Xtreme Sports: Simon Dumont Breaks ‘Highest Air’ Quarterpipe Record-An EXPN Flashback

Simon Dumont has broken the world record for achieving the most air on a quarterpipe.  His magnificent feat was witnessed by Guinness Book of World Records representatives, as well as a representative from Fédération Internationale de Ski, one of the world’s leading ski organizations.  Simon Dumont’s record breaking attempt occurred in Bethel, Maine, at the Sunday River Ski Resort, just down the road from where Simon calls home.

Simon Dumont has been classified as a skiing prodigy since he first strapped on the bindings.  In recent years he has risen to fame during the yearly X-Games competition, and has won a few medals to go with his ’skiing prodigy’ name.

It should be noted that Simon Dumont’s record attempt also came on the world’s tallest quarterpipe.  The quaterpipe was specifically constructed for this event and stood an amazing 38 feet tall and 75 feet wide.  When Simon finally hit the quarterpipe for what would become the record attempt, he was launched 35 feet in the air, giving him a total height of 73 feet.

Simon’s new record was sponsored by Redbull, who with Simon, made this attempt a highly-focused, crowd generating extravaganza.  The previous mark of 32 feet, 6 inches, was accomplished back in 2007 by snowboarding legend Terje Haakonsen at The Arctic Challenge in Oslo, Norway.  For those of you wanting some added insight, Terje’s attempt came coupled with a backside 360.

EXPN, the Extreme side of ESPN, was on hand to capture the moment that Simon Dumont launched in the air.  They have wrote up an interesting report of the day, including Dumont suffering an injury during practice sessions before the final record getting attempt.  Dumont had hurt his knee while practicing and, after doctors had looked at it, decided to make one last pitch at the record.  I bet he’s glad he went for it now!

To read EXPN’s full report, you can follow this link.  This article was originally published on April 11, 2008.  Photo:  Christian Pondella, EXPN