Alexis Godbout and Ashley Battersby bout and batter in Ski Slopestyle

Canadian phenomenon Alexis Godbout battled it out with Breckenridge local Bobby Brown on a snowy Ski Slopestyle course at the Nike 6.0 Open, setting the tone for the 2010-2011 Winter Dew Tour.

Alexis Godbout

Brown dominated after the first of two runs, spinning 450s on and off the rails and sticking a switch right 720, switch left double 900, right 720, and double cork 10, for a score of 92.25. Godbout answered in his second run with a switch 270 to pretzel 270 off the massive rainbow rail, frontside rodeo 900, switch cork 900, and a big right side kangaroo flip, posting a 94.50 – one of the highest scoring runs in Winter Dew Tour history.

“After my first run I was pretty confident,” Godbout said. “Heading into my second run I knew I just had to keep it together, keep everything clean, and upgrade my rail tricks a little bit. It feels great to win: I really liked the course this year and it feels like a great start to the season.”

Brown won the very first Breckenridge stop of the Winter Dew Tour two years ago and had the hometown crowd on his side again today. His first run score held strong for second place, and he says he’s stoked to start the season off with a podium finish on his home mountain.

“It feels great,” Brown says. “It was a little tough out there today with the snow coming down like crazy, but as a skier you never want to complain about it dumping powder, you know? In a contest everyone has the same weather to contend with so you just have to come out and do what you do, which is go skiing and go big. Now that it’s over I’m looking forward to getting out in all that snow! It’s been coming down all weekend.”

Sammy Carlson rounded out the podium in third place, surprising even himself.

“I’ve had a really crazy early season and didn’t get as much training in as I wanted to, so I’m just really happy to be on the podium,” Carlson says. “Now I’ve got some new motivation going into the next Dew Tour stops and X Games, and I’m going to work really hard to keep it going in 2011.” We asked him if he had any specific New Year’s resolutions he wanted to share. “I’ve got big plans for next year, but you don’t want to know about my New Year’s resolutions,” he said, smirking. “I don’t have any that are fit to print.”

As the Winter Dew Tour heads to Killington, VT next month, January 20-23, look for big things from Godbout, Brown, Carlson, Tom Wallisch, Russ Henshaw, Philip Casabon, 2010 Dew Cup champion Andreas Håtveit, and the rest of the men’s field.

Ashley Battersby

Ashley Battersby inaugurated women’s Ski Slopestyle competition at the Nike 6.0 Open, beating out Breck local Keri Herman and Canadian skier Jessica Warll for the win.

“Oh my god, it doesn’t feel real!” Battersby said. “It’s an honor to be the first woman to win slopestyle on the Dew Tour, and I think it sends a message to all the girls out there that our sport is coming up fast. To anybody out there who wants to be a part of this I just want to say, ‘Never give up on your dreams.’ I came out from Chicago and now I’m living in Utah to ski full time. I’m competing, I’m traveling, I’m living the dream. Never give up on what you want and just keep going for it no matter what. If you know what you want, get out there and get after it.”

Herman’s a member of the Breck Freeride team and says she thinks it’s the perfect place to introduce women’s ski events to the Dew Tour.

“I’ve been here every year to support the guys and all my friends in snowboarding, and it’s nice to finally be included,” Herman says. “No more sitting on the sidelines! Breck is the absolute best place to have made this start, because they’ve always been supporting the girls.”

Warll says she thinks big things are on the horizon for women’s skiing.

“There’s really good vibes here and they had a really great course, and I think it gave us a great chance to show how far the girls have come,” Warll says. “I’m looking forward to seeing what it becomes. I think it would be amazing if slopestyle makes it to the

Freeski Slopestyle Final Highlights

SKI SLOPESTYLE FINALS
1	Alexis Godbout	94.50
2	Bobby Brown	92.25
3	Sammy Carlson	88.75
4	Tom Wallisch	87.75
5	Russ Henshaw	82.25
6	Philip Casabon	75.00
7	Andreas Håtveit	74.75
8	Jf Houle	66.00
9	Elias Ambuhl	49.25
10	Thomas Dolplads	40.50
11	Ian Cosco	28.75
12	John Strenio	15.50

SKI SLOPESTYLE WOMEN FINALS
1	Ashley Battersby	86.50
2	Keri Herman	83.00
3	Jessica Warll	80.00
4	Devin Logan	70.50
5	Eveline Bhend	63.75
6	Emma Dahlström	25.25