Freeskiing

Anna Gasser Takes First Dew Tour Cup Victory in Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle

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Spencer O’Brien, Anna Gasser and Hailey Langland

 

Upon a stellar course and under partly cloudy skies, the first snowboard hardware of the Dew Tour goes to Anna Gasser, who went bigger and landed cleaner than the rest of the competitors in the Women’s Slopestyle event. Competing in just her second Dew Tour, this was the 24-year-old Austrian’s first major win.

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Anna Gasser took home first place.

 

With a strong winter storm fast approaching, there was some trepidation in the air when the finals began this morning at Breckenridge Ski Resort. In the end however, Mother Nature showed mercy providing epic conditions and great visibility for the competitors.

“I’m so happy for today,” exclaimed a clearly shocked Gasser. “The weather forecast was not looking so good with the light and wind, but we had a great window and the snow was perfect.”

In a final comprised of mostly fresh faces to Dew Tour finals, it was Gasser’s initial run that put her in the lead. Starting off with a Cab 270 board slide followed by a giant gap-to-lip slide on the first two rail features, Gasser showed the crowd back to back 540’s — the first a backside floater that she took to the end of the transition followed by a textbook Cab. By the final and biggest kicker, Anna nailed a frontside 720 mute grab, locking in a score of 91.20, a score the other competitors couldn’t top.

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Spencer O’Brien placed 2nd.

 

“I still can’t believe it,” she continued. “I’m not sure I realize that I have won yet. There are so many good girls out here, I wasn’t sure that I could pull this off!”
Echoing excitement for her friend was second place finisher and Dew Tour veteran, Spencer O’Brien, who earned an 86.60 in her second run highlighted by a 20 foot gap-to-lip slide to pretzel out as well as her signature backside 720 indy grab.

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Hailey Langland placed third. 

 

“After a rough practice this morning I was just happy to put down any run at all,” said O’Brien. Honestly, I’m more stoked for Anna. She’s one of my best friends and this is her first big win.”

Rounding out the podium for third place with an 85.60 was a first-time Dew Tour competitor, fifteen-year-old Hailey Langland from San Clemente, California.

With arguably more style and certainly more aggressiveness than the rest of the field, Langland threw caution to the wind with tweaked switch backside 180’s and an attempt at a corked Cab 900, assuring spectators that this won’t be the last we see of the young snowboarder.

With newcomers like Gasser and Langland it appears the next generation of female slopestyler’s have landed, keeping progression at the forefront and enthusiasm at a maximum.