After being rescheduled from Thursday, competitors and crowd alike at the Animal Snowboard Slopestyle Championships were spoilt with blue skies and sun on Friday April 4, as they witnessed some of the most impressive freestyle skills in the UK scene.
With a record number of 106 snowboarders taking part, and as for the rest of the week, the younger generation pushed things forward as 14 year old wunderkid Jamie Nicholls proved exactly why he has the international pro scene excited, with 16 year old Roxy newbie Aimee Fuller also showing up riders almost ten years her senior.
After failing to podium in Big Air Breckenridge based seasonaire Nate Kern pulled out the stops for his technical and smooth Slopestyle run, which included a frontside boardslide, 270 off on the top box, a backside disaster on the wall ride and a 50-50 frontside noseslife on the up down kinked rail. On the kickers he also stomped an epic run of back to back frontside and backside 900 spins, plus a cab 720 - which nabbed him the gold medal. Silver went to Jamie Nicholls, who ousted many snowboarders twice his age, with some super tech rail runs of switch backside to frontside boardslide to backside boardslide and 270 out on the top box, frontside 540 on the wall ride and switch boardslide on the kinked rail, plus a backside 720, 540 and a cab 540 on the jumps. Another one to watch Jack Shackleton took third wth a frontside tailslide 270, blunt tail stall on the wall ride, noseslide and big frontside 360 , 540 and cab 540 on the jumps.
Despite big names like Vicci Miller and Jenny Jones out with injuries the women's final was also impressive: Big Air champion Claire Frost continued to be on form adding another gold to her 2008 BRITS collect as she linked a noseslide 270 out on the top box, 360 tailslide on the wall ride, 50-50 noseslide on the kinked rail, then a frontside and backside 180 over the medium kickers, finishing with a massive backside 540 spin on the third largest kicker. Always solid, Lucy Passmore took second with a switch boardslide, 50-50 noseslife, backside 180, frontside 180 and big cab 360. Despite riding with a busted collarbone Laura Berry ignored Doctor's advice to land a 270 onto the top box, a big blunt stall on the wall ride, a frontside 180 and 360 on the kickers, and a bronze medal.
Check out the video courtesy of Soulsports above for the day's full action.
Want to catch up on all the BRITS results? Then read:
BRITS Quiksilver Freeski Big Air | BRITS Day 2 Halfpipe | BRITS Day 2 Animal Freeski Slopestyle | BRITS Day 2 Quiksilver Big Air | BRITS Day One Round Up
