Best big mt. competition run EVER

I haven't written about it much lately, but I ski in big mountain competitions. I haven't done one in two years but I'm pretty set on the Crystal FWQ 4* this March. I had a scary fall at the last competition I entered (maybe the reason it's been a while), however it did offer a moment of glory before that fall. The glory that can come out of Big Mountain competitions brought me to write this post. The first thing I saw on Facebook when I got home from work tonight was Sam Smoothy's run in the Andorra Freeride World Tour yesterday. It was simply amazing, he dove into one of the hairiest lines I've ever seen, in our out of competition. He won that day, though only with a score of 91.25.

A few years ago the judging format in big mountain contests was largely changed. Due to the increasing popularity of freestyle moves, the format changed from style, fluidity, etc all being added or subtracted from the line score, intto the line, style, aggression, etc all being separate categories. I strongly believe a 91.25 is a poor score for the run I saw.  Despite this, it may have been as good as possible with the modern format.

Although on a lesser level of competition I once scored a 96.0 with the modern judging format, because my line wasn't my strongest component. I was consistent in all the categories. For me that worked out but now I'm witnessing the greatest big mountain line of all time getting a low 90's and for the first time I'm questioning the new format.

I haven't decided that it's bad, but it's negative aspects are definitely now apparent.

Regardless, Sam Smoothy laid it down and is on my radar. The level of confidence he has in his own skill here is unparallelled.

-Kudos man I hope I meet you someday.

Winner Run of Smoothy Sam (NZL) - Swatch... by FreerideWorldTourTV