Max Melvin, 14, had never successfully landed a frontside 720, but his timing couldn’t have been better.
“Two full rotations - today was the first day,” said Melvin. “It was a lot of fun, there’s not much more I can say.”
Narrowly outscoring second-place Alexander Chisholme, 17, by 1.5 points, Melvin won his second Slopestyle Competition of the year on Sunday at Mount Sima. Melvin won the first of three Slopestyle events staged by Snowboard Yukon January 31.
“We’re judging on impression, which means riders are free to create their own run and do whatever tricks they’re comfortable with,” said Mary Binsted, head coach for Snowboard Yukon and a judge for the competition. “I’d really like to see big, clean well-executed jumps as opposed to something where they go off and spin like a top with their arms flailing.”
Each boarder completed three runs down a section of Sima’s Terrain Park, going off three large jumps followed by a slide along a rail-box and a quick up-and-down on a cone-shaped apparatus called the Volcano.
Sam Ferguson, 18, finished third while Tim Schirmer, 10, took the prize for Youngest Rider.
Darrin Lucas, 16, and Lester Gladuce, 18, also received honours for taking part in their first competition.
All six of the event’s competitors came away with prizes donated by Board Stiff.
“We’re also a member of the Canadian Snowboarding Federation, so events like this are happening all across the country,” said Binsted. “The riders get their experience in the territories or provinces and then they go compete at the national level. From there the (Canadian) head coach chooses who gets to go to the Olympics.”
On March 15, Snowboard Yukon will be holding the RBC Riders Race at Mount Sima, the last event before the Yukon Championships taking place in conjunction with “Simapalooza” at the end of the month.
“It’s a fun race for younger riders,” said Binsted, speaking of the Riders Race. “They go around gates and we put it on some fun terrain.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com