The Verbier Ride Rail Slide and Big Air hit the slopes near Carrefour on Thursday 23 February. Presented by Peak Performance with the support of Saab and Dainese, the freestyle competition brought style, skill and some interesting steeze to Verbier's sun-drenched slopes.
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The Rail Slide course inspired the riders
The course offered a variety of routes, each of which could deliver a super slick run, if the hits were stuck. They'd even incorporated an utility hut, buried into the slope, as a step down bomb drop. Their creativity inspired the riders who reveled in the mix of boxes, kinked rails and the final ‘C' rail-box. They threw down an increasingly complex set of tricks right culminating in Wes Harris's backflip disaster onto the kinked rail. |
The women brought their game faces
When it came to competition time, the women rode hard today. Beanie Milne-Holme, fresh from her fine performance in the finals of the Big Mountain , showed her freestyle credentials with some tidy sliding. Her smooth riding took her into 3 rd place and a cheque from Peak Performance for $150. In second came an inspired young French lass. Audrey Faivre may be tiny in stature, but she's huge in both courage and talent. She rode the rails with focus and precision and secured second place and a $250 pay day. Today though there was only really one lass in it. Erica Edling from Sweden just ripped. By the time she dropped out of her last hit on her final run, she was already whooping in excitement. She knew she'd done enough to walk off with the Verbier Ride 2006 Rail Slide title, a winner's cheque for $500 courtesy of Peak Performance and a brand new helmet from Dainese.
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The men sessioned it in style
It was hard to drag the guys off the course to actually start their competition runs, so much fun were they having on Andy Bennett and Jamie Camerons course. Finally they were dragged to the top to wait to have their runs judged by the panel of Nick Southwell and Cory Zila,
Their job proved extremely tough. The riders were just nailing their hits, spinning on and off the rails so smoothly and making such creative route choices, that it was a struggle to separate them. In the end style counted for a lot. If you can make a difficult trick look easy or even casual on a rail, then you deserve higher scores. And this is exactly what the top three did.
In third was Aussie rider and Verbier Ride veteran, Nick Draxl. His park riding is always super smooth and today was no exception. His finish on the Peak Performance ‘C' rail box was so slick, the crowd went wild as he exited the hit. The $500 third prize was just rewards for such styley riding.
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Second place went to Britain's leading freestyle skier of the moment, Andy Bennett. Andy rides rails as if he was born on a train track. He makes sliding bone-shattering steel look like a harmless playground pastime, rather than a serious athletic endeavour. It is this signature laidback style that always so impresses the judges. He made his switch 270s on, his 540 off the bomb drop and 450 Disasters off look so easy. Today he was on it from the start. His second place was just deserts and netted him a cool $1,000 from Peak Performance and a Dainese helmet. |
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Russ Henshaw showed his precocious talent
It needed a special set of runs to beat him, but that was just what the crowd got. At only 15, it's almost rude how good Russ Henshaw already is. His sense of balance would make a cat feel clumsy. Landing tricks like a switch butter 270 onto a rail requires millimetre perfect precision. Yet Russ stomped it every time. Given where he's at already, he's an amazing talent for the future.
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There's a good chance we may have seen a future X-Games medalist in action in the Verbier Ride today. By the time he finished his final run, there was no doubt amongst those watching that the winner's pay cheque of $2,000 and the title of Verbier Ride 2006 Rail Slide champion had found their home.
With Nick Draxl joining Nick Southwell and Corey Zilla on the judging panel, the riders sessioned the hit for a while to gauge the length and speed required. Then as the crowd waited in anticipation, Jamie Strachan sent the riders up to the top for the first of their two judged runs. |
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Verbier Ride 2006 Big AIR
The Big Air tabletop was vast. The kicker top was 2 metes above the table and the knuckle was 16metres away from there. However, the landing was superbly constructed, so even when something went wrong the riders would tend to slide out unhurt, rather than slam hard and damage something. This was just as well, given one anonymous rider's attempts to front flip the massive hit. Twice he over-rotated slightly and body-planted headfirst down the slope.
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Both times the steep transition saved him from serious injury. As ever, the margin for error in Big Air remains extremely small.
‘Little' Audrey Faivre went HUGE
When it came to the women's competition, there were only a couple of riders brave enough to attempt the enormous jump. Ever-smiling Peak Performance skier, Marta Ahrenstedt from Sweden, did give it her best shot, but kept coming up just a little short and having to absorb the full impact of a 45foot drop onto flat. It was almost as if she just didn't have enough bodyweight to carry the distance. However, her form in the air was very styley and she fully deserved her second place and $500 pay cheque. Her smile just grew wider as she accepted the cheque from event organizer, Warren Smith.
Audrey Faivre followed up her second on the rails by pulling a massive and super smooth 360 safety grab in the Big Air. This was the trick of the day from the women and crowned her Verbier Ride 2006 Big Air champion. It also added a cool $1,000 to her pocket. The laminated cheque from the Verbier Ride and Peak Performance was almost the same size as her, but it's very clear her talent is very sizeable indeed. |
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Talent, style and a sense of humour in the men's Big Air
The vibe on the hill was super-chilled and the riders were incredibly supportive of each other: but the one thing they all took seriously was executing each trick. As Nick Southwell made clear “ there was a great atmosphere today, but the guys were really on their game. They pushed it hard on the hill and threw down some incredible tricks”
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Amongst the highlights were Wes Harris' flatspin 540 double nose grab, Jamie Cameron very nearly pulling off a Rodeo 1080 and pretty much all of Andy Bennett's and Russ Henshaw's super styled-up switch sevens and nines.
Just to prove that freestylers still have a sense of humour, Wes Harris also donned a Canadian team catsuit for one of his jumps. His lycra clad form flying through the air definitely won steeze of the day.
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In the main competition, the judges again found it very difficult to separate the riders, such was the quality of their performances. When it game down to it, the trick that secured third was Alex Nourier's Switch Underflip 540. It was an impressive trick to pull off such a sizeable kicker, but he stomped it perfectly and ended up $500 richer as a result.
Two riders dominated the day
Although many of the riders' scores were very close together, two riders were consistently ahead of the pack. They were throwing very similar tricks and in the end it came down to the simple matter of style on the day.
By the smallest of margins, it was Andy Bennett who lost out. His switch seven was beautifully executed and perfectly landed, but he had to settle for second place. |
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Still, after his second place in the Rail Slide, this meant he was leaving with a cool $2,000 in his pocket.
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But just as in the rails, it was Russ Henshaw who ended up atop the pile. Pulling similar switch sevens and nines to Andy all day long, his precision and smoothness through the air and on landing won out. It was a fully styled-up switch nine that secured him the victory. It was an awesome jump and a worthy winner on the day. Warren Smith, organizer of the Verbier Ride handed over the $2,000 cheque from Peak Performance and a helmet from Dainese to a very happy and extremely talented 15 year old Henshaw.
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Perfect ending to the Verbier Ride 2006
It was a great way to round off the Verbier Ride 2006 presented by Peak Performance. The gratitude of all involved goes out to the sponsors of the event (Peak Performance, Saab, Dainese), the organizing committee, the judges, Jamie Strachan on the mike, the spectators packing the venues, but above all to the athletes for putting on such an incredible display of freeskiing and freestyle excellence over the 4 days.
The event goes from strength to strength – we look forward to the Verbier Ride 2007.
Written by Phil Martin (www.natives.co.uk)
Images byYves Garneau, Peter Charaf
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