Heath Frisby’s frontflip steals the show in Snowmobile Best Trick Final at Winter X Games Aspen 2012
American snowmobile rider Heath Frisby was expected to steal most of the spotlight at Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado, with Sweden’s Daniel Bodin out of the competition due to an injury. While his performance in the Snowmobile Freestyle Final on Thursday
came as a disappointment for many, the fans kept anticipating something monumental from Frisby in Snowmobile Best Trick competition on Sunday, January 29.
As the Middleton-based rider arrived in Aspen on Wednesday, there was hardly anyone who knew what he planned to unleash at Winter X Games Aspen 2012. However, as his plans got leaked, he completely lifted the curtain off an epic front-flip, the first in
the sport’s history, by posting a video of him cleanly pulling off the trick into a foam pit on YouTube.
Rather than killing the excitement, the revelation of the trick served to increase it even more. Everyone was also keen to see if the formidable Moore brothers, namely Colten and Caleb, would be able to come up with an appropriate answer to Frisby’s trick,
assuming he manages to land it successfully.
As the difficult wait for Sunday’s Best Trick competition came to an end, six riders got ready to pull off the most technical trick in their arsenal in order to earn the maximum points from the judges.
The Wisconsin-based Justin Hoyer went for a double back-flip in his first run, but failed to complete the trick cleanly and ended up crashing spectacularly. As a result, he was carried off the field on a stretcher with an injured right arm and right leg.
He did, however, manage to make a call to his mom while lying on the stretcher to let his mom know that he was okay.
While many expected Frisby to be dazed by watching his friend and competitor suffer such a nasty crash, the American rider shrugged off the concern, saying, “Guys, it's all right, I've been waiting a year to do this. I am my own deal. This is a totally different
trick and I'm ready.”
True to his word, Frisby did not keep the crowd waiting and executed a perfect double back-flip in his very first run to create Winter X history. The spectacular trick earned him a mammoth-score of 96.66 to put him in a confident lead.
The Moore brothers posed a threat to Frisby’s domination of the Freestyle contest, but neither of them was able to even come close to his score. The 22-year-old Colten, however, did manage to follow up his Snowmobile Freestyle gold with a silver after throwing
a tsunami Indian flip in his first run to post an 89.66 on the score-board, while Freestyle silver medallist Joe Parsons took home the bronze after throwing a no-footed-can-can-back-flip in his second run to put an 88.00 on the score-board.
Doing justice to all the hype that surrounded Frisby and Sunday’s Final, the Middleton-native once again reminded everyone why he enjoys the reputation of being the best in the sport. It was his second Winter X gold, with the previous one collected in 2010.
“This has been everything to me, really,” Frisby said. “My whole family, everybody, all my friends have been behind me through all this. I know my grandma is watching -- she must have gotten a little chill there. Grandpa, I love you, man. We got it. We got
it.”
Explaining the impressive but not-dominating performance in Thursday’s Freestyle Final, Frisby said that he had his entire focus on the Best Trick competition. He believed that he could not focus on two things at once and thus chose to concentrate on making
history and clinching success in Snowmobile Best Trick competition.
Frisby may have reclaimed the throne at Winter X Games Aspen 2012, but it remains to be seen if Bodin will be able to unseat himself like he did in 2011 once the two face-off at the next edition of Winter X Games.
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