4.14.08
Record Breaker Maine skier Simon Dumont knocks off a world record
quarterpipe at Sunday River.
On the morning of
Friday, April 11, skiing prodigy and X Games star Simon Dumont of Bethel,
Maine, broke the world record for highest air on a quarterpipe at his
home resort of Sunday River by executing a corked 900 tail grab and
peaking at a height of 35 feet above the top of the quarterpipe. The 38-foot
quarterpipe built by Snow Park Technologies with support from the Sunday
River Park Crew is the largest quarterpipe ever constructed. Norwegian
Terje Haakonsen held the previous world record at 32.5 feet.
“I wasn’t sure how this would all go down today with the wind and some
healing injuries I’ve been nursing,” said Dumont. “As I was dropping
down the hill into the run-in it just hit me that this would be it
— the
rest is history.”
The attempts began Tuesday morning when Dumont arrived on site directly
off a flight from Sweden. Dumont began hitting the quarter pipe in the
early afternoon when he reached heights as high as 28 feet, before
drifting in the air and falling nearly 66 feet onto the snow below.
Dumont’s hard hitting landing caused him to bruise his heal and
aggravate an existing knee injury. After seeing the doctor, Simon
returned to the hill on Wednesday, but was plagued by his injuries and
was forced to recuperate for the rest of the day. Thursday was disrupted
by high winds forcing the entire staff to delay their flights in order
to provide Simon with one more opportunity to attempt the World Record.
At 9 a.m. Friday morning Simon showed up with his game face on and was
ready for his final attempts. After an hour of repeatedly hitting the
quarter pipe, at 10:12 a.m. EST Dumont hiked an additional 15 feet up
the hill to gain more speed. Simon crouched into a tucked position going
55 mph down the in run and not only launched 35 feet into the air, but
spun a 900 in the process (a trick where the athlete spins 2.5 complete
rotations in the air).
“I’m really glad to have pulled this off in my backyard at Sunday River
where I started my ski career,” said Dumont. ”The fans from the East
have always been super supportive. That makes breaking this record at
home even sweeter.”
Building and maintaining the worlds largest quarterpipe for nearly two
weeks fell on the shoulders of Snow Park Technologies and Sunday River’s
operations teams including Parks Manager Nick Roma, Mountain Manager
Brian Jones, and Terrain Park Development Manager for Boyne’s New
England Resorts Jay Scambio.
“There may not be any other place in the East where this record could
have been broken,” said Alex Kaufman, Sunday River communications
manager. “We’ve proven over the last few years with our April Heat
Harvest events that Sunday River can deliver world class big air
features for world class athletes. We’re known for our snowmaking
firepower and that’s always the first step in a project like this. We’re
proud to have worked with Simon Dumont and the teams from Red Bull and
Snow Park Technologies to deliver this caliber of an event for our
hometown hero.”
-Sunday River
Homepage Photo: Simon Dumont goes off
on the world's largest quarterpipe at Maine's Sunday River last week.
(Sunday River Photo)
