Aaron Blunck breaks into X Games SuperPipe finals

“I’m actually really happy, just making finals is huge”

It’s hard enough for a 16-year-old to just get through the day. Aaron Blunck had to get through two days of the toughest pressure possible finishing seventh overall in the X Games skier SuperPipe, the biggest stage in the sport of halfpipe skiing.
Friday Night Lights has nothing on this scene.
It’s lights, camera, DROP into the Aspen SuperPipe awash in flashing lights, both walls lined with photographers and cameramen, a gallery of thousands standing at the bottom of the hill, your face on the jumbotron, your name announced and millions at home and in the bars watching.
“That is when all the nerves started kicking in,” says Blunck. “I don’t usually ski with music but I just had to put my music in so I wouldn’t get distracted.”
The music of choice was Rick Ross.
Up until then, Blunck wasn’t feeling the full effect of the scene.
“It wasn’t too overwhelming, I was just super happy to be there,” says Blunck. “I felt pretty ready for the most part.”
“It can be really nerve-racking for sure,” says U.S. ski team freeskiing development coach Ben Verge. “I think he was just really excited to be there.”
He arrived on scene Monday to get in two training sessions. Fortunately, the training sessions were at night so the athletes could get used to skiing under the lights.
Unfortunately, Blunck crashed on the second night of training, the night before the qualifying round.
“I ended up decking really hard,” says Blunck. “That was a bummer.”
Some physical therapy (PT) that night helped alleviate some pain and though he was told it was going to hurt the next day, Blunck woke up ready.
“I actually woke up and felt pretty good,” says Blunck.
After a mishap on his first qualifier run, Blunck had one last chance to make it to the biggest show in halfpipe skiing. Fully aware of the consequences, Blunck and his coaches decided he should stick with hat he knew and hold off on a new sequence of tricks until the finals.
“We decided to use my finals run from the Copper Grand Prix as my qualifier run,” says Blunck.
Stick it and he would be in. Scrub a landing, miss a grab, lose speed in transition or all three, and he would be out.
Blunck pulled it off to score high enough to finish the qualifier in sixth place and join the other seven skiers the following night, under the lights, on the big screen, in the X Games finals.
“I was not expecting to do as well as I did,” admits Blunck. “It was crazy.”
Then came the hard part, waiting all day until the start of the event. Blunck got in some more training, some PT and “just hung out” in an effort to maintain his composure with the biggest event of his career approaching.
He also contained his nerves reminding himself of the fact that he had already hit his goal.
“I made it to the finals and that was a huge accomplishment,” says Blunck. “I was just going to go out there and have fun.”
In addition, it was time to fire off a new sequence of moves, a run that he had landed cleanly before but never in competition.
In halfpipe terms, his run went like this: right 9, left 9, dub cork 12, alley oop dub flat 9, right 10 and finishing with a switch left 7 with the appropriate grabs thrown into the mix.
In laymen’s terms, he planned on pulling off back-to-back double flips among other things.
“I had done back-to-back doubles before,” says Blunck.
Standing at the top of the SuperPipe and with music in and nerves welling up, Blunck dropped in for his first of three runs.
While it wasn’t the cleanest run and he ended up in eighth place after the first run, it did serve a purpose.
“I got some of the nerves out after that,” says Blunck.
His second run proved to be his best of the three and moved him up into seventh place with one run left to go.
The plan was to stick with the same run, just clean it up even more and enjoy the moment on his third and final run.
“My coach said, ‘just go have fun, ski like you do. Have fun this run’,” says Blunck.
While his first two moves were smooth, his double cork 12 was not as clean as he hoped and he tried to make up for it changing from a switch 7 to a switch 9 only to hit the deck hard and fall back into the pipe.
His second run score carried over though and he finished in seventh place.
While his disappointment was evident from the camera angle, a couple days of reflection has Blunck refreshed.
“I’m actually really happy, just making finals is huge,” says Blunck. “I’ve actually made it in the sport. It definitely made me realize I can ski with those guys.”
“He showed he was ready to be there and proved it by making it to the finals,” says Verge. “If he would have landed his run clean, he would have been close to podium.”
Verge points out that the difference right now between Blunck and the podium is experience and a bigger bag of tricks to pull from.
“It’ll probably get easier from here on out,” adds Verge. “He’s super talented and has lots of potential.”
Blunck is back at it this weekend competing in the U.S. Grand Prix in Park City, Utah, Blunck’s second World Cup event of the season. He will be up against the same field as the X Games, and then some.
“I’m definitely ready to get back at it,” says Blunck.