Yukon snowboarder Stian Langbakk has returned from the B.C. Provincial Series with medals in hand.
The snowboard competition was held in Whistler from Jan. 4 to 6 and is known to attract some of the best athletes from British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.
Langbakk competed in the slopestyle event, placing first of 13 competitors in the male U15 category on Jan. 5 with a score of 79.97 ahead of Rhys Rozon from Quebec and Jonas Gaces from Whistler. His performance also landed him in fourth of 46 competitors overall.
On his second day of competition, Langbakk again won in the male U15 category and moved up to 2nd overall, narrowly missing the top spot with a score of 81.03 to 81.15 by 19-year-old Dashiell Klebe-McCulloch from the North Shore Snowboard Team. Alexandre Slavinski from Blossom Academie in Quebec rounded out the top third spot overall.
The results were enough to send Langbakk home with four medals: two gold, one silver and a bronze.
He told the News he feels really happy with his performance, including landing his runs.
“My goal was just to put down a run,” Langbakk said. “In my first run in finals, I totally messed up the rails. I just focused on doing my run for the second one. I was really happy to land it.”
Athletes in the competition are judged on their best of two runs.
“Landed all my runs. Upgraded my tricks. Bluebird day with fresh snow,” Langbakk said in a statement after the event. “Big thanks to the physios and osteo, and my coach, Mike [Stastook]. And thanks so much to the Air North GOAL program and my sponsor, Unltd Boardshop in Banff, for their support.”
Langbakk’s next competition will be at the Air Nation/Noram series at Sun Peaks near Kamloops, B.C. in mid-January before joining his Snowboard Yukon teammates for an Alberta Provincial Series event at Winsport in Calgary at the end of this month.
He said he has started preparations for the competition including practices in Whitehorse.
Contact Patrick Egwu at patrick.egwu@yukon-news.com