Last season, Red Bull pushed the limits of halfpipe snowboarding, building the first-ever side-by-side superpipes to challenge the world’s best snowboarders. This March 11-13th, the competition will return to Buttermilk in Aspen with a completely new innovative course designed with input from the riders themselves. With a skateboarding mini ramp, afternoon pool parties, BBQ’s, and DJ’s, Red Bull Double Pipe is shaping up to be the perfect ending to the snowboarding competition season with a fun and relaxed vibe in store for competitors and spectators alike. For fans who can’t attend in person, Double Pipe will air as part of the Red Bull Signature Series via livestream March 12th at 1:30pm ET/10:30am PT on redbull.tv, and as a full-length broadcast March 14th at 1pm ET on NBC (check local listings for west coast times).
“Last year we tried something brand new and the double pipe worked better than we hoped. We learned so much from talking to the riders and crew and getting their feedback, so this year we can massively improve upon and progress the overall feature taking it even further, which is what the sport is all about. The fact that Red Bull is doing something so different and breaking the mold from the norm is what gets me and my crew so excited about the event,” says Chris Gunnarson, President of Snow Park Technologies (SPT), who organizes the design and build of the course.
This year the course will have a completely new look as Red Bull Double Pipe will include three distinct zones, incorporating elements of both halfpipe and slopestyle riding. Per the riders’ feedback from last year, the event will now include jumps, more rails and other new features with the double pipe still being the primary focus. The upper jump zone will consist of a traditional gap jump as well as a second step-up jump so the riders don’t enter the double pipe carrying too much speed. From there riders can choose to either drop into the right superpipe, air over the center hip, or choose to ride all the way through the channel in the center spine to gain speed for hitting the left superpipe. Once in the double pipe, a channel will be punched out of the upper spine section allowing riders to air over the gap with style, and just over halfway down the center spine, it will notch down from 22-foot tall to approximately17-foot tall allowing riders to more easily transition between the two superpipes. SPT has also designated points along the center spine where the walls won’t go completely vertical, and will rather have more of a “laid back transition” angle, becoming more trickable for the athletes. The final skate park-style fun zone will consist of a diamond-shaped feature providing riders with numerous options including big transfers, huge hip hits, and other fun, creative lines. Overall the riding should be more dynamic with the updates made to this year’s course based on all the competitor’s feedback.
“Aspen Snowmass is proud to once again partner with Red Bull on another amazing event,” says John Rigney, Vice President of Sales & Events with Aspen Skiing Company, adding “Last year Double Pipe was bold and exciting and peaked everyone’s curiosity, and now athletes and spectators alike are fired up for the second act.”
For updates on Red Bull Double Pipe go to www.redbull.com/doublepipe and check out www.redbull.com/snow for updates on other snowboarding athletes, events and projects in the world of Red Bull. Red Bull TV is available as a pre-installed channel on Samsung Smart TVs and Apple TV, and as a free, downloadable app on Roku, Xbox 360, Amazon Fire TV and Nexus Player devices so viewers can watch Red Bull Double Pipe on the go or from any screen in the house.
