Max Melvin-McNutt’s first national championship came long after it should have.
Free of broken bones this time around, the Whitehorse snowboarder made his first nationals a good one.
Melvin-McNutt rode to fifth at the Canadian Freestyle Snowboard Championships at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alta., on Saturday.
“I’m stoked,” said the 19-year-old. “Fifth in Canada is good.”
Good - some might say great. Melvin-McNutt took fifth in men’s slopestyle out of 27 of Canada’s best, including members of Canada’s national team.
His better of two runs included a gap to lip-slide over the closeout rail into his run, hitting a boardslide pretzel 270 out of the rails.
He launched into a double-cork 900 on the first jump and a backside 900 on the second. He finished with a switch lip-slide on the last rail.
He was the only boarder in the final doing double-corks.
“I think my scoring should have been a bit higher for that,” said Melvin-McNutt.
Three seasons ago Melvin-McNutt became the first Yukoner to make the B.C. Freestyle Snowboard Team.
In his first two seasons with the team he racked up some fantastic results before a broken collarbone took him out of action both seasons, causing him to miss the nationals both years.
Last season he took first in consecutive B.C. Snowboard Provincial Series Slopestyle competitions at Sun Peaks.
However, the B.C. team dissolved during this past off-season due to a lack of funding and Melvin-McNutt spent this season going it alone in Whistler, B.C.
“There weren’t many contests this year, partly because of the Olympics, partly because corporate sponsors weren’t sponsoring events,” said Melvin-McNutt.
There were no Canadian Shield events and just a few B.C. Snowboard Association events, in which Melvin-McNutt placed third in one.
He also competed in the Showcase Showdown amateur/pro event in Whistler a couple weeks ago.
Melvin-McNutt took 10th place in a big air comp in Showcase in the pro-male division out of 24 riders.
“I fell on my last run,” said Melvin-McNutt. “It was really bad speed for the jump and I just came up short. But I got a 10th in that one, so that was pretty good.”
Melvin-McNutt, who won Yukon’s skateboarding championships the last three years, will vie for
a spot on Canada’s development team at an event at Sun Peaks, B.C., this weekend.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com