Whitehorse snowboarder Adam Waddington threw down a couple 720s and a 900 for a 20th-place finish in open men’s slopestyle at the Air Nation Freestyle Nationals last week.
But, frankly, he was hoping for more.
“I didn’t actually qualify for finals in either. I had some neck issues going into the contest bothering me. That was part of the reason my outcome wasn’t that great,” said Waddington. “I really wasn’t all there for big air.”
The 19-year-old placed 20th out of 56 at the slopestyle nationals at Mount St. Louis Moonstone in Coldwater, Ont., last Friday.
In his best run he did a backside 720, frontside 720 - both with double grabs - and a backside 900 on the final jump.
“I’m hoping to get a better result next year,” said Waddington. “I missed my goal with 20th - I didn’t make finals, I wasn’t too happy with it.”
Later in the day Waddington took 28th out of 46 boarders in the big air competition at Horseshoe Resort in Barrie. Waddington was the only boarder listed from the territories in both competitions.
“In the big air I was just trying to qualify with some more relaxed tricks - I was doing backside 900s and frontside 720s,” said Waddington. “I kind of got the bad side of the judging with that contest. I don’t know what happened, just sometimes that’s just the outcome you get.”
Waddington was the first Yukoner ever to compete at the freestyle nationals in 2012. He placed 20th in junior men at the 2013 Snow Crown nationals and 43rd in open men in slopestyle at last year’s nationals.
He has competed for Yukon at the Canada Winter Games and is multi-time medalist for Yukon at the Arctic Winter Games.
This past December he moved to Whistler, B.C., where he rides with the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club, the resort’s premier snowboard club.
“It was my first time out east and it was cool to see how big and different the parks are out that way,” added Waddington.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com