VAIL - You might not believe it, but the gnome got mad air.

He didn't look like your typical winter athlete. He just looked like a gnome- a tiny creature with colorful clothing and a pointy hat.

He rode on a large green sled down a slope at Golden Peak Saturday afternoon and launched off a giant kicker at the bottom of the hill.

What impressed people most though wasn't his mad air, but the spectacular mess he made when the sled slammed into the ground.

Parts flew. People cheered.

The gnome, unharmed and still intact, rose victorious from the wreckage. He won the Dummy Gelunde World Championship.

Dummy gelunde is a sport, if you can call it a sport, that involves building a dummy, planting it on a pair of skis or snowboard and crossing your fingers as it speeds down a slope.

Amy Turner and Sean Manning, creators of "Gnomebody Does Better," won $2,000 for their high flying gnome sled with major structural problems.

"It's all about loose screws and aerodynamics," Manning said.

Loose screws really are a big part to winning Dummy Gelunde. Air time, creativity and crowd response are important and all, but it's got to blow up, according to James Deighan, event producer for Highline Sports and Entertainment. There's got to be destruction and burn out for people to really cheer, he said.

"The key to winning is a mix of engineering and instability," Deighan said. "The gnome achieved total decimation."

Second place and $1,000 went to Honky the Donkey, a ski riding creature created by Russell Wenger, Brandon Haire and Kelly Moon. Third prize and $750 went to the Liberty Ski Team and their melon headed skier.

Others characters included Crash Test Betty, an oversized Elvis and a ski instructor from Chamonix, France, named Blue Ribbon, who donned a Darth Vader mask and helmet. Then there was Daisy, a lingerie wearing inflatable doll with Christmas bow pasties. She drove Willy's Whitetrash Jamboree, an orange sled decorated with a confederate flag. Her partner was a giant inflatable reindeer, which curiously resembled a male body part. They didn't do so well.

Winning the creativity category was the Gorsuch Outhouse, a snowbound portajohn that barely made it through the course.

"It blew up, it exploded, it left a skidmark," Deighan said. "You can see the skidmark on the slope there."

Deighan said the Dummy Gelunde World Championship is sure to return next year.

The competition was part of Vail Snow Daze and was sponsored by the Vail Daily.

Matt Terrell can be reached at 748-2955 or mterrell@vaildaily.com.