Canadian Freeskiing Championships Results: FKNA wow

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

movie: http://www.biglines.com/videos/Diamond.WMV


words:
http://www.biglines.com/articles_readmore.php?read=1333

MANUEL GAIDET & INGRID BACKSTROM WIN 7th ANNUAL TYLENOL CANADIAN FREESKIING
CHAMPIONSHIPS

Gaidet Defends His Title As Champion of the Canadian Freeskiing
Championships

Whistler, BC, CAN Manuel Manu Gaidet of Courchevel, France becomes the first man ever to defend Canadian Freeskiing Title in Diamond Bowlon Blackcomb Mountain today. Extraordinary skiing and a tight competition wasn’t enough to keep 2003 defending champion Manuel Gaidet off of the top of the podium today. Gaidet skied a fluid technical line nearly flawlessly scoring the top run score of the day of 43.6. Fellow countryman, Aurelein Ducroz, moved from 7th position to 3rd place with the second highest run score of today's competition. Yesterday's leader, Ian McIntosh of Panorama, Canada finished 2nd overall in the event.

In the women's competition, Ingrid Backstrom, of Squaw Valley, USA worked her way from her 5th place standing, after the first two runs, to win the event skiing a unique and dynamic, very exposed, line. Whistler local, Laura Ogden, moved up from 4th place to finish 2nd in the event, and Norwegian Ane Enderud finished in 3rd place. Yesterday’s leader Susan Medville of Crested Butte, USA slipped into to the 4th place position for the women.

The event this year had a great representation from around the world (8 countries were represented), and despite difficult weather conditions th event organizers and athletes worked together to make a 3 run contest for the women and a 2 run competition for the men, said Event Director and IFSA President David Swanwick. With the support of Tylenol, Dynastar and the other sponsors, Mountain Sports International and Whistler Blackcomb were able to execute another great freeskiing championship event.


RESULTS
MEN
NAME/HOME AREA/NATIONALITY/RUN 1/RUN 2/TOTAL
1. Manuel Gaidet Courchevel FRA 39.2 43.6 82.8
2. Ian McIntosh Panorama CAN 41.2 35.6 76.8
3. Aurelien Ducroz Chamonix FRA 35.2 41.2 76.4
4. Moss Patterson Whistler CAN 36.6 35.4 72
5. Jack Hannan Crested Butte USA 38.8 32.4 71.2
6. Elijah Lee Eagle Crest USA 36 34.2 70.2
7. Bill Whalley Tacoma USA 31.8 35.8 67.6
8. Rick Greener Snowbird/Alta USA 38 28.8 66.8
9. Fredrik Luytkis Oslo NOR 31.4 31.6 63
10. Mathieu Imbert Risoul FRA 29.4 33 62.4
WOMEN
NAME/HOME AREA/NATIONALITY/RUN 1/RUN 2/RUN 3/TOTAL
1 Ingrid Backstrom Squaw Valley USA 22.2 22.6 36.8 81.6
2 Laura Ogden Pemberton CAN 19.4 26.4 31.4 77.2
3 Ane Enderud Oslo NOR 22.8 29.6 23.6 76
4 Susan Medville Crested Butte USA 27.4 25.4 20.4 73.2
5 Lia Darquier Whistler ARG 21.4 30.8 16.8 69

The Tylenol Canadian Freeskiing Championships was the first stop on the
International Free Skiers Association (IFSA) World Tour. www.freeskiers.org The second stop is the Subaru US Freeskiing Championships February 2-6 in Snowbird, Utah, USA. The final event, The North Face Freeride will be held in Les Arcs, France March 1-5. The IFSA was founded in 1996 as the competitor organization of freeskiing events including Big Mountain, Slopestyle, Skiercross, Big Air and Pipe competition.

Freeskiing Sport & History Unlike ski racing, where a gated course is set up for the competitor, big mountain freeskiing allows a competitor to utilize all natural terrain features between the start house and a finish area. Competitor's runs may include skiing off of cliffs, down steep, expert terrain at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. Freeskiing is a judged competition that requires 5 judges to evaluate the competitor on 5 categories: Line Choice, Control, Fluidity, Technique, and Aggression. There are 10 possible points in each category; an averaged total of 50 points possible per run.

For additional media information, credentials, interviews, and photos please contact: Publicist, Lhotse Merriam at methodpr@earthlink.net
or 760-500-4603 or visit
www.freeskiingworldtour.com
Additional coverage can be found at www.biglines.com

[FLEX]

I saw the last 6 competitors and got some quality footy. Ian MacIntosh's run was dope..........good stuff.
I'm not sure who the skier is in this pic., but he's still airborn ,and when he lands ,he tomahawks big-time

[FLEX]

Here's a frame-grab of MacIntosh.......he STOMPED this clean

[gonzo]

props for moss paterson. pyg must be pumped too. he'sa nelson dood i think...

[pollard]

sweet...I looking a write-up yesterday and couldn't find one

[Samwich]

Originally posted by gonzo
props for moss paterson. pyg must be pumped too. he'sa nelson dood i think...

Moss is a cool guy. I thought he was just a park rat until I saw this shit... he definitely holds it down in the park too.

Thanks for the article Ty... good shit.

[Big E]

Funny that the main sponsor is now Tylenol. That is all.

[gincognito]

Yeah, very appropriate. There's a thread somewhere back there with a link to the video of the carnage. Nasty stuff. I did not enjoy watching it and subsequently deleted it from my drive.

It pretty much highlighted my apprehension to such contests.

Sick and ashamed and happy (and don't mean to take away from the accomplishments of many),
d.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Originally posted by gincognito
Yeah, very appropriate. There's a thread somewhere back there with a link to the video of the carnage. Nasty stuff. I did not enjoy watching it and subsequently deleted it from my drive.

It pretty much highlighted my apprehension to such contests.

Although I'm a fan of these contests, enjoyed participating in the one freeride event that I've ever entered, and plan to enter more in the future if the opportunity arises....I agree....it was kinda sickening to watch that one carnage vid fromt the event that was posted a few days back. Certainly begs the question "why?" and forces one to ask if these events breed poor judgement calls, and getting skiers in over their heads.

[Honc]

Great post. That video sucks very little.

[joshbu]

I don't understand IFSA scoring at all. It seems like he who traverses to hit the most cliffs wins. They seem like off-piste slopestyle comps.

I always rail against figure skating and other judged "sports" so I guess I would be hypocritical to not rail against this, no matter how amazing it is...

</grumpy old man rant>

[iceman]

Yeah, they should just those things on elapsed time.

[joshbu]

Originally posted by iceman
Yeah, they should just those things on elapsed time.

I know this is a joke, but, actually a time component in the scoring might not be bad at all: it hopefully would put a little emphasis back on fall-line skiing and less on traversing.

But, hey, I'm just the grumpy ranter.

[iceman]

Chinese Downhill IFSA Contests would be sweet!! Line everybody up, drop the rope, see ya at the bottom!

Okay, maybe not.

[Ireallyliketoski2]

Originally posted by Tyrone Shoelaces
Although I'm a fan of these contests, enjoyed participating in the one freeride event that I've ever entered, and plan to enter more in the future if the opportunity arises....I agree....it was kinda sickening to watch that one carnage vid fromt the event that was posted a few days back. Certainly begs the question "why?" and forces one to ask if these events breed poor judgement calls, and getting skiers in over their heads.

Important questions to ask for sure, they should not be just brushed off either.

There was something recently in powder where someone was asked if the movie segments too dangerous, and he replied that it's the comps that are too dangerous, forcing people to throw down on any given day. Having people push their limits in less than ideal conditions is a sure fire recipie for disaster.

[powderpyg]

Originally posted by joshbu
I know this is a joke, but, actually a time component in the scoring might not be bad at all: it hopefully would put a little emphasis back on fall-line skiing and less on traversing.

But, hey, I'm just the grumpy ranter.

Ummm, there is a time limit to do the run.

[powderpyg]

Originally posted by gonzo
props for moss paterson. pyg must be pumped too. he'sa nelson dood i think...

Definately stoked for Mosses, reppin for the Kootenays! Samwich, your completely off on that one, the park stuff came third for Moss, as there is no park at Whitewater. He started with skiing, turned to a snowboarder, then came back to skiing and didn't become a "park rat" until he moved to Whistler a couple of years ago. He rips at all three!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Originally posted by joshbu
I don't understand IFSA scoring at all. It seems like he who traverses to hit the most cliffs wins. They seem like off-piste slopestyle comps.

I always rail against figure skating and other judged "sports" so I guess I would be hypocritical to not rail against this, no matter how amazing it is...

</grumpy old man rant>

Fluidity is a component of the scoring, so I would assume that traversing would hurt this area. However, the most important category is the difficulty of line...it carries the most weight. So if you have to traverse to get into cliffier and sketchier areas, you might lose a little fluidity points, but would probably gain a better line score. [/educatedguess]

Judging handbooks and complete scoring details are available at www.freeskiers.org