One of the hottest summers on record did little to thaw the snowboarding skills of a few individuals at the season’s first RBC Riders race, hosted by Snowboard Yukon at Mt. Sima ski resort on December 27.
Some names that topped divisions in last year’s races were back up there to start the season.
Whitehorse’s Alidas Jamnicky, 13, not only had the fastest time for his age group, beating out second place Tristan Brown, but the fastest overall with the time of 23.43 seconds – on his first of three runs.
Perhaps giving him an edge over the competition was a new snowboard and bindings he got the previous day.
“It’s way longer,” said Jamnicky. “I had a 147 and I jumped up to a 156.”
No stranger to speed, Jamnicky won the open boys division at the previous RBC Riders event last March.
“It was pretty fun, that’s for sure,” he said. “I thought maybe my second run (was fastest), but I wasn’t surprised because I knew my first one was going to be my best.”
Less than a second behind Jamnicky was Tim Schrimer in the 11-and-under division, completing his second run in 23.72 seconds, almost six seconds ahead of Bryton Brown, who was second in the division.
Schrimer was the fastest overall on the hill in March’s RBC Riders race.
In the 12-and-under division Nick MacDougall got faster with each run, taking first with a 25.78 second run. Following MacDougall was Gavin Miller, topping out with a 29.19.
Adam Torgerson, the lone rider in the 15-and-under division posted a fastest time of 25.41 seconds.
The event had more boarders out than any of the RBC Riders races last season, with eight registering and seven racing.
“We’ve been doing a little bit more marketing and we’ve been around a little bit longer now, so I think word of mouth is out there,” said Mary Binsted, head coach of Snowboard Yukon. “We also have a lot more
volunteers helping out this year; we just trained six coaches, where last year we only had four and two of them left.
“Our board of directors really grew this year from four to – I think we have 10 on the board now.”
The approximately 300-metre course was set up on Pokey’s Run, a green circle or beginners run, and featured some slalom gates, some rollers and jumps.
“This race is supposed to be fun and a non-intimidating introduction to snowboarding competition, so we like to pick terrain that is on the novice side of things,” said Binsted.
The next RBC Riders event will take place January 31 at Mt. Sima.
This weekend, Snowboard Yukon will be holding two trial events for the Arctic Winter Games, with a race event Saturday in conjunction with the Alpine Ski Association of Yukon and a freestyle event Sunday in
conjunction with the Yukon Freestyle Ski Association.
“For snowboarding there’s a race component and a freestyle component; they have to be able to do both,” said Binsted. “After the trials we will be naming people to a selection camp. At the end of the selection
camp, we’ll be naming the official team for the Arctic Winter Games.”
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com