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16th January 2010

This morning the 2nd stop of the Dew Tour kicked off in Snowbasin,Utah with Ski superpipe preliminary round.

20 of the worlds best took to the stunt ditch in hopes of making the top nine to qualify for tomorrows pipe finals. The chosen nine will meet the top three ranked riders from the Dew Cup so far: Mike Riddle, Jossi Wells and Xavier Bertoni who are pre-qualified for tomorrows finals.

Representing the kiwi's were Byron Wells and Lyndon Sheehan but with an insane standard of pipe skiing and only 9 spots up for grabs the boys failed to gain a finals slot.

AJ, Byron, Lyndon and Tucker at the Dew Tour

Qualifying first was Justin Dorey, who did two distinctly different runs, ultimately taking the smoother of the two that didnt include a double flip. Doreys amplitude and killer switch 900, alley oop flat 360s and signature Double Pits to Justy style were enough for the top spot. Taking the second spot was Kevin Rolland, whose double flip, alley oop flatspin 360, switch 720, 900, and left 1260 were almost enough to topple Dorey. In the third qualifying spot was Peter Olenick, who took his alley-oop flatspin 540 to the moon into a 900-right 900 combo, 1080 to switch 720.

Fourth place goes to a name you might know, Simon Dumont. Dumont had a bit of scare after crashing his first run, but dialed it a back a bit for his last chance. A massive 900, to massive right 900 to double flip to air-to-fakie to switch 720 was dialed back enough for a safety run to snag fourth. Pipe mainstay Tucker Perkins went agro on this pipe, elevating his 900 game to new heights. Finn AJ Kemppainen pulled the wool over the crowds eyes, following up his mellow safety run with a technically challenging, right-to-left spin/flip combo run.

X Games medalist Colby West dialed a solid run in snag 7th. Relative newcomer Matt Duhamel took a technical, yet small-ish run, to the bank, grabbing 8th. And Team Captain Dan Marion bumped up his 2nd run score to take the last spot.

Jossi relaxs by playing harmonica knowing he is safely pre-qualified for final

Thanks to Shay Williams from Freeskier.com  for the comp report and photos.

Big shout to Lyndon and Byron, unlucky boys....and go Jossi tomorow in the finals.......Watch this space for updates and video footage of the Dew Tour