The US Freeskiing Open slopestyle started with over 300 athletes and the top 12 finalists skied hard to set themselves apart from the crowd. In the end it was JF Houle, Phil Casabon and Russ Henshaw who took the medals in what could have been the most snow filled slopestyle ever. Salomon’s Nick Martini and Matt Walker barley missed the podium coming in at a respectable 4^th and 5^th place.

 

Today was a day for the Salomon ams. Alexis Godbout went in to finals in first place after qualifiers along with teammates Matt Walker and AJ Kempainen. Waterville Valley and Jib Academy super star Nick Martini made it in to finals as well. Matt, AJ and Nick were not pre-qualified and showed incredible consistency throughout the past two days to make it all the way to finals.

AJ’s 2^nd run, which prompted him in to the final twelve, consisted of an insane switch rodeo 5 double nose grab, blindside switch-up and technical 270s on and off the rails. This is the Fin’s first US Open and he is looking forward to this weekend’s pipe competition. He’ll also head over to Japan to compete with the rest of the Salomon team in the Nippon Freeskiing Open later this month.

 

As for the girls, Ashley Battersby won gold showing her balance of smooth jumps and technical rail skills.

 

Hopefully they can shovel all the snow out of the pipe before tomorrow’s qualifying competition!