New and past snowboard champs ruled supreme at the Board Stiff 2013 Yukon Snowboard Championships at Mount Sima over the weekend.
But only one was a champion both days during Simapalooza, the ski resort’s season-closing celebration.
Whitehorse’s Ethan Davy won the under-12 boys slopestyle competition on Saturday and snowboard cross on Sunday.
“I feel good and proud,” said the 11-year-old.
“I’m proud of my dad for winning in skier cross,” he added, referring to his dad, Jarrid Davy, placing first in the ski-cross event held in conjunction with the snowboard championships.
Not only did he win the ski cross, Ethan had the highest-scoring run in the slopestyle event outside of the open male division.
“His first run was a real standout,” said Snowboard Yukon head coach Mary Binsted. “He had 180 spins off some of the rails. So he was riding switch in his run, which is fantastic at that level. He hit some of the medium jumps in his run.”
Ethan even used the “cannon-rail,” a jump with a rail sticking out of it.
“I just started hitting that on Thursday,” he said.
Ethan, who is just finishing his third winter snowboarding and is a member of Snowboard Yukon’s Sandor’s Shredders program, won two Canada Snowboard Riders races at Sima this season.
Whitehorse’s Adam Waddington defended his title in the open male division.
Waddington took first in slopestyle with a frontside nose-press, frontside board slide, to a backside boardslide on the rails.
“I just kind of cruised the rails,” he said, casually.
He then landed a frontside 360 and a backside corked 540 off the jumps.
He finished his winning run with a frontside lipslide to a blunt-slide 270 out on the final rail.
Waddington also threw down a backside rodeo 540 in his second run.
“It was a really good day,” said Waddington. “I won slopestyle and was really happy about that. I went into big air just out of impulse and ended up doing my first double cork, which was a pretty big accomplishment for me.”
Waddington was the only boarder to enter the big air event with 10 freestyle skiers, but did not place.
Waddington set a highwater mark for Snowboard Yukon this season. He placed 20th in junior men at Snow Crown - the Canadian freestyle snowboard championships - last month. It was the best-ever placement by a Yukon male at the championship.
He also won gold in the halfpipe and bronze in slopestyle at the 2012 Arctic Winter Games.
“It was an awesome season. The park (at Mount Sima) was way better than it’s been for the past couple years,” said Waddington.
A first-time entry won the open female division on Saturday. Marie-Helene Blanchet, who recently moved to the Yukon from Whistler, B.C., took first in slopestyle and then placed second in the snowboard cross.
“She put together a great run,” said Binsted of Saturday. “She rode all the rails in the park, which was fantastic. Especially the kinked rail - we didn’t see any other women riding that except for her.
“She had different grabs off the jumps.”
Snowboard Yukon coach Gabriel Rivest was another boarder who almost took in two wins at Simapalooza. Rivest placed second behind Waddington on Saturday and was first in open men on Sunday, posting the fastest qualifying time on the day.
Whitehorse’s Tim Schirmer placed third both days in the open division. Schirmer, who took silver in slopestyle and halfpipe at the 2012 Arctic Games, won the junior boys division in the 2011 Yukon championships.
Last year’s open women champion Lara Bellon was unable to compete due to an injury she sustained at Snow Crown.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com
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Top-three slopestyle results
Open female
1st Marie-Helene Blanchet
2nd Reanna Newsome
3rd Haylie Grant
Open male
1st Adam Waddington
2nd Gabriel Rivest
3rd Tim Schirmer
Male 13-15
1st Pelly Vincent-Braun
2nd Isaiah English
3rd Kyle Koski
Male under-12
1st Ethan Davy
2nd Marek Henderson Peksik
3rd Bill Newkirk
Top-three snowboard cross results
Open female
1st Reanna Newsome
2nd Marie-Helene Blanchet
3rd Genevieve Beaudin
Open male
1st Gabriel Rivest
2nd Tim Schirmer
3rd Esa Suominen
Masters
1st Aaron Frotten
2nd Matthew Johnson
3rd Dan Boyle
Male 13-15
1st Isaiah English
2nd Jacob Newkirk
Male under-12
1st Ethan Davy
2nd Bill Newkirk
3rd Samual Mather
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com