Not many people can make a comeback after fumbling their first run, let alone come back to win gold.
But that’s exactly what local snowboarder Darcy Sharpe pulled off this weekend in Calgary.
Calgary is the second World Cup win for the Comox-raised 27-year-old. It’s his first in slopestyle.
“I won a big air in 2015 and it’s been a long time since then,” Sharpe told the Canadian Press. “To come back and win a slopestyle, the event I really care about and admire more, it feels really good to get that done.”
He came through with a top score of 88.85 points on his second run finishing off with a Canadian classic, the rodeo 720.
“I had a run planned where my rails were all pretty high level,” he said. “I only landed once in practice my rail run, which is not really that normal…I knew (rails) would weigh a lot on the results.”
After stumbling on the very first jump, he was ranked last after the first round.
But he knew he wasn’t out of the running.
“Going into run two, I was a little nervous, but it’s nice having three runs so I didn’t have all the nerves on me yet. Flowed into it and did my first rail super-good.”
“As these features happen, you kind of get more and more stoked. Your flow states get more and more kicked in.”
Sharpe’s flow state paid off, and every crowd loves a comeback.
“Run two, huge cheers, and that was the first time in my career being able to do a victory lap, coming down, throwing my hands up and getting a huge roar back was really, really sick,” Sharpe said.”
He’s taking his World Cup win on the road, but not to the World Championships later this month.
Sharpe isn’t on the Canadian team because he’s opting to ride in the Dew Tour in Copper Mountain, Colorado, Feb. 24-26.
“Getting this win actually makes me feel so much better about that decision,” Sharpe said. “
“These industry events kind of struggle and it’s the riders that help bring in the views and all that stuff. I didn’t want to let them down by not showing up and going to world champs.”
He said regardless of his participation, he has faith that Team Canada will be well-stacked for a win.
“We’ve got such a good team in Canada that I trust the rest of the four or five guys that are going to have a spot there to go do what they’ve got to do to get us some results.”
We’ll take his word for it. But we might be tuning into the Dew Tour to see this Comox favourite instead.
