[videocaption]Anna Gasser’s winning run.[/videocaption]

Official release from Shawn Smith, dewtour.com

The first snowboard hardware handed out at Dew Tour was for women’s snowboard slopestyle, and the ladies put on quite a show for Breckenridge, pushing the sport – and each other – throughout the competition.

Anna Gasser came out in her first run and set the bar high. The Austrian showed the ability to spin all four directions on the jumps (backside 540, cab 540, switch backside 180, frontside 720) in addition to showcasing some technical prowess on the rail section (cab 270 to frontside boardslide on the first rail, huge gap to lipslide on the second feature). The run earned her a 91.20 and put her into the lead as the field headed into their second set of runs.

“My first run was actually a safety run for me,” Gasser said. “I didn’t think it would actually bring me into first place, but the judges rewarded me for doing it clean and grabbing everything.”

Sitting in second place, Great Britain’s Katie Ormerod attempted to improve on her first run by turning a cab 540 into a cab 900 on the second-to-last jump. She stomped the trick – the first cab 900 she had ever done in a contest – but had issues setting herself up for the final jump, forcing her into a straight air and keeping her second-run score lower. On the very next run, Chery Maas landed a 900 of her own, putting down a backside 900 on the final jump to cap off a run that also included a backside 720, frontside 360 and switch backside 540. With that, Maas bumped up into podium position in 2nd place, moving Ormerod down to 3rd.

[videocaption]Spencer O’Brien’s second place run.[/videocaption]

The 900 attempts continued with Gasser going for a cab 900 on her second run, but she went down and would have to stick with her first-run score, leaving multi-time Dew Tour winner Spencer O’Brien and 15-year-old top qualifier Hailey Langland as the final riders with a shot to knock Gasser off the top of the leaderboard.

[videocaption]Hailey Langland’s third place run.[/videocaption]

O’Brien put down a full run on her second attempt, landing a cab 540, backside 720, switch backside 540 and frontside 720 off the toes on the jumps along with strong rail sections to move her up to second place. Langland had attempted a cab 900 on her first run but decided to play it safe on her second run, putting down a smooth stylish run that included a switch backside 180 with a tweaked-out indy grab, as well as a frontside 360, backside 180 and cab 540. That run landed her on the podium in third place behind Gasser and O’Brien.

[videocaption]Cheryl Maas’ impressive 900[/videocaption]

And with that, the victory went to Gasser, marking her first career victory at Dew Tour. “I still can’t believe it,” she said. “There were so many good girls that I didn’t think I could pull it off today. I’m just so happy.”

Overall, with the number of 900 attempts going down, this was a rather progressive contest, and the ladies were able to feed off of that. “It for sure pushes me too – I tried the 900 in my second run, unfortunately it didn’t work out,” Gasser said. “I’m so happy about the progression in women’s snowboarding.”

Stay tuned for more coverage from the Dew Tour 2015 at Breckenridge.