It is now official: skiers go bigger than snowboarders…

Well, all joking aside: at least for now and in quater pipe especially. (Genarally the skiers vs. boarders debate is pretty useless and very 90’s, in my opinion)

No-one can disagree that Simon did the record with style and difficulty though: a 35 feet high cork 900 tail grab. That’s about 10.7 meters for us Euros.

(Image source: www.freeskier.com)

Norwegian snowboarder Terje Haakonsen’s former record was at 32,5 feet, which means about 9,9 meters. So, Simon beat Terje with about 0,8 meters. That may sound like a piece of cake but I bet every inch is behind enormous effort at those heights. I think I might have hit a qp with about 3m of air (in reality more of 2 meters really) and I can’t even think of how if feels to boost 10 meter UP! (remember here you fight the gravity for every inch….it is way different from hitting cliffs where you basically just fall…)

The record quarter pipe was 38 feet high itself.  The record run required a speed of 55 mph. Some earlier attemps were canceled due high winds ruining the inrun. Also, Simon was suffering from some earliers injuries ans a bruised heel from the very first efforts. Here is what Freeskier magazine wrotes about the process:

“The attempts began Tuesday morning when Dumont arrived on site directly off a flight from Sweden. Dumont began hitting the quarter pipe in the early afternoon when he reached heights as high as 28 feet, before drifting in the air and falling nearly 66 feet onto the snow below. Dumont’s hard hitting landing caused him to bruise his heel and aggravate an existing knee injury. After seeing the doctor, Simon returned to the hill on Wednesday, but was plagued by his injuries and was forced to recuperate for the rest of the day. Thursday was disrupted by high winds forcing the entire staff to delay their flights in order to provide Simon with one more opportunity to attempt the World Record.”

Respectable, I must say. Simon Dumont is one hard working skier and deserves the record if anyone. Also, very nice to hear some positive news after all the injuries/accidents of the season. 

Congrats to Simon! It is great to be a skier these days and see the sport evolve into a heights and skills never believed possible back in the day!  

Here is video from both of the records, for comparison

Simon:

Terje:

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