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7th August 2010

Arriving in Makarora it was the get ready and wait scenario that goes hand in hand when flying and dealing with the weather. After two flat whites and sausage roll, and some long talks with Chris Booth on number of subjects including his passion to see more young Antipodeans making it internationally. At aged just twenty two the Rip Curl athlete and once king of the down under freestyle comps has now transformed into a well rounded freeride skiers with style and a big bag of tricks.

Once the cloud peeled back leaving the mountains to soften in the sun we were flown up to the competition venue. The terrain was epic but it definitely wasnt your perfect powder, but a mixture of some free dry powder in the top sections, some definite hard crust which would be tough to gain an edge but most importantly sun soften flanks.

The judges took a run to show and to report back to the athletes on the conditions as with this type of an event only a visual inspection is allowed. Seeing the softening snow changed, and softer snow up top changed perspectives and it was obvious if you wanted to ski with aggression you could but you would have to be tactical in how you did it.

In the womens taking out second was New Zealand Team member Janina Kuzma. Where many of the many of the men were taking the easy option Kuzma aired big out of the starting blocks and stomp it. Unfortunately she came unstuck lower down.

Reigning Freeride World Champion, Ane Enderud of Norway skied a technical chute out of top, which led her into top air. The Chamonix based skier worked the terrain to her advantage showing her experience to taking out top honors.

Judges hard at work

In the men we start in fifth with Chris Booth skiing a solid run with clean airs to transitions. I would be keen to see Booothy skiing in powder coated face for film, he has a stunning style and at 22 years of age he is still young in the game.

In fourth came the Canterbury nugget Cam Mcdermid, after winning the TC Big Air to qualify, slaughtering the freestyle day hip and then proceeded to shralp the Big Mountain venue, putting us all on edge as he skied with pace down the entire venue.

Also skiing with pace was Fraser McDougall taking out third with a Geoff Small like cross hill air, this one was blind and with some consequence below. McDougalls run was one of the quickest and has shown again that he is one of nzs best freeride skiers.

Taking out second was Sam Smoothy who showed his experience, hitting a nice top wedge rock, and then carving up the sun soften ridge with pace before hitting an exit air, it was all over in a flash.

In first place was a run that no one watching will forget. Off the top lookers right of the course the American Ted Davenport drop a cliff into a chute and rallied turns over into centre terrain. Two turns down a steep section, the snow cracked under him a ripped out, all within an instant Davenport had triggered an avalanche then escaped it hopping literally from a floating block of snow to the above hanging snow. Davenport continued to ski the ridgeline as the slide rumbled down giving every at the bottom a scare. With or without the avalanche Davenport would have more than likely what was scarier was hearing the air he was about to do when the slide popped.

All in all a good day in the mountains and big thanks to Back Country Heli and Harros crew that made it all happen.

 
The Girls - Janina Kuzma, Julia Mancuso and Anne Enderud

Kiwi Boys - Sam Smoothy, Cam McDermid, Luke Potts and Fraser McDougall

Next up for the freeride community is the North Face Big Mountain at Treble Cone kicking off on the 17th, followed by the K2 Big Mountain with Chill and the Export Extreme at Ruapehu. These three events make up the Freeride Series of New Zealand and the overall winners including men, women ski and snowboard gaining an invite to the North American Stop of the Freeride World Tour. http://freerideworldtour.com/en/index.php

This is pretty huge considering each Tour event has only 20 competitors skiers max competing, and the Freeride World Qualifying series only promotes the top four to the next years tour. Who this will be is anyones guess but the world of Freeride is defiantly heating up.