Extreme Exposure: Marino wins Big Air, Lamb takes Mavericks, more
In this week's edition of Extreme Exposure—a weekly column featuring news and photography from the world of action and outdoor sports—Mikaela Shiffrin comes off injury with a huge win, Nic Lamb takes his first Mavericks title and more.
This One’s for Santa Cruz
It was only fitting that the newly rebranded Titans of Mavericks contest was won by a son of Santa Cruz, Calif., the hometown of many past Mavericks champions and pioneers of the sport of big wave surfing. Central California celebrated when Nic Lamb won his first contest at the storied break. Lamb, who currently sits fourth on the Big Wave World Tour rankings, was on his game all day and many veterans of the event had picked him to be there at the end.
Despite windy conditions that created problematic chop on the wave faces, Lamb continued to commit to the deepest section of the wave, taking off in perilous positions throughout the day. Lamb was joined in the semifinals by three other Santa Cruz natives: Zach Wormhoudt, Anthony Tashnick, and Tyler Fox.
...And She’s Back
Now that’s how you come back from an injury. Skiing her first slalom race since tearing her MCL in training two months ago, Mikaela Shiffrin stormed back onto the World Cup race scene with a huge win at Switzerland’s Crans-Montana, coming in nearly a half second ahead of France’s Natasia Noens.
After the World Cup downhill events were canceled because of a snowstorm that dumped some 20 inches in the region, Shiffrin captured her third slalom win of the season and sixth straight going back to last year.
Bigger Than Papi
U.S. Ski and Snowboarding continues to think of creative ways to get its athletes in front of the general public and this weekend was a bit of a coup for the organization during Big Air Fenway. Working with Fenway officials, a 140-foot jump was constructed for both ski and snowboard Big Air events (the Green Monster is 37 feet high). Despite the event being the biggest competition on the East Coast this season, U.S. athletes didn’t nab any of the top spots in skiing as Sweden’s Lisa Zimmerman and Quebec’s Vincent Gagnier ended atop their respective podiums.
The American Cinderella story came on the women’s side in snowboarding where little-known 18-year-old Connecticut native Julia Marino attended the event as a forerunner but earned a spot in the competition after an injury to a teammate and ended up winning the whole thing while New Hampshire native Chas Guldemond ended third on the men’s side (Quebec’s Max Parrot nabbed the top podium spot).
“I was just amazed and so happy to be able to put down my runs and win (as) I was so thrown off (with having to compete unexpectedly),” Marino said. “This is the coolest, most creative place to have a contest because it's so unique. I’ve walked by Fenway a number of times, so to walk past there and to now be snowboarding on a big jump in the baseball stadium is pretty cool.”
