JenYes, I took another year to start recapping my 2021 Winter Dew Tour experience, but in my defense, I caught COVID-19 right afterwards and it’s honestly been a struggle to stay on top of things. I heard some of the athletes got sick, and I really admire that they were able to push through and recover in time for the Olympics. Anyway, lesson learned on being too lax on safety precautions, especially as someone who has health issues. Even now it’s important to stay safe!
Like in 2020, the first day of Dew Tour wasn’t open to the public. It worked out since I was traveling to Copper, and I wound up meeting Mary Walsh of Snowboard Magazine on the shuttle. There weren’t delays with travel, but since there was a good amount of snowfall, slopestyle qualifiers got postponed.
Day 2 qualifiers included Women’s Snowboard Superpipe. Despite not being a morning person, I really wanted to check it out since the women’s events tend to be earlier. I felt frustrated because the lighting wasn’t ideal and there were hardly any people in the crowd. Nevertheless, Maddie Mastro and Chloe Kim fought hard for the top spot with Maddie getting the higher score. It was sick to see Maddie’s double crippler in person.
Men’s Snowboard Superpipe qualifiers followed, and that’s when people started to show. It might have had something to do with Shaun White making an appearance, as he was aiming to make the Olympic team again. He proved to still have a large bag of tricks and his signature big airs. However, the Japanese riders were ready to dominate, and Ayumu Hirano, Ruka Hirano, and Yuto Totsuka scored the top three spots. Missing from their team was Raibu Katayama who was recovering from an injury sustained the previous week.
Conditions proved to be challenging for slopestyle again, and this time qualifiers were cancelled. We spectators didn’t know exactly what was going on besides schedule changes, but Mark McMorris’ Dew Tour video shows the debate going on behind the scenes about whether to run qualifiers or not.
Any drama or stress of the day for the athletes went away in the evening, as it was Boarding for Breast Cancer’s 25th Anniversary Fundraiser. Although it was open to the public, I felt slightly out of place as a non-athlete or industry person. I did run into Mary again briefly and wound up befriending someone who was working the Pacifico booth all weekend, and The Nuns of Brixton provided music to rock out and dance to so I stopped feeling as self conscious. There was also an auction to raise money for B4BC, and I won a Dakine backpack. I learned that Kimmy Fasani was diagnosed with breast cancer, and B4BC was holding a ride out for her. It was cool hearing how B4BC has impacted the lives of many female snowboarders through their support of survivors and advocacy work. Jamie Anderson talked about being involved since she was a kid. Here’s to another 25 years!
To the Power of X 