STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Shooting photos at the Peak Performance King of Style—an event comprised of maybe ten runs by each competitor over two hours slammed in the middle of four days and 11,000 miles of travel (for some of us)—means sometimes the details are lost to generalities.
And the judges, hopefully, have been focused on the details. The results are below, but I can concur with their judgment by saying that Andreas Håtveit went bigger, grabbed harder, and stomped cleaner than anyone else—dub 10 dub mute to the bottom. He finished just ahead of Phil Casabon, who put his shifty Japan 10 on display, and Sammy Carlson with trademark pop and poke on his dub 10 mute.
Talking to Jacob Wester afterward, he was rightfully disappointed with 12th place after dragging hands on his landing. But back to the generality of it all—as I ran around it was still obvious that when this elite group is jumping in front of an appreciative crowd on even just an average scaffolding jump they fall back on camaraderie and the general good nature that comes from skiing.
Nate Abbott
Simon Dumont
At the top of the drop-in it's mostly laughs, encouragement, and genuinely wishing the other riders good luck. In the finish corral it's all smiles, signings, hugs and congratulations. And in the morning as people peel away on different flights—to Whistler, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, California—it's all talk of forecasts, storms and the next time their paths will cross. And, basically, that's what king style's all about.
Results
1. Andreas Håtveit, 286
2. Phil Casabon, 283
3. Sammy Carlson, 280
4. Pekka Hyysalo, 272
5. Jon Olsson, 270
6. Elias Ambühl, 262
7. Simon Dumont, 254
8. Patrick Hollaus, 252
9. Tom Wallisch, 240
10. Simon Ericsson, 201
11. LJ Strenio, 160
12. Jacob Wester, 134
Video highlights:
Nate Abbott
Sammy Carlson
Nate Abbott
King of Style pro-dium: Casabon, Hatveit and Carlson (L-R).
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Contributors
John Symms
My friend is a pro. In fact, many of my friends are pros. How else do you think I got this job?
Seth Morrison
If you don't know who Seth is, just click out of this blog and walk away. (Seth is a big mtn. legend, you see.)
Sage Cattabriga-Alosa
Sage went from washing dishes professionally to freeskiing professionally — aka "professional growth."
Ingrid Backstrom
World traveler, prolific ripper, reader and smiler, Ingrid lives in a cabin at the base of Squaw Valley.
Nate Abbott
Driven by coffee, powder, music, laughing, books and possibilities, photographer Nate is a lurker with Leica.
Liam Downey
Vermonster, Level 1 vet and large animal veterinarian, Liam's 6-foot-5 frame makes him a large animal himself.
