Favre Takes Title from the Stars of International Freeskiing

The Rip Curl Freeski Event Saas Fee, took off with the best 30 freeskiers of the international scene, gathered in Saas Fee to charge the pipe. The contest finished with a all-French podium. Laurent Favre placed on top, followed very closely by Candide Thovex (who was first in qualifying), and an explosive Mattias Wecsteen.

Laurent Favre

The morning was chilly but sunny at the beautiful Swiss area. The bluebird skies were marked with only a few scattered clouds. In the morning, the sun hit the halfpipe and then hid several times behind Allalin, the spectacular 3,500 meter mountain that dominates Saas Fee's skyline.

The halfpipe, built specifically for the occasion by Rip Curl shaper Nicolas Marduel, had a kicker on each side that skiers used to drop into the pipe with an aerial, making the show even more spectacular. At 10:15 am, the first skier dropped in to start qualifying after training runs, where skiers went off, showing amazing tricks, including some that haven't even been named yet, like Thovex's inverted 720s or Austrian Nick Draxl's flat spins.

The sun showed up a bit for the second run and the skiers were heating up too, going bigger and bigger, and spinning harder and harder.

France's Mattias Wecksteen, who qualified in sixth, really went off in the finals with an impressive run of 720s, Rodeo Back, 720 Cork and a 540 Alley Oop. Full on… Candide had a very good first run with a fat McTwist 900 and his signature inverted 720 Cork, but failed to land the inverted cork following his Mc Twist 900 on his second run. Eighteen year-old Laurent Favre put down a sick run: Mute, Japan and a Switch Alley Oop 540 that he improved on in his second run with a Switch 1080, 360 and a 540 Rodeo, leading him to victory.

Favre couldn't believe his success against such strong competitors. "I injured my ankle a few days ago so I didn't expect to do this well… I'm really stoked to beat some of the big names on the freeskiing scene."

Thovex responded by saying, "The conditions were great and the pipe was excellent. I'm not upset I finished second because I fell and Laurent did a very good run. It's cool - we're friends and we like to ride together and have a good time. That's the most important thing of all."

Despite the cold temperatures, the first day of the event was a great success!