Yukon’s Adam Waddington and Lara Bellon snowboarded onto a podium last weekend.
The two members of Snowboard Yukon’s freestyle team took in third place results at the B.C. Snowboard Provincial Series at Mount Seymour in North Vancouver.
At the event, which featured back-to-back slopestyle competitions, Waddington placed third for males 15-18 and seventh overall out of 42 boarders on Saturday.
The same day, Bellon placed third out of five females, second for females 15 to 18, and beat a sponsored boarder from Japan.
“I’m pretty stoked. I’m more stoked on getting seventh out of (42) kids,” said Waddington. “I think I could have done a little better - a more solid run - but it happens. There’s always the next competition.”
“It was just really nice to compete against other people and be exposed to that kind of level,” said Bellon. “That was the part I really enjoyed.”
To reach seventh overall, Waddington, 16, did a frontside lip slide on the first rail, hit a frontside 360 with a poked-mute grab, backside corked 540 with a stale-fish grab and a switch frontside 540 with a melon grab, on three jumps. On the final rail he did a backside frontslide to switch.
“It was like my qualifier run and then I didn’t land my finals run,” said Waddington. “But I still got a high enough score to get me third.”
On Sunday Waddington placed 13th overall and seventh for his age group.
For her run Saturday, Bellon, 18, did a boardslide on rail, followed by a tailgrab, method and nosegrab on the jumps.
She went on to finish fourth on Sunday.
“Saturday was just getting used to the jumps because that was the first day we hit them,” said Bellon. “So I was doing tricks I was used to. That was the day I placed third.
“The next day I placed fourth but I decided to try some new stuff. I was doing some (360s) and stuff but wasn’t able to land it. I didn’t get as high scores as I would have liked, but it was still fun.”
Waddington and Bellon were joined at Seymour by Yukon teammates Esa Suominen and Robert Faulds.
Suominen, who was an alternate for Team Yukon at the 2012 Arctic Winter Games, placed 35th overall and 10th for males 14 and under on Saturday. He then improved to 31st on Sunday, eighth for his age group.
Faulds, who was in his first competition outside of the Yukon, placed 29th on Sunday, 16th for males 15-18.
“It was Esa and Robert’s first provincial competition, so it was very new for them,” said Yukon coach Gabriel Rivest. “Esa did really, really well. For his first provincial competition we, Mary (Binsted) and I, were really impressed. He’s learning really quick.
“He was throwing tricks he learned a month and a half ago at a training camp in Whistler.
“Robert, on Sunday, did much better. He improved a lot. He’s new to the team this year, so we have to figure out what stresses him out and what he’s most comfortable with.”
Bellon dominated the 2012 Arctic Games, winning all four available gold medals in the junior female division. She also won the open female division at last year’s Yukon championships in freestyle and snowboard cross.
Waddington won bronze in a Junior Jam competition at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary a year ago. He also represented the Yukon at the 2012 Arctic Games in the juvenile male division, winning gold in the halfpipe and bronze in slopestyle. He won the halfpipe event at last year’s Yukon Snowboard Championships.
Waddington was the first Yukoner ever to compete at the Freestyle Snowboarding Nationals last year, placing 31st out of over 70 boarders in slopestyle and 21st in halfpipe.
He is currently spending the week training with the B.C. Provincial Freestyle Team.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com