2021 Winter Dew Tour lookback Day 3

Day 3 had an early start with Women’s Ski Superpipe finals taking place in the morning. The crowd was sparse again, but that was everyone else’s loss since the athletes still gave it their all. Defending gold medalist Cassie Sharpe was coming off an injury and had some tough luck.

It was nice seeing Cassie back in action after her injury.

I was stoked to spot some unfamiliar names, two being Chinese: Kexin Zhang and Fanghui Li. I think it made my parents more interested. American teen Hanna Faulhaber was another newcomer although by how high she went and how solid all her tricks were, she seemed like an old pro. She took home bronze and would definitely be one to watch in the future. Even if the media did hype up a rivalry between Kelly Sildaru and Eileen Gu like they did in the past with Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont, the two women were going to run in to each a lot all weekend, as they were both competing in all three events. Eileen went bigger, and her insistence on always bettering her own runs helped secure the top spot.

Since getting to the slopestyle course required a lift ticket as well as a long hike down, I wanted to save my money and energy for the snowboarding finals (sorry skiing, but if I had to pick favorites, snowboarding wins). The previous year, I had a 2-day lift ticket to go with my lodging, but this year, I had to buy individual days. As a beginner snowboarder, I was going to stick to Green Acres, which had two small lifts you could access at a discounted price. Then I would get a pedestrian lift ticket to go watch Snowboard Slopestyle finals. My first day of snowboarding was pretty rough. I thought I would remember what I learned last time even though it had been almost two years.

Afterwards, I went back to the Dew Tour Village because Mary Walsh had invited me to après with the Beyond the Boundaries group. At the B4BC party, she had introduced me to her co-founder Christine Savage and some of the coaches. It was nice to meet even more people, including Alexis Hernandez-Roland, who was competing in Streetstyle the next day, and Kim Woozy from Skate Like a Girl and MAHFIA TV. I felt a little weird being present since I wasn’t at their session and didn’t drink, but the vibe was good and everyone was friendly. It made me more determined to improve my snowboarding so that I could attend their camp one day.

In the evening, I watched streams from the events I missed. I originally planned to go to the Newschoolers Awards, but I was so exhausted from snowboarding and feeling tired from partying late the previous night (and foolishly walking back from East Village to Center Village because I didn’t know Toyota was still providing rides). There were two more days of Dew Tour left so while I’m sad to miss awkwardly hanging around freeskiers and applauding the award winners, I had other things to look forward to.

Click here to see additional photos from Dew Tour. I also have an album of sights around Copper when I wasn’t at Dew-related events.