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Discover Simon Dumont incredible week breaking the World Record!
As I was dropping down the hill into the run-in it just hit me that this would be it – the rest is history.”
-Simon Dumont
By now everyone from all corners of the snow covered globe have heard the story of the boy from Bethel who returned home, beaten up from eleven hard fought days in Sweden, an even longer season of filming, a rough stretch of competitions, and a nasty fall at the King of Quarters, to conquer his fear and effectively launch himself into the record books with the highest air on a quarter pipe.
Tuesday morning Simon Dumont arrived off a sleepless twenty-seven hour flight from Sweden and five hours of miserable sleep to a 38-foot custom built quarter pipe manufactured by Snow Park Technologies and Sunday River. Joining him on slope were his family and friends. Barbara and Francis Dumont, Simon’s parents, watched as their son launched his trademark 540 smoothly and consistently hit twenty-five feet off the deck. It was easy to feel overconfident and think the record could be broken in one day.
Then, on what would be his final hit of the day, Simon disastrously fell fifty-five feet to flat. Thankfully, he had the strength to spin out of what could have been a much more devastating fall. However the fall did not go without injury as Dumont banged his heel when hitting the hard packed snow. He would need medical treatment in order to walk. The record was slightly further away than we arrogantly anticipated.
“There was a little too much vert on it and a little soft so my skis would break through but then I’d hit the vert, it’d pop me off the wall and I landed probably 55 feet to flat.”
Wednesday morning Simon would hobble himself out to the snow, clearly showing signs of his problematic knee and heel injury. Still, the twenty-one year old did his best, trying his hardest to break the record until slamming his heels hard on the deck, thus causing more damage to his already painful injuries. Once again medical treatment would be needed and the record was looking less and less attainable.
Spirits were beginning to dwindle but that night the Dumont family graciously invited the media and sponsors into their home for dinner and entertainment. It gave us time to step back and not think about the misfortunes of the previous days. It allowed the crew to regain some of our lost hope.
“Everyday the world record keeps drifting away from me...”
Thursday was cancelled due to high winds that would graciously allow Simon one more day to recover.
Friday morning Simon would again step onto snow and in the 11th hour of the event, would again attempt to launch higher on a quarter pipe than any other human being in the world had ever gone before. The morning began with Colby, Simon, and Jake sessioning the quarter pipe. Colby began launching higher and higher, one time coming close to breaking the record himself with a mute grab! This was enough to get the Dumont fired up as he sped at upwards of fifty-five mph into the gargantuan snow mass with vindication in his eyes.
When he reached the apex of his jump everyone felt he had broken the record until the representative from FIS brutally ruled Simon had merely tied the record. This controversial ruling set a fire under Dumont’s ass and on his next hit he skied into the quarter pipe even faster, popped off the lip, and soared thirty-five feet above the deck, seventy-three feet above flat bottom, holding his tail grab in triumph while yelling at the apex of his jump, “That’s it!”
The eruption from the small crowd was thunderous as the Dumont landed and skied away cleanly. The first to congratulate Simon, with huge hugs and loving praise, were his parents followed by his agent, Michael Spencer, filmer and friend Riley Poor, and his brother Adam.
"Simon is a intensely driven athlete, he set this goal for himself a while back and I don't think he planned on leaving Sunday River until he had it in the bag," said Riley Poor. "His heal injury on the first day should have probably ended the shoot but Simon is a intense competitor and this week he was competing only against himself, he had to achieve his goal."
“This was a battle against myself more than anything else. It wasn’t about the record or beating other people. It feels good, don’t get me wrong but when it came down to it at the end of the day it was for myself. I wanted to overcome my fear and I did so now I’ve got to find something else that scares me and beat it.” Simon
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