Dew Games biggest yet

• By Brent Washburn
• Published: April 17th, 2012

Next weekend’s Snowflex event features pro riders, huge jumps and new rails

With $10,000 up for grabs, there is no doubt that the Dew Games at Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre is the competitive highlight for freestyle skiers and snowboarders from all around the southeast.

Big show — At Snowflex’s upcoming Dew Games, riders will bust huge tricks in the Big Air competition. Photo credit: Nate Brown

This year’s Dew Games is April 28 and is going to be better than ever with new features and more advanced riders.

The Games will consist of a big air event and a rail jam. The riders will be given a few runs to impress the judges and qualify for finals and their shot at the prize money.

“The Dew Games are the largest contest we host every year,” Ski School Director Brent Blakeney said. “It’s kind of our end of the school year contest, and it has our largest prize purse of $10,000.”

The unveiling of a new Snowflex feature will happen just in time for the Dew Games rail jam. The new feature is a called a stair-set, which consists of a down ledge, a flat-to-drop ledge, a hand-rail and instead of stairs, the middle will be a butter-box. The feature will also include one-of-a-kind L.E.D. lights underneath the plastic covering.

Many top-level athletes are expected to be in attendance for this event, specifically Ryan Paul, who came to the Snowflex Centre last summer to teach camps. Paul has an excellent track record in rail jam contests and placed second at the X-Games rail jam this past January.

“In the previous two years, there have mainly been riders from up and down the east coast,” Blakeney said. “This year we are trying to and hopefully pulling riders from as far out west as Colorado and one potential rider from California. So we are enjoying the fact that we are going to be able to call it a national competition.”

Many of Snowflex’s own riders have been working on tricks for the Games the entire season, and the final is expected to come down to double-flip variations, be it a double-cork or a double rodeo.

Journey 2 the Jumps will also be hosted that evening. In this event students volunteer to train to hit jumps and throw down tricks in an attempt to win an entire setup of gear.

There are two coaches to each team and many of the competitors have been training hard all semester for their shot at winning a Snowflex event.

Journey 2 the Jumps will open for the Dew Games final and the riders never cease to be amazed at how much they can learn in two months, starting with no experience at hitting jumps.

The Games will be hosted this year by Kevin Pierce, and ski and snowboard qualifiers will begin at 2 p.m. Finals will begin at 9 p.m. Journey 2 the Jumps will be held between qualifiers and finals at 8 p.m. and will be streaming live over the Internet.