Some back ones, rodeos and a switch method to kick off the style portion of the new big air format… not too shabby! It seemed like there was a five-way tie with the judges rewarding 8s to a good amount of the competition (Chris Corning given a 5 although he went huge with a back one to the bottom), but all in all, we could count the rotations so that was fun. Taiga Hasegawa’s massive switch method was probably the highlight of the round… And then it turned into 1260,1620,1800, and 1980 time. Funny enough, while spins are important for the judging, the clock is not. Mons started on fire, Takeru battled his bag of tricks, Rene spun flat and fast and Corning looked like he was going to make the podium landing two 18s and a 1980 in front of his home state crowd. But then Taiga and Hiroaki Kunitake put down the landing gear and took control of the podium.

We are just fans, not judges, but it seemed to us Corning was underscored on the evening. Not sure if he should have cracked the top three in the end, Mons, Taiga and Hiroaki earned their medals and put down some of the cleanest and heaviest tricks of the night, but a 39 for a 1980 seems a bit low. Say what you want about spin to win, but if the shoe fits, you should probably give the person the shoe. It was a different grab than Taiga’s backside 1980 which was awarded a 43, but the landing was cleaner with Taiga actually putting his hand down. Either way, Taiga rode insane and cleaned it up in the following drops, but figured we would bring it up.

Last day coming up from watching X Games on the couch. Big Air women’s and men’s slope! Keep an eye out for the finals in Aspen starting at 1pm EST. Full Big Air contest below: