A Day in the Life of Dueck

Feb 15, 2012

Author: Vince Shuley

What many may not know about Josh Dueck's recent sit-ski back flip into history is that there was a  race to do it first. The last three years of foam pit sessions had inspired athletes all over the world to train for the elusive goal of landing the flip onto snow. At Winter X Games 2012 the gauntlet was thrown down, with one athlete from the US declaring he would land the trick “within a couple of weeks”. The race was rounding the final corner, but Dueck did not lose his cool.

Overlooking the jump with Rory and Myles

No pressure at all this bluebird day

Bailey ploughing the run-in

Going big – sit-ski big

Laid out and lookin’ good for landing...

 A shiner from an over-rotation

“I've never been rushed to do it,” he says  as he rides up towards the alpine in the Powder Mountain snowcat. The jump in Vinnie's Bowl was built by cat operations manager Bailey Mitchell two nights ago under the direction of  Dueck's life long friend and Oakley field marketing rep Myles Ricketts.

“We're on the cusp of something that I've thought about and dreamed about for a long time.”

I ask Josh if he is feeling any pressure to land the back flip today, given there are several other athletes trying to beat him to it. He responds with a resounding “no”.

“I'm just as confident to step aside and not hit this if I don't feel good today as I am confident to stomp it. If I'm not feeling good with the conditions I'm sure everyone is going to respect that.”

Josh gets towed up by sled  by his friend Rory Bushfield for several attempts before a hucking the huge laid out back flip in front of his friends and several cameras and. He stomps it.

Look out for more badass sit-ski footage in the Winter 12/13 issues of Skier

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