Mark Daley of Durango won the gold medal in the “Legends” class for snowboard slopestyle at the recent USASA National Championships at Copper Mountain, capping another season of growth and development for the San Juan Freestyle Team.
It was a “three-peat” for the 44-year-old Daley, who, according to San Juan coach/manager Josh Lingelbach Muzzy, completed the slopestyle course with much style, fluidity and amplitude.
The course consisted of two rail features at the top, three large tabletop jumps in the middle section and a quarter pipe to finish.
Daley trained this season at Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort, where the park crew fabricated the best set of parks and features on the mountain in years, Muzzy said.
Competing against some of the biggest names in the sport, Matty Kirchgasler, 21, of Prior Lake, Minn., took eighth place in the men’s open class slopestyle for San Juan Freestyle.
Muzzy now has produced four national champions in 12 years as coach/manager of the private snowboard team based in Durango. This season, he put more emphasis on training at larger-scale parks with pro-class features and implemented more travel to other resorts for variety and challenging terrain.
The team primarily trained this season at Keystone and Breckenridge to gain confidence on the sport’s growing number of larger features, Muzzy said.
All riders on the San Juan team competed this season on the competition circuit that included the ‘Dew Tour” in Breckenridge, the Revolution Tour, the Gatorade Free Flow Championships, a U.S. Open qualifier in Seven Springs, Pa., the Burton U.S. Open in Vail and various big-air competitions including the X-Game course in Aspen, where all San Juan team riders landed on the podium.
Throughout the season, as well as competing in rail jams across the country, the team took first-place finishes at all USASA events to get to the National Championships.
“Every year, the team is getting better and better with a higher-caliber pro and amateur team of riders, more solid sponsors, and enhanced social media through Facebook and Instagram, giving the team added exposure,” Muzzy said.
Other team riders included three other Durangoans – Silas Hatch, 24, Joe Reed, 16, and 6-year-old Rico Duenos – plus Dillon Wilson, Joe Mango, Dan Waltermire, Heather Baroody and Courtney Cox, all in their upper teens or low 20s.
“The high-level caliber of riders on the team this season is the best we have had yet,” Muzzy said. “ ... I could not be more proud, and I see great things to come for all of these team riders.”
