Anchorage Daily News

Alaskans got to see two local boys in action this weekend who made a big splash on the national scene earlier this year.

Not returning Olympians.

Not basketball players now in the NBA.

Not a senior bowler from Eagle River.

No, it was snowmobile wizards Dane Ferguson and Cory Davis, the X Games stars, who were flipping their machines before hundreds of Alaskans on a bluebird day Saturday at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood as part of Motor Madness weekend.

"We had a lot of people turn out," said Cory Davis, the 20-year-old son of seven-time Tesoro Iron Dog champion Scott Davis and bronze medalist at the Snowmachine Speed and Style competition during the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo, four months ago. "It had to be around 1,000 people."

Ferguson of Anchorage won a gold medal in Snowmobile Next Trick competition at the X Games, topping Levi LeVallee and a group of renowned riders.

"Dane did a bunch of flips. I did some tricks," Davis said. "We did just about everything we had. The crowd seemed to eat it up."

And as the Girdwood temperature brushed 60 degrees, most riders stripped down to their T-shirts.

Ferguson rode a 2008 Ski Doo XP 600 loaned to him by Alaska Mining and Diving -- "a stock sled right out of the crate," he said.

He did some ski grabs and back flips while Davis thew in some of his huge trademark whips.

The Alyeska crowd was smaller and more subdued than what Ferguson typically sees at Lower 48 shows, which are often attached to larger events and draw between 3,000 and 10,000 spectators.

"The mob mentality is a lot less up here," Ferguson said. "Maybe they appreciate it a little less here because the riders in the Lower 48 are so weak.

"People get a little less enthused up here."

But Davis said he could feel the love.

"I think everyone in Alaska was pumped to see us bringing back some hardware. I went into (the X Games) with little or no expectations, so to come out with a medal was really awesome."

At the X Games, Ferguson landed a trick he calls a "Twist Off" -- a backward flip with a twist -- to grab the title.

"It's like an off-axis flip that I have done off wind lips at Turnagain (Pass)," Ferguson wrote in his blog. "I named it the 'Twist-off' after my good friend Christoph vonAlvensleben who past away last spring. Christoph and I had been riding together since before we really knew how to jump.

"We were always pushing each other, trying to out-do one another. When we got into the video filming crews we received a lot of different nicknames ... and 'Twist Off' happened to be one of the nicknames he got.

"One day out at Turnagain, Christoph was doing some super inverted whips off a wind lip. I kept trying to do the same thing and I kept wadding up. Finally, after about 30 minutes of trying to copy him, I decided if I couldn't do an upside down whip I would try to flip into it and whip out of it.

"It worked out and now it's named after him.

Life since the X Games has been a mixed bag for Ferguson. He's earning a little more per show, but just before the games his sponsor, the energy drink Rockstar, dropped him due to the economic downtown.

Ferguson and his wife expect to build a house in Anchorage this summer, and he plans to spend lots of time with his 13-month-old daughter.

Davis hopes to spend about a week at a foam pit in Wisconsin, working on a back flip.

Before then, both riders hope to squeeze in a day or two at Turnagain Pass before another Alaska winter completely melts away.

Reach Mike Campbell at mcampbell@adn.com or 257-4329.

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