After stumble, snowboarder FitzSimons conquers trick

In the morning, participants slid down a 65-foot scaffold jump and had two runs to land a trick. Qualifiers got to run in the finals later that day.

During his qualifying runs, FitzSimons landed a front triple 1440. This trick entered FitzSimons into the finals in eight place.

This feat was not easy for FitzSimons since the last time he attempted this trick, he landed on his head. During the Modena Skipass Big Air World Cup in Italy, FitzSimons failed a jump and was shaken by the incident.

“I can’t remember anything on that trick,” FitzSimons said. “The last flip is really scary because you go right over your head just before you land. So, I was a little bit nervous coming to this one because it was kind of the same build as in Italy. This one was also scaffolding so I was kind of tweaking. I was like, ‘Oh god, I don’t want to do this again.’”

Despite FitzSimons’ failed triple 1440 attempt in Italy, the 19-year-old kept decided to try it during his qualification run.

“Before they were going to close practice I said, ‘Alright. I guess I got to front triple real quick just to get it out of the way before the comp,’” FitzSimons said. “I still had Modena, Italy, in the back of my head and didn’t want to land on my head again. So I just chucked it so hard and I didn’t open my eyes until I felt myself come around three times and then I just dropped out of the sky, broke my board’s nose and tail and I had to run back into the athlete lounge and grab my other board.”

FitzSimons had 15 minutes to get his backup board before qualifying runs began.

“There was a bunch of people in the stands,” FitzSimons said. “I guess there was 11,00 people that showed up. Then I got a ton of snapchat and stories of all the homies back home that were watching. Shoutout to Hood River, who were watching.”

For his next event, FitzSimons will compete in the Laax Open in Switzerland Jan. 13-18. Last year FitzSimons made it into finals and said if he rides well and consistently he can make it into finals again.