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 AIM Series, Big Air Championships
The fifth of the AIM Series events includes all disciplines, but will feature the Big Air Championships.
It's a long way to drive up to Halifax and back in a day for me, but it was certainly worth it. Arriving via the cobbled road, Halifax slope is set high over Halifax and is the future of artificial slopes in the UK (in my humble opinion). I was greeted by Spencer and Stu from the AIM Series, dried chicken blood clearly visible under their finger nails, as the sun beat down once more on the AIM series. The skiing event had been moved to the morning and there was a good turn out. There was spinny, jumpy stuff of which I know not a lot. All the boarders had a good hour to practice before the main event and the Halifax slope was a perfect location for the Big Air Championship. Riders were going for it. The locals were ruling the practice session and the visitors slowly getting to grips with the Snowflex surface and permanent big air kicker. Even Snowflex themselves made a showing and both Brian and Rob were impressed with what they saw. As people dialled their jumps there were a few casualties. Laura Berry went into a flat spin and landed heavily on her back. It goes to show her professionalism when she was soon back up even though she couldn't actually bend her back - pain killers administered by Lesley, Laura's mum. Next to take a nasty one was Richard Tyas, who managed to break his left arm just below the shoulder and St. Johns and then the grown-up Ambulance service spent a good 30 minutes making sure he was well cared for and taken off for a spot of plaster of paris. Get well soon that man. The event itself saw some seriously good riding, with 1080 attempts from Luke Paull and many corked 7's from the locals like Wayne Taylor. The standard of the riding was all round pretty impressive, with the ladies competition especially showing just how far British snowboarding has come over the last year alone. The goodly sized crowd lapped it all up and the natural amphitheatre at the base of the relatively short slope provided an excellent vantage point. This was one of the first AIM Series events where just about every run got a round of applause. Whether this was due to the venue, the riding, the friendly northern folk or Tim Warwood's encouragement you decide, but it made for a great atmosphere where nuff respect was shown to all the competitors - a round of applause to the spectators from us at TheBoarder. An extra treat was the team event. The riders and skiers clumped together in teams of three and grabbed as many runs as they could for the jam session, with marks going for combos and use of the whole slope. The jump was jumped, the moguls saw some skiing action, the gas pipe was attacked frontside and back, and the C rail received a beating right in front of the assembled crowd. In the end it came down to a battle between the locals and Team Yo. The locals came out on top with some great combos, stomped jumps and nailed rails. Stand outs for me were Laura Berry getting back on the horse, Wayne "I'll be a master next year" Taylor for generally ruling the hill all day, organiser Stu Brass for going bigger than most and Jamie Nicholls for being far too good for somebody his age. We'll have the official results soon. Played to verybody who came, saw and conquered. [Official Review] The last event of the AIM Series artificial leg 2003 was without a doubt the best. With over 80 competitors, 300 spectators and 75 beginners having a free snowboard or ski lesson, the atmosphere at the national Artificial Snowboard and Freestyle Ski Championships, held at Halifax Ski Centre, was buzzing along with the sunshine. The morning started with the Freestyle Ski Championships and a great turn up of local as well as regional talent taking on UK’s biggest dryslope Big Air jump. Though the standard of skiing among the men was high it was the girls that amazed the crowd. With almost the double amount of female entrants compared to previous dryslope events the girls had to push themselves that little extra, putting on a surprise display of rotation and big air tricks not too far off the men’s performances. The Halifax freestyle ski scene definitely made its mark nationally after both the men’s and women’s champion titles went to local athletes Jan Buczynski and Teri Spencer. Jan Buczynski won the title on his runs of solid 540’s and 720’s, while Teri Spencer showed off great talent with her big 360’s and grabs. The Snowboard Championships, in association with O’Neill, continued the day with more local talent wooing the crowd. In the men’s run the high level of technical tricks and smooth riding gave the judges a very hard job. With almost identical scores after the two qualifying runs 16 riders were brought through to the final for one last run to battle for the title. In the end it was Stuart Edwards from Sheffield who kept his cool and performed a super clean run of a big back-side cork 720 mute to earn the title. In the women’s competition it was soon clear that women’s snowboarding in the UK has come a far way over the last year, with the women performing very similar tricks to the men with more rotation and higher airs than ever before. Mollie Boys from Bradford took the title with a perfect run of a big back-side 360 tailgrab. A new sesion for the AIM Series was the afternoon's Team Challenge. Not part of the Championship competition, this expression session invited teams of three to choose their line down the slope including Big Air kicker, moguls and rails. Twelve teams mixing snowboarders/ skiers and age groups took up the challenge and got the crowd in a frenzy with a flow of tricks such as big 720’s, 540’s, solid grabs and smooth rail slides. In the end the Vaper Team with Richard Barrow, Colum Mytton and Wayne Taylor walked away winners closely followed by Team Yo! of Laura Berry, Rob Yeomans and Luke Paull. Next event in the AIM Series calendar is the Indoor Big Air Championships at the brand new Xscape, Castleford on the 18th October 2003. The AIM Series, Big Air Championships event page can be administered by dunx (Dunx), stu (Stu Brass), spencer (Spencer Claridge) and office (Office). Page views: 8216 |
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