Xavier On The Podium at Winter X Games 14

Xavier Bertoni, Jossie Wells, and Kevin Rolland

The past three days at Winter X 14 have produced some of the most progressive skiing to date, and Sunday night was no exception.

Record crowds in attendance all weekend at Winter X Games 14

Xavier's French teammate and followus.tv co-star Kevin Rolland made history on his second run and showed the capacity crowd two firsts in skiing halfpipe competition; a double cork 1260 and three doubles in one run.  Jossi Wells claimed the #2 spot landing at the top of the tranny on each hit with consistently huge airs and the steeziest switch 720 in the field.

Between doubles Kevin managed to slow things down with a perfect flat 360

After a run that included back to back left and right 1260's that only scored in the mid 80's it was clear that the judges were looking for perfect landings and clean grabs over big spins.  Xavier stepped up for his third and final run and delivered exactly that. Grabbing everything and opting for a 900 instead of the second 1260 Xav put everything to his feet at the top of the transition earning a score of 90.00, barely edging out Simon Dumont for the 3rd place spot on the podium.


Xavier dropping out of the 1260

Following the superpipe finals was another X Games first, the skiing 'high air' competition.


Xavier Bertoni 23' above the crowd

After twenty minutes of leap frog as the competitors pushed the height meter from 18' to 23' feet, it was Aspen local Peter Olenick who went the biggest with a record breaking 24' 11" flat 540 on the left wall.  While there's no Guinness World Record holding for most doubles in a halfpipe run, there is one for skiing's highest air in halfpipe competition, and an official GWR representative was on hand to award Peter the title.

Peter Olenick 24' 11"

Winter X Games 14 has officially come to and end and with five top 5 finishes and two medals the Orage team held it down in nearly every event.  Thanks to ESPN and all the sponsors for putting on such a great event, and the whole team will be on site again, hopefully with Taylor Seaton and Jess Cumming back on their feet, for the first ever Winter X Games Europe in Tignes, France next month!



Photos: Felix Rioux

Casabon Takes 4th in Winter X 14 Slopestyle

Four was the magic number for B-Dog and Bert at today's Winter X Slope Finals and Superpipe elimination round.  Phil entered the slope finals in 6th place and was ready to show the world of dub flippers what was up.

With eight riders in the finals Phil had three chances to prove that style is king and you don't need to double flip your way to crack top five.   He struggled a bit with his first two runs taking too much speed into the hitching post but in true B Dog style he put his game face on for his third and final run.

1st and 2nd place had been locked down by the man of the weekend, Mr. Perfect 100 aka, Mr. Bobby  Brown followed by Andreas Hatveit who both threw baller runs in the final round.  As the sun was setting and the course was getting faster Phil made the necessary adjustments to lay down a 3rd place run.  Slaying the top rail garden and finally nailing his nose tap cork 7, B Dog wrapped up his final run by taking the three last tables deep to the bottom to put him in podium position... for the time being.

Phil's spot on the podium was short lived as Sammy C narrowly beat out the steeze king by a half a point knocking Phil down to a controversial 4th place finish.  No matter where Phil placed, he has once again proved that you don't need to follow the pack to be on top.

Photos: Felix Rioux

Taylor Seaton's Return to Halfpipe Comeptition at Winter X 14

With 4 podiums and 12 top ten halfpipe finishes in 2009 Taylor's breakout season temporarily lost it's momentum when he severely dislocated his ankle in the barn at Woodward last summer.  After six long months of physio, rehab, and perhaps the most painful thing; waiting, Taylor Seaton is ready to return to halfpipe competition tomorrow at Winter X Games 14.

We caught up with Taylor as he put on his ski boots for the first to talk about his season, deadman bang, and getting dub'licious in the pipe. What makes Taylor's halfpipe skiing so much fun to watch? Switch drop in's, grabbing everything, stomped landings... maybe. Sunday night when you watch Superpipe finals live on ESPN keep your eye on the new electronic height meter.  Most riders will lock in their 'highest amplitude' score on the first hit and then slowly bring down their average as they make their way down the pipe. Taylor is the opposite. Consistently going bigger and bigger with each hit, Taylor's innate mastery of the transitions adds a fluid style to his run unlike any other.

With only one day of riding halfpipe under his belt Taylor arrived in Aspen for Winter X Games 14 hungry to compete.  After five days of training, it's 4am, and there's less than 24 hours until the long anticipated Winter X Games halfpipe competition begins.

Taylor during last nights practice session


The bad news is, after working all week to put this edit and update together, I'm finishing this post from the waiting room. This morning in practice Taylor pulled off a ski in the air and caught the grip of his pole in the stomach when he landed.  It seemed like no amount of pain was going to stop Taylor's return, but finally after not being able to sleep Taylor checked in and a cat-scan revealed internal bleeding. Not life threatening, but serious enough that he needs to spend the remainder of X Games at Aspen Valley Hospital under observation.

We'll keep you updated with further information as it becomes available, but for now the thing Taylor needs the most is high fives, shout outs, and your support as he starts on the road to recovery for the second time this season.

FollowUs.tv ep4 Xgames training

New episode:
Xavier Bertoni and Kevin Rolland training for the Xgames.

FollowUs.TV ep4: Xgames Training

Kaya Turski Takes Gold at Winter X Games!

Women's slopestyle podium L to R: Keri Herman, Kaya Turski, Grete Eliassen


The first gold medal of Winter X Games 14 was just awarded and it went to Orage's own Kaya Turski who raised the bar for women's slopestyle today finishing more than 11 points ahead of the competition.

Kaya going big on a 540 off the second jump

Keri Herman was one of the first ladies to drop in and her run set the bar for things to come. After a clean trip through the upper rail gardens Keri landed switch off the canon box taking it into a switch 5, 360, and 540 on the jumps with clean style and stomped landings earning a score of 85.00 which she held on to for the remaining two runs and earned a second place finish.

Grete Eliassen

Grete Eliassen took the third place podium spot after being the only girl to spin over the hitching post feature and consistently landing nine's off the money booter.

Kaya switch 5 on the first booter

In an interview Kaya said that her biggest challenge was getting over her own nerves in the start get before the competition, but with a first run score that was good enough for gold that problem seemed to disappear pretty quickly.

After openly not being satisfied with her style from run number one, Kaya cleaned things up and one-upped her own score for run number two.

Kaya about to grease a 270 onto this box

At the end of run three it came down to Sarah Burke as the only competitor remaining who could shake up the podium. After a clean start to her run Sarah put it all on the line and went for a 1260 on the last jump but failed to put it to her feet.

Sarah Burke

With the gold medal already secured Kaya opted not to take what could have been an easy victory lap. Instead, she continued to throw down taking her 450 off the canon box into a switch 9, 540, and switch 7 through the jump line topping her own score once again taking it all the way up to a 96.66.

Kaya looking pretty stoked as the crowd reacted to her third run

Kaya-Bamba!

Photos: Felix Rioux

Day 0 at Winter X Games 14

Tomorrow, January 28th, Winter X Games 14 kicks off for the 9th straight year in Aspen, Colorado. If tomorrow is only the first day of X, then what where the past three days in Aspen?  So far we've seen huge airs, new doubles, massive carnage, womens superpipe prelims, and rumors of a remote throttle and complete no-hander backflip on a snowmobile... and it hasn't even started yet!  Here's some behind the scenes action from the first three "unofficial" days of Winter X Games 14.

MONDAY: DAY -2

As I closed my tray table and returned my seat back to it's full upright position I could already see the olympic sized halfpipe lit up from the airplane window.  Looking up at it from the base of Buttermilk was even better, although temps close to -23°C made it feel a lot more like a typical day in Montreal, not Aspen.

Banks Gilberti hoping that he can compete as an alternate

Monday night was the first of six days of practice for ski superpipe.  Why so much practice? For starters, the walls are about 4' higher and 50' longer than what we've seen at the first two stops of the Winter Dew Tour. That translates into more transition, bigger airs, and extra hit(s) for comp time.

A taco joint sponsoring a halfpipe event? What a coincidence!

Something else that's new from last year, skiing superpipe will be the grande finale of Winter X Games 14 closing out the event Sunday night live on ESPN.

Colby West's new facemask. 

Monday nights practice session marked Taylor Seaton's return to halfpipe competition after an ankle injury that has kept him on the sidelines since last summer.  Like most of the riders, Taylor was just working on memorizing the transition and stringing together straight airs that were bigger and bigger the further he went down the pipe.

Welcome back Taylor Seaton!

It's a pretty safe bet to say that the top three runs that make up the women's podium later this week will all have at least one 900 in them, and the ladies were already starting to step things up as the five hour practice session progressed.  

Jess Cumming getting ready to drop in

Quick sled laps up the pipe meant the athletes were getting plenty of runs, and after dialing some 5's and 7's Jess started to throw some 9's.  Unfortunately, after a backseat landing Jess tweaked her knee and had to be taken to Vail for an MRI. We're still waiting for the results, but regardless of the verdict we wish her the best of luck and a speedy recovery with hopes that she can get back on her feet for the final stop of the Dew Tour at Mount Snow next week.

Banks' helmet also made the carnage list. Luckily his head was not in it when the snowmobile ran it over.

TUESDAY: DAY -1

Tuesday morning the pipe was open early. The riders were getting increasingly more comfortable in the 22 footer and we saw a lot more tricks thrown down than the test session the night before.

Xavier Bertoni mid flat-3

Simon Dumont took one of the worst spills in the pipe that I've ever seen, decking out and hitting his head on a double.  After a catscan and a couple days of rest I think we can still count on seeing him back in the pipe for finals.

Tuesday afternoon the athletes got to take their first runs on the slopestyle course, which for the Orage team means Phil Casabon and Kaya Turski who are coming off 5th and 3rd place finishes at last year's X Games.


Kaya Turski

The course starts out with two sets of rail options followed by a south park Mammoth-esq bar/stall/rail that  Phil has been using as a launch pad for nose butters. Next up is the choice of either a cannon box remenescient of X Games 13 or a big gap to rainbow rail. A three pack of booters finish off the course, all of which are pretty big and close together, making stomped landings almost mandatory to finish a run.

Phil Casabon

Here's the video from the ContourHD that Banks has mounted on his pole in that last photo:

Fresh off the podium at Snowbasin (and not surprisingly) Tom Wallisch and Bobby Brown have been stand outs during practice, with Bobby's switch double misty 1260 being one of the most talked about tricks so far this week.

Bobby Brown - Switch Double Misty 1260


Tom Wallisch rodeo off the canon box

Snow Park Technologies has been taking constant feedback from the riders has been adjusting the features accordingly each night. It's that kind of attention to detail that will really make this one of the best slopestyle courses this season.

WEDNESDAY: DAY 0

For the last day of training before X Games officially gets going the schedule was reversed and skiers got to session the slope course in the morning.

Casabon was throwing different tricks on the jumps each run, so this is probably left/right 5, 7, 9 or 10. Probably switch. 


For the eight ladies in slopestyle this was the last practice session before tomorrows final (no prelims). Kaya had the rail section consistently dialed ending it with a 450 off the canon box into a switch 7 on the first jump.

We didn't see much action aside from straight airs off the last jump in practice, but if the weather (and speed) can hold out for tomorrow we're pretty stoked to see what the women will throw down.

Kaya warming up with a switch 5

Three hours, lunch, and a press conference later we were back at the pipe for a night practice session and women's superpipe elimination.

Marg worked this into a double later on

For the first time so far in practice Xavier Bertoni looked like he was on a serious mission (well, not that serious as you've probably seen from followus.tv) to defend his gold medal.

The Double Flip: great for points, not so great for photos

Not seeming to care about the heavy snowfall Xavier sessioned in a tee shirt the whole time and consistently landed one of the biggest doubles in the field.  Dropping in half way down the pipe Xav added back to back left and right 1260's to his repertoire.  Now he just needs to put all that together into one run for Sunday's final, and he still has three more days of practice to make it happen.

Taylor Seaton continued his comeback and threw 9's for the first time since his injury and also took the opportunity to drop in switch a few times.

Taylor Seaton switch 7 on the first hit

Nerd alert: This year the riders are 'wired' with some kind of sensor so that their actual height from each hit is recorded, and tonights women's superpipe elimination was the first time we saw it in action. Roz G broke the invisible height meter twice with a 12' air on her first run and then topped her own record with a 14' air on the first hit of her second run.

Anais spinning a 900 in practice

Amplitude alone was not enough to take the top spot heading into the women's final. Megan Gunning scored a 90.00 on her first run with an true inverted corked out 900, solid grabs in her 540s, and a 720 mute and switch 5 at the bottom of the pipe that made her untouchable for the rest of the comp.

C'est bon!

Anais Caradeaux finished in forth with left and right 5's and a mixed bag of grabs and alleyoop straight airs. Jen Hudak, Mirjam Jaeger, and Sarah Burke filled the remainder of the 6 spots in finals with Grete Eliassen just barely getting bumped out by Burke in the last run of the night.


 ...with Matt Margetts? Yes please!

With three solid days of training under wraps we're ready to kick off day 1 of Winter X Games 14 tomorrow with men's slopestyle elimination and women's slopestyle finals. Stay tuned for an update on Phil and Kaya at orage.com, and for live streaming video and the full TV broadcast schedule visit xgames.com.


Photos: Felix Rioux

Disclaimer: This update was made possible by caffeinated beef jerky (yes, it does exist), Monster "coffee", Muscle Milk, and a partial case of Red Bull for keeping me awake until 6am.  The same ingredients are also responsible for any type-o's, grammatical errors, or anything else that doesn't make sense.

Winter X 14 Competition Preview

Fresh off the last stop of the Winter Dew Tour in Snowbasin, UT, eight athletes from the Orage team have arrived in Aspen for the 14th edition of the Winter X Games.  Anais Caradeaux, Jess Cumming, Kaya Turski,  Xavier Bertoni, Phil Casabon, Banks Gilberti, Matt Margetts, and Taylor Seaton are all looking for a spot in the finals which will be broadcast live on ESPN this weekend.

Here's a little mashup of what our team will be throwing down made up of whatever recent comp footage I could find...

Photographer John Vandervalk had a chance to spend a bluebird afternoon with Breckenridge locals Anais Caradeaux and Banks Gilberti earlier this week as they trained for the superpipe event.

Anais Caradeaux

Apparently some hutony's were seen this day also. Hmmm...

Anais stepping up the amplitude

Banks is still an alternate to compete but if time permits during the prelim on Saturday night hopefully he can make it in.

Xavier Bertoni testing the superpipe at Buttermilk

Maybe one of the biggest stories moving into Sundays halfpipe final will be to see if Xavier Bertoni can re-claim a spot on the podium after coming out of nowhere last year to take the gold ahead of Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont.  Xav has been looking pretty solid so far in practice but with the biggest halfpipe so far this season and three days of training left all the athletes are holding back their "A" game until the weekend.  Unlike Anais and Banks, Xavier spent most his time training in a more non-traditional way between last weeks Dew Tour stop and X.

Also making a return to the comp scene is Taylor Seaton who has only been on skis for two weeks coming off an ankle injury this summer.  Having a pristine 22ft pipe courtesy of snow park technologies and six days of training is a pretty good way to start things off! We'll have more on Taylors return and an update from Buttermilk later tonight...