When the Burton US Open Superpipe competition commenced yesterday, Shaun White was notably absent. It was announced that White injured his ankle, but no one knew how or why. On his guest appearance with T.E.S. Saturday night, snowboard journalist Tracy Anderson, who was covering the event live at the scene, revealed why.
Pics after the jump.
A few weeks back we reported that Shaun White is having his own private Superpipe built for him by recession-proof Red Bull. It turns out White had injured the ankle while trying new tricks at his special private Superpipe. What's even more interesting is the fact that the injury occurred when he landed in a foam pit. No one knows where or how the foam pit is designed in correlation to the pipe, but Tracy's revelation makes a lot of people even more curious about the monstrosity hidden away in Colorado.
With or without White, the Superpipe competition went on. For a record-breaking fifth time, Danny Kass won the men's Superpipe title with a winning run that included a frontside 1080, Cab 1080, frontside 900, backside 720, and ended with a switch alley-oop 540. “I feel amazing, I am beyond stoked that this is my fifth win,” said Kass. “It feels great to come out again and put together some runs.” Peetu Piiroinen finished second.
On the betty side, Torah Bright tied Kelly Clark for most US Open titles, winning her third Superpipe title with a winning run that included a Cab 720 indy, a crippler, backside 360 indy, switch backside 720 ending with a backside 540. “I feel great,” said Torah. “I didn't realize that I tied with Kelly for the most wins. It feels really good (that's what she said), especially because the US Open is such a special event.” Kelly Clark finished second.
Update: Slopestyle winners are Chas Guldemond for the men, and Kjersti Buass for the women. Guldemond received a very respectable $145,000 payday for winning the Open Series Title, finishing second in TTR, and first in today's slopestyle. Our own Joanna "PNut" Dzierzawski, competing in her very first US Open, finished a very respectable 9th. She'll be submitting an update from her experience there shortly.
