The Rundown - July 2, 2021

Gotta admit, we had to do a quick double take before getting started on this week's Rundown today...is it really July already? Are we seriously halfway through 2021? Has it actually been three months since the World Cup season ended? What is time, exactly, and who decided it could go so fast sometimes and so slow some other times?

A lot of pondering to be done - if we were into pondering over here at the Rundown. Luckily for you, however, we're much more interested in bringing you the freestyle and freeski hits from around the internets over the past seven days, and we're starting things off proper this week with the latest craziness from Jesper Tjader.

Jesper was on hand last weekend at Copenhagen's iconic CopenHill dryslope for a little friendly team battle against the likes of the Brits, the Americans, the Norwegians, and of course the host Danes, and he and his partner Emil Granbom walked away with the victory in what looked like an ultra fun event.

Hit the CopenHill Instagram page and all the participating athlete pages for more highlights...

Dryslope action is sweet and all, but we all know that on the snow is where its at, and there's plenty of action going down for those lucky enough to be up high on the glaciers around the northern hemisphere.

Casey Andringa is one of the lucky ones, and it's looking more and more like he's rounding back into form after a couple tough years of injuries and setbacks. Here he is with a little slo-mo sweetness over in Mt Hood...classic, indeed.

Also in Hood and also celebrating a return to skis is Casey's compatriot Alex Ferreira, who had neck surgery just over nine weeks ago and is already back attacking the pipe with his signature style...

One more from the US squad, but this time from Woodward Copper, where the one and only Nick Goepper laid a little smackdown on the rail line last week...

And a quick hop over to Finland, where Joona Kangas and friends are milking the last few cms of slush still left on the runs at Levi...

While a lot of the early summer glacier action has been focused on the States so far in 2021, we're looking forward to see what's about to start coming out of Zermatt, where the Glacier Paradise is set to open up on Saturday...

The Swiss ski cross team, meanwhile, has been over at Stelvio, and they dropped a quick update from their first few days back on snow this week...

While we look forward to more on-snow goodies coming out of Europe very soon, it's looking like some of the continent's very best are doing just fine enjoying more summery pursuits, like Lukas Muellauer and his casual cliff jump double backie...

Or Mathilde Gremaud enjoying a refreshing snack, mid-wakesurf session...

Or Pirmin Werner, who managed to bring together Euro 2020 fandom, massive airtime, and a nice summer dip, all in one clip.

(Unfortunately for Pirmin and Switzerland fans around the world, the boys just lost in penalties to Spain...)

It ain't all fun and games in the offseason though - you can count on that. There's plenty of hard work that goes into being one of the very best in the world, as Morgan Schild can attest to, and the US moguls ripper does that work with style, as we can see in her most recent post...

If you don't happen to have access to a professional-grade weight training facility though, do not despair - just find your nearest dachshound (or similarly-sized family pet), and incorporate them into your core routine like

Our athletes from the southern hemisphere often deal with challenges above and beyond what the northern contingent faces, beginning with the fact that the crucial competition season is typically happening thousands of kms from home, when their friends and family are enjoying summer (and vice versa for winter).

Australian aerials skier Abbey Wilcox is set to spend the next NINE MONTHS on the road, but she's setting off on her journey with some stoke (and a whole lot of bags)...

Speaking of aerials, shout out to Catrine Lavalee of Canada, who announced her retirement this week after five years of World Cup competition and 24 World Cup starts...

And while we're at it, let's finish things off this week in the aerials zone, with a little positivity from the US team and Chris Lillis. Life's gonna knock you down sometimes, but as long as you keep getting up, you're gonna get where you're going eventually - which meant a Almaty 2021 World Championships silver medal for Chris this year...

As always, thanks for following along! Enjoy the weekend...