Photo: Alli
Tom Wallisch competes at Winter Dew Tour Stop #2 - Snowbasin, Utah

Though not featured at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, terrain park slopestyle is the most popular competitive discipline among snowboarders and freeskiers. Combining jumps, rails, boxes and other obstacles along an established run, slopestyle allows levels of creativity not possible in the U-shaped halfpipe.

"I always grew up riding park and was always more psyched on it," says top snowboard competitor Jamie Anderson. "You can be more creative with it and it's just more fun."

Access also promotes its appeal. Nationwide, few resorts have the resources to build and maintain large halfpipes, whereas terrain parks are common at most ski areas.

"It's definitely easier for kids to ski the slopestyle aspect rather than halfpipe," says pro skier Tom Wallisch. " Every mountain has a terrain park that's decent enough to work on tricks you would see in a contest."

The allure of slopestyle likewise applies to those who create these mountain playgrounds. "When constructing a halfpipe, the outcome is always the same, says Chris Gunnarson, president of Snow Park Technologies, the firm that builds courses for Dew Tour and Winter X Games, "Whereas slopestyle factors in variables like snow, pitch, and trail contour; it s a much more dynamic process."

Participation proves the point. The Gatorade Free Flow Tour, a 53 stop grassroots series that selects one amateur in each discipline to compete amongst the pros at the final Dew Tour stop, saw twice the number of competitors compete in slopestyle versus halfpipe.

Running today through Sunday the Toyota Championship caps off the 2010 Winter Dew Tour, crowning Dew Cup winners in snowboarding and freeskiing with a total prize purse worth $1.5 million.

Tune-in to USA Network Saturday, Feb. 6, Midnight-1:00am EST to watch the Snowboard Slopetsyle Finals and NBC, Saturday, Feb. 6, Noon-3:00pm EST to watch the SKI Pipe Finals.

By James Sullivan

For complete coverage visit usatoday.bnqt.com

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