So as a confusing season of contest events kicks off once more, the first to get their boots under the table were FIS, with the Copper Mountain leg of their halfpipe World Cup (though the event is also sanctioned by the WST).

In the men’s event, last year’s winner Taylor Gold repeated his success on his third and final run , landing a frontside 1260, double Michaelchuck, frontside double cork 1080 and a cab double cork 1080 to just peep him ahead of second place Yiwei Zhang by less than two points.

Method man, aka Ben Ferguson, grabbed himself into third just ahead of Greg Bretz, whilst in the women’s finals Hannah Teter, Arielle Gold and Kelly Clark finished up on the podium, meaning that team Burton left for home with five out of the six medals available, whilst the Gold family cleaned up with two podium spots.

Unfortunately Ben Kilner – the one British rider scheduled to compete – was only listed as a DNS for the event, meaning he wasn’t able to try out the new three-run format in the finals, without which the eventual winner Taylor Gold might’ve been in trouble:

 I really loved the three run format. If it wasn’t for that last run I would have been in trouble. I didn’t expect to win it today so that was an awesome surprise and good way to start the season.
– Taylor Gold

The next stop of the FIS World Cup will be a big air event in Istanbul on the 20th December, whilst the next halfpipe event will be at the FIS World Championships in Kreischberg, Austria, taking place from the 15th to 25th of January, 2015.

However, this event was immediately followed by the first stop of Shaun White’s Air & Style tour in Beijing – for highlights and a recap just click here…

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