Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

SMOOTH RIDING – (Left) Boarders cruise down the course during a boardercross race Sunday. (Right) Adria Gallina takes a sharp turn during the U10 girl’s race at the Yukon Snowboard Championships. Gallina took first place in the race.

Families compete at Yukon snowboard champs

It was a competitive event with a twist at the 2018 Yukon Snowboard Championships in the quest to make the two-day event a family affair.

By Dustin Cook on April 19, 2018

It was a competitive event with a twist at the 2018 Yukon Snowboard Championships in the quest to make the two-day event a family affair.

The competition at Mount Sima consisted of the classic slopestyle and boardercross events in age categories, but also included the first annual Family Jam, where snowboarding families could compete in the individual events and get points in this new competition.

Snowboard Yukon events co-ordinator Mufida Walker said her goals for the organization included getting more family involvement in the events they hosted as well as to have the older competitors act as mentors for the young up-and-comers.

“Most of the kids compete but a lot of the parents just watch and don’t get to really do any competing,” Walker said.

So the Rad Moms, Dads and Friends category was formed to compete in the freestyle and race competitions and then the scores were tabulated based on placement in these events to see which family came out on top in the team competition.

With three families competing, it was a tight finish with all three teams only separated by one point. It was the Marsh family that took the title, with four participating members and two gold medals in the competition. The Boland family finished with more gold medals but had less event participation with only three competitors. Walker and her family finished with the same number of points as the Boland’s but with one less gold medal.

Connor Boland won both of the events in the U10 male division. He won the boardercoss race in a tight finish over Eli Marsh, with Michias Walker finishing in third.

In the Mazda Style Jam competition – the freestyle competition for the less experienced athletes on a smaller terrain park – Boland scored 198 on his first run to win his second gold. His older sister Riley won the open 11-12 category, with a score of 225 on her third and final run. She finished just ahead of Jacob Nickel and Josiah Walker.

Competing with the boys in the boardercross as well, Riley placed second of five, finishing just behind Nickel.

“I feel like there was still a relatively competitive aspect to the final this year, but also so much fun because the families were involved,” Mufida said. “It was definitely interesting competing in it for personal experience.”

In the RAD division, Troy Marsh took top spot in the boardercross event, followed right behind by Snowboard Yukon technical director Mary Binsted. Paolo Gallina rounded out the podium in third.

In the style jam competition, Marsh again took top spot with a final run score of 223. Binsted again finished in second with a score of 199.

Another element of the championships that Mufida said she focused on was having the older athletes involved in helping out and working with the younger boarders.

So the high-level athletes helped co-ordinate the events and judge the style jam competition. Ethan Davy and Ben Machtans were both judges as well as coach Aaron Frotten.

“The little kids look up to those athletes who are going away and competing,” Mufida said.

Both Davy and Machtans got in on the championship action themselves with Davy competing in the boardercross race event in the open category.

Mufida said the stakes were high in the open divisions because the cost was $20 for each event and the winner got to keep the money. Both the boardercross and slopestyle events were won by Max Melvin-McNutt who squeaked out a race win against Gabe Rivest and Davy.

In the slopestyle, six competitors were vying for the cash prize and Melvin-McNutt won on his third and final run with a score of 509. Tim Schirmer finished close behind with his final run score of 492. Machtans finished in fifth spot with a score of 448.

In the U16 division, Syth Charchun landed a massive first run score of 318 and then did not start his next two runs. But it was enough to secure him the gold medal as the other three competitors weren’t able to land runs to pass him.

Lewis Bunce came close with a run of 309 to finish in second place.

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