds herself leading the season long point standings in the slopestyle discipline.  A strong finish at the second stop of the Winter Dew Tour at Mt. Snow Resort in Dover, Vt. (Jan. 8-11) and at the third and final event of the 2008-09 season, the Toyota Championships at Northstar-at-Tahoe in Lake Tahoe, Calif. (Feb. 19-22), and the 20-year-old could become the first women’s slopestyle Dew Cup champion. 
 
“The course was just amazingly built and a lot fun,” O’Brien said.  “Once I got over my fear it was awesome.”
 
The action continues on Saturday, with the men’s freeski slopestyle finals and the men’s freeski superpipe finals.  Bethel, Maine native Simon Dumont is looking to sweep the freeski disciplines this weekend.  He qualified first in the superpipe prelims on Friday and will attempt to duplicate his success in the slopestyle prelims tomorrow morning and the finals held that afternoon.