eileen air — Eileen Gu with a massive first hit out of the 22′ Superpipe. *Credit: Jesse Orlean.*

Day three of the Dew Tour was more exciting than originally planned, as today’s schedule included the postponed Women’s Ski Superpipe competition that featured the face of women’s skiing, Eileen Gu. Even though the event started early at 9 am, a large crowd came to support the women and there was an entire party there to support Eileen specifically. During the warm-up session right before the event started, all of the women were finding their lines, but Eileen seemed to have her’s already dialed while airing significantly higher out of the pipe than any of the other women. Unfortunately for the others, the competition followed this trajectory; Eileen was clearly the best skier out there and cruised to another first-place finish in the Superpipe. Coming off of gold medal performances in the Superpipe just a few weeks ago at X-Games Aspen, as well as at Snow Rodeo in Calgary, Canada, Eileen had momentum coming into this event, and she skied with the ultimate confidence.

Anyone still debating who the best female Skiier in the pipe is has not watched Eileen, and for now, her case is closed. Immediately following her first-place finish, I got to ask Eileen some questions. As an athlete who competes in the biggest halfpipe events, I wondered what makes the Dew Tour Superpipe unique and what winning first at Copper Mountain specifically meant to Eileen. Her response was awesome:

“I think that this is one of the longer pipes, so having enough space at the bottom to get more amplitude for my right oop is a difference maker for me. Dew Tour, running for 20 years, has this intense, incredible history that is a testament to the core of the sport and I am really honored to be a part of that. Also, I think being the only person competing in two events out here is really special to me. Two wins in 24 hours is something that I do not take lightly. It takes a lot of technical skill, but it also takes so much mental fortitude and strength, as well as preparation, focus and mental control to be able to do that, and I have trained so much mentally to have the capacity for that. It is certainly not an easy feat and I am really happy and proud of that.”

Yuto air — Yuto Totsuka finished second in Men’s Snowboard Superpipe. Credit: Eli Zatz.

Today was a day for the Superpipe, and after Eileen and the female skiers put on a show it was time for the male snowboarders to do their thing. These guys were flying around, but with such extreme precision that only a surgeon could relate to. Ayumu Hirano pulled off his signature triple cork 1440 at the top of the pipe, and Kaishu Hirano, who has been blowing up on social media lately, nailed a few massive airs. The craziest trick, though, that stole the show, was Lucas Foster’s alley-oop double McTwist, with the complementary Japan grab. To clarify, an alley-oop is when a halfpipe rider spins the opposite way of their downhill momentum, making the trick harder than it would be spinning with momentum. This trick has never been landed in competition and Lucas made it look graceful. It was as if he was in the air for ten minutes with complete silence until he landed and all of Copper went nuts. The Men’s Snowboard Superpipe event was probably the closest competition I saw all weekend, with five of eight riders scoring in the 90s, but Ayumu Hirano, Yuto Totsuka, and Lucas Foster ended up securing the top three spots.

Lucas dub mctwist — Lucas Foster’s double alley-oop McTwist was the first ever landed in competition. *Credit: Eli Zatz.*

The final event of Copper Mountain’s Dew Tour weekend was the Ski & Snowboard High Air & Legends Jam. From a fan perspective, this had to be the most fun event to watch all weekend. Athletes were nonstop firing down the halfpipe, nearly running into each other, going for style and as high as they could rather than for the big, technical spin tricks. There were eight awards given and cash prizes too. This event featured a wide range of athletes ranging from younger stars like Kaishu and Maddie Mastro, a gold medalist from day two, to proven veterans such as Danny Davis and Tanner Hall. I got to stand on the side of the pipe and photograph this event, and my front-row spot helped me to appreciate all of these athletes’ greatness. Kaishu took home the Snowboard High Air trophy sending it an impressive 19’9″ out of the pipe, and Scotty Lago grabbed the Nixon Timeless Trick award with a stylish Lein Air. It seemed like all of the athletes in this event enjoyed the format, and not having to stress about nailing certain tricks or entire lines. The Legends Jam was a great finale for the weekend and exemplified Dew Tour 2024 to a tee.

The 20th anniversary of the Dew Tour was such a phenomenal weekend. Most of the invited athletes had cheek-to-cheek smiles Friday through Sunday, and Copper Mountain was packed to its core with fans from all over the world. Dew Tour is one of the final major competitions in the North American ski season and every medal that was handed out meant so much to each podium athlete. Dew Tour 2024 was one for the history books with records being broken and memories being made.