00:00Here at the Yeti Pro, Yeti Haynes Alaska Pro and in Verbier.
00:04So here's a man who's going to be chasing a pocket full of those points.
00:08Liam Rivera, 26 years old, riding out of Verbier.
00:11He's since four seasons on the tour.
00:13It feels like he's been here forever.
00:15And in second place behind the winningest rider in snowboard men's history,
00:20four-time overall world champion, Victor De La Rue.
00:23So Liam is going to be looking to make a big splash here.
00:27He was pretty excited during face check.
00:30He had a couple of different options.
00:32And I was really impressed listening to him speak about his line
00:36because he was really considering slough management,
00:38where the slough was going to go, where he was going to put himself
00:41to stay out of the freight train.
00:43Smart decision making.
00:45Yeah, which is part of it.
00:46If you're new to the sport and it feels to you like this is just reckless,
00:50it absolutely isn't.
00:52There's so much calculation that goes into what these riders are doing.
00:55So Liam coming down.
00:57He's got a nice spine feature there.
00:59Lofting into the core.
01:01Getting on that heel side.
01:02Controlling his speed right away.
01:05That was perfect, perfect edge control for Liam.
01:08Beautiful.
01:09Yeah, I got to say with Liam, I was just a fan of watching Freeride.
01:14This guy has really impressed me.
01:16He is solid.
01:17It's a pleasure to watch.
01:18I mean, look at that style.
01:20Taking it to bolts every time.
01:22This guy is awesome.
01:24Yeah, so much commitment up at the top of the face.
01:28360 there as well.
01:30So Liam really ramping up that air and style category as well as just keeping it moving.
01:36He's flowing down this mountain like water just trickling through
01:39and lacing these features popping right off the blade of that spine.
01:44So clean, clean riding on the upper section of this face for Liam.
01:47Oh, look at that turn.
01:48Look at that snow right there.
01:50This is just epic.
01:54Yeah, he's having himself one here today.
01:57That's for sure.
01:58That was a really solid top, and he's keeping the flow going.
02:00Here we go into the bottom section.
02:02We're going to see some more features here for sure.
02:04Yeah, Liam, off the nose of that one.
02:07Using the tail of his board to compress into the landing.
02:10Getting that speed under control.
02:12And another 360 going frontside this time.
02:16So spinning both ways there for Liam Rivera, and he is down and clean.
02:21So the judges told us before the event that once the riders are off that apron
02:25and down onto the Little Jarvis Glacier, they're stopping judging.
02:28They're going to get the scores in.
02:30They've got this time.
02:31They're not going to worry about this long, flat descent.
02:33They'll leave that just for the riders.
02:34We don't want another Drew Tabkey going on.
02:36We're just going to stop it there.
02:38Liam just had himself a run, guys.
02:41This is impressive.
02:42That was beautiful riding.
02:46You can tell, yeah, he took all the variables into it, and he laid it down.
02:53Yeah, never put a foot out of place.
02:55Big slash turn to control his speed right off the summit of that spine.
03:00So Liam Rivera just putting all the pieces together, and each one of those features,
03:05that was the only one where there was even a hint, and it was just a little tail press.
03:08I think, you know, the judges, of course, are watching the early pop.
03:12Look at that.
03:13Yeah, totally.
03:14Early pop into that three.
03:15Got the grab.
03:17Perfect style.
03:18That's one thing with Liam.
03:19He's got that frontside three on lock, and when you watch him throw it, it is beautiful.
03:25Yeah, veteran riding there from the young Swiss athlete.
03:29He is going to be absolutely over the moon with that run.
03:33And as we said, only victor in this whole category has ever even ridden in Alaska before,
03:37let alone competed on this phase.
03:39So for these riders to step into this arena and just throw down like that as, well, Liam,
03:45he's coming.
03:45He's going to get locked in behind the, in front of the backdrop there, and the score going
03:50way up.
03:5289 points run for Liam Rivera.
03:54Well deserved.
03:54Well deserved.
03:55For Liam Rivera.
03:56That was huge.
03:57Nice work, Liam.
03:58Nice work.
03:59Nice work.
03:59Nice work.
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