Kevin Pearce wins Australian Open Slopestyle

The first annual Australian Open took place at Perisher Blue on September 3-4, 2005. Day one started out with the slopestyle contest. There wasn’t too much snow and the day before it rained nonstop. However the hosts made do with what they had and produced a pretty good course considering the conditions. It started out with a flat down rail, and then a choice between an up flat rail or a gap to down. Then there was a 35 foot jump or an up flat down rail that you could choose between. Then a 45 foot jump into a 55 foot jump, ending with a big wall ride. About 30 riders qualified a week earlier at another mountain and around 10 went right into the semifinals. The jumps were a little bit hard to get used to but everyone seemed to be riding pretty well. Mikkel Bang was doing frontside nines and switch frontboards on the gap to down rail. Danny Davis and Wyatt Caldwell were both killing it along with some of the local Australian riders. Pearce's run started off with a cab board to frontside, then a gap to backside 50-50 and on the jump line he did a backside 5 into a cab 9, ending with a frontside 7 tail. On the wall ride he did a frontside disaster to fakie. Pearce ended up winning the contest and Danny Davis wasn’t far behind in second. It ended up being a fun day and a good way to end the trip in Australia.