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Wanaka, New Zealand (27 April 2010) - Having already been named the 2010 Overall World Freeskiing Champion, Wanaka’s Jossi Wells has added the 2010 AFP Superpipe Title to his belt.
“It feels great [to win]! My main goal for the season was taking the overall, so being pipe champ is a nice little bonus,” explains Wells.
By March, Wells had built up such a commanding lead between all three disciplines that he was uncatchable and named the overall men’s winner.
However, in the halfpipe points race, it came down to the last event of the year. Wells held a sizable, but not impenetrable lead over France’s Kevin Rolland. Rolland, who gold medaled at both X Games was just 358 points shy of Wells, who dominated the Winter Dew Tour.
“For sure I was aware that Kevin could knock me off the top spot,” said Wells.
“He won both the X Games this year which are our biggest comps, so he got some good points for those.”
It seemed that the showdown would be held at the revamped WSI Superpipe in Whistler, BC. However, as fate would have it, neither competed at WSI thus giving Wells the Superpipe crown.
The AFP takes the top four results from pipe athletes (as opposed to three for slopestyle and big air) meaning to be the best pipe rider, you have to be consistent on a very high level.
“My focus this year was just to land my runs,” says Wells.
“I knew some of the athletes had the potential to have really good runs, so I didn’t worry about what they were going to do and just did my own thing. It worked out really well for me and it also makes for a far less stressful comp.”
Wells pipe run started out during the southern hemisphere winter here in New Zealand, where he won the Volkl NZ Freeski Open Superpipe at Cardrona, giving him a first place lead to kick things off. Opting out of the Pure NZ Winter Games, Well’s next performance was at the Winter Dew Tour Breckenridge, CO stop where he grabbed second place, behind Mike Riddle of Canada. Weeks after the 2nd place in Breckenridge, Wells took home the win at the Snowbasin, UT stop of the Winter Dew Tour, over Empire teammates Simon Dumont and Peter Olenick. The following week Wells chose perfection and style in his run over technicality and double flip-mania to grab silver at Winter X Games Aspen.
 Jossi Flying High in the Pipe at X Games Credit: Getty Images Sport
“To tell you the truth I really didn’t do anything special,” says Wells. “I just had as much fun as I could and aimed for perfection over technicality in my runs.”
Immediately after Aspen, Wells flew to Mt. Snow, VT for the final stop of the Winter Dew Tour where he placed fifth, which wasn’t good enough to give Wells anymore AFP points, but enough for him to grab the Winter Dew Cup for Pipe Performer of the Year.
Wells Tops the Podium at Dew Tour
Rolland’s failure to make finals in Vermont gave Wells some breathing room.
At Winter X Games Europe, Wells took sixth place while Rolland took home another X Gold, moving him within striking distance. As neither competitor competed in the final competition of the year in Whistler, Wells claimed the title.
Beyond the Wells-Rolland theatre, the 2009-2010 season saw a distinct and marked jump in Superpipe riding, both technically and stylishly. There were more competitors with more double flips, more competitors with more consistent amplitude and more down-to-the-wire events than ever before.
“Huge shout outs to those boys, on the real,” bursts Wells. “The level is crazy these days. I think it’s epic, it makes for an amazing show.”
And with more talent and more exposure, the big spotlight is on whether or not Superpipe skiing will be showcased in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
“I really hope it does,” says Wells. “I think it will be such a cool opportunity for us all. I mean look what it has done for snowboarding. I think it’s going to be really positive for freeskiing.”
Behind Wells the top five on the 2009-2010 AFP Superpipe rankings were as follows: Kevin Rolland (FRA) in 2nd, Simon Dumont (USA) in 3rd. Xavier Bertoni (FRA) in 4th and Mike Riddle (CAN) in 5th. For full rankings, visit the AFP Current Rankings page here.
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