By: Nick Lipton – A screaming crowd of thousands, a light show of tripped out colors and the most dramatic finish of the winter led to another Danny Davis victory and back to back Dew Tour wins. The hippy looking, Totino’s pizza roll eating, snowboarding juggernaut has just added another win in what has already been a record breaking season for the Frend crew celebrity. In what looked almost scripted, big falls, big spins and an unreal last run closed the Snowbasin Superpipe.

Danny Davis, set last to drop, had already fallen in his first run and sat far below a podium spot. Falls plagued many of the second runs leaving the leader board stagnant, and with spirits falling Davis screamed out, “This is so freaking anti-climatic!”

Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Finals Results
1. Danny Davis
2. Steve Fisher
3. Jack Mitrani

Click here for full results

Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Finals at Snowbasin from AlliSports on Vimeo.

In less than a minute Danny would be closing the show only to prove himself wrong. The stylish and always interesting Danny popped a 180 into the pipe and blasted a cab 7 to front 9, a doublecork 1080 and finally a switch back rodeo. As Danny slid to a stop it was obvious that the Dew Tour Superpipe leader had won it again. Behind Danny 11 riders formed a line dotted with unbelievable riding, hard slams and harsh realities.

“This is so freaking anti-climatic!” — Danny Davis

Standing with Danny on the podium was Steve Fisher and Jack Mitrani. Steve (2nd) came out big in his first run, showing the youngsters not only how to ride pipe, but how to combine big spins with true style. In 3rd place Jack Mitrani created a Frend Crew sandwich on the podium. Jack’s podium spot was due to air, style and an unusually well put together run. Jack brought some of his best riding to Snowbasin, and while 1080s and what not helped his podium finish, it was the massive and perfect alley-oop that sealed the deal.

Today was rough for the nine riders sitting below the podium. Each rider had at least one area they could have improved on, avoided or done without, but life happens and some seriously cool jazz happened in many of these runs.

In 4th place Dylan Bidez combined 1080s of both the regular and switch variety with all sorts of other spins. The kid had a good day, and with this kind of competition, a 4th place finish should be certainly celebrated. Another young buck, Brennen Swanson, took 5th place. Brennen had to deal with the added pressure of the being the first rider to drop, and while young, he handled business better than some of the adults by stomping a full run laced with a 1080, cab 900, all the little spins and a great looking method.

More experienced dudes, JJ Thomas, Scotty Lago and Elijah Teter all had their fair share of highlights as well. JJ, while he battled some sketchy riding he managed to stay on his feet and land some big spins. Steve Fisher said, “Lago? Oh my god that just breaks your heart when you see such a phenomenal run break down like that, but really he’s one of the best riders ever.” Danny Davis agreed, “Heartbreaker, but before the fall, winner, winner—winner, like he went massive!” What these boys are yapping about is Lago’s monster runs. In both cases Lago ended up sliding, not riding, across the finish line, but until the last hit he was popping 10s, methods, switch spins and all sorts of trickery twice as high as the other riders. Lago honestly put a run together that would have won any contest. With multiple 15 to 20 foot tall hammers Scotty should have mellowed out, but if he hadn’t gone for broke, it wouldn’t have been a true Lago experience. Opposite of Lago’s break-neck approach, Elijah Teter, kept things simpler and squeezed into 8th place by keeping things safe after falling in his first run.

The bottom four finishers weren’t without a highlight reel as well. Baby boy Trevor Jacob pushed himself to ride fast and huck hard. The risks earned him 9th, but everyone can see where this future slayer is headed. In 10th Roger Kleivdal had the crowd roaring and a podium spot almost sealed. Roger landed the first doublecork of the day, but sadly fell on the run’s last hit. Watching Roger fall was rough, but he’ll bounce back. Broc Waring and Matt Ladley rounded out the group with 11th and 12th place finishes. Both of these boys went for the win hucking doublecorks, 10s and all of that good stuff. Neither of these guys could ride away from the pipe, but falls happen when you’re progressing your riding.

After two of three Dew Tour stops the long haired fury faced halfpipe master Danny Davis is poised to take the Dew Cup, the big bag of money that comes with it and who knows what else. Danny has his mind in the right spot, not letting the pressure of contests get in the way of his fun (not that Scotty Lago would let him anyway) and you can expect to see him in Vermont where he just might finish the Tour off perfectly, “Mt. Snow? Yeah I’m going after I handle the Grand Prix, then the X-games and then yeah, get over to Mt. Snow.” If you think the varying pipe size (between 18 and 22 feet) could affect his riding your wrong. “I’m getting more used to this 18 to 22 foot thing. We are lucky these 18-foot pipes are good. But it’s a struggle and I’m getting used to it. But really, skaters ride different tranny all the time, so what’s the big deal?”