Steamboat snowboarder wins $25K at Red Bull Double Pipe | SummitDaily.com

Steamboat snowboarder wins $25K at Red Bull Double Pipe

Sports | March 24, 2014

Jason Blevins
The Denver Post
ASPEN, CO. - MARCH 21: Professional snowboarder, Benji Farrow, left, and a fellow competitor, right, launch off the 4' spine of the Red Bull double pipe during practice at Buttermilk Mountain Friday morning, March 21, 2014. For the first time ever, two 22' tall superpipes were constructed side-by-side for competition which allows for riders to transfer back and forth between pipes. The course features two walls, several rails and a notch towards the bottom of the spine to ride through. During the competition Saturday (semi-finals) and Sunday, (finals) riders will not only be judged on the their normal technical abilities, but in this case, also on their style and creativity on the use of the course. (Photo By Andy Cross / The Denver Post)
DP | THE DENVER POST

ASPEN — Nothing comes easily in the double pipe.

Riders had to bury survival instincts as they floated from pipe to pipe. New skills were developed as they spun between the parallel ditches. Fear had to be shirked. The unknown was delved, one trick at a time.

“I’ve never done anything like it. It was hard to adjust,” said Steamboat Springs’ Taylor Gold, the 20-year-old Olympian who won the Burton U.S. Open this month and Sunday, March 23 took home the $25,000 first prize at the first-ever Red Bull Double Pipe contest at Aspen’s X Games venue.

Gold struggled through three days of practice. It just wasn’t clicking. Saturday night — after the semifinals were pushed to Sunday because of heavy snow — he figured out a potential run that merged his frenzied double corks and technical grabs with floating transitions over the 4-foot spine down the middle of the pair of pipes.

See full story on the Denver Post website by clicking here.

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