Watch the Live Broadcast of the 2024 Kicking Horse Golden BC Pro, the second event of the 2024 FWT by Performance.
After an epic start to the 2024 season in Verbier, Switzerland, FWT by Peak Performance heads across the Atlantic for the legendary Kicking Horse Golden BC Pro. This is the seventh time a FWT event has been held at this resort, with the Ozone Face providing one of the most challenging venues on tour, offering varied terrain and huge features to suit all riders. Each year, riders surprise us with creative, new lines, ensuring a thrilling day of competition, which begs the question: what new tricks and takes on the mountain will the world’s best pull out of the bag this year?
🔔Subscribe to @GoProSnow for the most immersive look into the @FISFreerideWorldTour .
Chapters:
0:00 Pre-Show
16:57 Womens Snowboard
47:38 Mens Snowboard
1:39:04 Womens Ski
2:25:22 Mens Ski
——————————————————–
Recommended Gear:
HERO12 Black – https://GoPro.com/HERO12
HERO11 Black Mini – GoPro.com/HERO11Mini
Enduro Battery – https://GoPro.com/Enduro
Adhesive Mounts – https://GoPro.com/shop/mounts-accesso…
Bite Mount – https://GoPro.com/shop/mounts-accesso…
64GB SD Card – https://GoPro.com/64SD
——————————————————–
Shot 100% on GoPro: https://gopro.com
Get stoked and subscribe: http://goo.gl/HgVXpQ
#GoPro #GoProSnow #Ski #Snowboard #POV #FPV #FreerideWorldTour #FWT
No freaking yeah Bo welcome welcome welcome to the Free Ride World Tour by Peak Performance it’s stop number two of the 2024 season the kicking horse Golden BC Pro Oh Canada we are in my backyard kicking horse has become a staple on the tour a favorite of fans and Riders alike known as the
Champagne powder capital of Canada welcome to kicking horse golden DC we are fired up to kick this thing off welcome welcome welcome we are here Live Free Ride World Tour my name is Derek fous and I’m joined by a very special guest today Tom pyer free ride World
Tour Rider and now joining me in the booth and before you go crazy in the comments on Instagram Anna couldn’t come because she had to work so we got Tom here Tom welcome to the booth thank you very much for having me it’s very good
To sit on this side of it it will be interesting today I’m stoked to be here uh and watch some great riding from all all the friends you know lots of EXC competitors I used to ride with I’ve been on this face quite a few times throughout the qualifiers and the world
Tour so I’m excited to see uh what goes down from this end yeah the Riders are fired up the conditions definitely a little tricky out there there but we know that they are some of the most talented human beings on the planet on skis and snowboards just a quick look at
The top we’re going to be on the T1 South face riders up there already checking in Tom a little bit of a look into the mindset of these moments when uh you know we’re still an hour away for some Riders some of them is coming up quick what’s going through their heads
Up there you know right now it’s just if if you’re going to be dropping a bit deeper in the pack you’re going to be watching and seeing what these first Riders are going to be doing and how that snow is actually going to be getting ridden they do have the four
Runners to go through and get some feedback to see but there’s you know nothing like watching some other competitors put some runs down on the face uh they’re just trying to get prepared right now it is pretty dang cold here in kicking horse so I’d imagine some some of them are just going
To keep skiing some lops staying warm and then uh just popping by to check out the comp until they’re ready to go and they have to hike up but just keep it settled so yeah keeping the legs warm and keeping the minds on point it’s all got to come together today valuable
Series points on the line we’ll take a quick look at what got us here and how it all works this year on the Free Ride World Tour Perfect all right so the format this year we lost a couple stages in the Pyrenees so in the preliminary stage of
The Free Ride World Tour we’ve got the verbi pro the kicking horse Golden BC Pro and then we head to Georgia that’s all 53 Riders then we cut half of them 50% of them will be off to the Challenger Series and the other 50% will
Be heading to fee Brun in Austria with a two-run format best score of your two run counts and then to the big mama the yeti extreme verbi that is free ride World Tour finals 27 athletes skiing and snowboarding men and women taken to the biggest stage on the Free Ride Planet
The Beck Ross but right now they still have to complete this we are in Canada our backyard Tom as you said you’ve competed on this T1 South face before um there’s definitely a lot of options and there was some confusion it felt like in face check of people wondering what they
Were going to do and how they were going to approach this yeah absolutely you know right now just even throughout North America and BC it’s a bit lower of a snow year so the face has a bit more terrain options because stuff isn’t as filled in there’s some more trees at the
Bottom some of the cliff bands are quite a bit bigger so the venue is actually looking really different from last previous years so we are going to see some newer lines that haven’t been skied and some old lines that just won’t be able to be skied um and that’s just the
Nature of free ride so I’m super excited to see how creative the Riders are going to get today all right well let’s dig into it with our face preview of T1 South here at kicking Horse 38 40 uh 40° steepness the whole way and it is southeast facing so it gets some beautiful Sun but not sunbaked we’re going to be running a two start uh competition uh in classic style here just so Riders can access that Cliff band off the top that you saw and just
Open up some more lines uh and that keeps you know more create creativity more options for all the Riders and they don’t just get pigeon Hol into one line conditions today there is some fresh snow on the venue but unfortunately there’s a pretty tough crust underneath
Uh again that is just the nature of being in the mountain so the Riders are going to have to choose lines in which they can handle that crust underneath uh and so we’ll really see the Riders who are going to choose smart Lines within their ability to land um and that’s
Going to weed out that like maturity that you see of these riders that are going to be able to push through with some consistency into the finals so yeah it’s it’s definitely going to be you know rule number one in Free Ride is ride to the conditions and you know
Hopefully hopefully we’re going to see all the Riders step to that they definitely have a a deep skill set and a huge bag of tricks that they can apply on this and for uh for some of the Riders you know we’ve been chatting a little bit the kiwis the Scandinavians
And those that came up through the ifsa qualifier series are pretty comfortable skiing on bulletproof conditions now this isn’t bulletproof we do have a you know a skiff a powder on top so I I think we may see those Riders from those Nations kind of rising to the occasion
Absolutely and I’m going to keep my eyes on uh Jackson Bathgate and Christopher trell the two riders that you know they know this type of snow so well and I had a chat with Jackson earlier a local from Canada and he was saying we’ve ridden this face in these conditions so he’s
Seeming pretty confident and I’m excited to see all right well here’s a big picture look at the T1 South face here at kicking horse the Super Bowl as it is known the weather today a slightly chilly even for Canadian standards minus 20 celsi but we’ve got perfect Blue Sky
Out there the visibility is unreal there’s no clouds there’s no wind oh it’s show- 15 so it’s warmed up a bit not down we’re sitting we’re down in the shade at the base of the face uh 5 km an hour wind so hardly anything uh a little
Bit of fresh snow on top as you said we have had um a warming uh a warming Trend in BC previous to the to the what we’re sitting on now so we had some warming then we had some cooling the snow got hard luckily it snowed on top um
Supportive crust the the crust underneath the Riders aren’t breaking through that uh which is which is great because a breakable crust definitely Alters things um so many line options on here so many different directions you can go so many ways you can take it uh we were chatting a little bit earlier
About the long and low might be better than the big to to to Flat yeah so looking at the face from previous years just with the snow levels everything used to set up from the Riders right to the left you saw Craig Murray Ross tester some of these guys with a great
Bag of tricks being able to work the venue in that capacity and we might see some of that today with some Riders like Finn uh Maxim Sho Max pal Marcus Goen guys with a great bag um and so you know a couple other lines that aren’t in are
Some bigger Cliffs off to the left that we saw so we are going to have to have to see how they handle that especially with that crust yeah riding to the conditions and riding also to the judges criteria the judges have their five criteria that these Riders are trying to
Fit into and we put together a nice little package and you can have a look into exactly what goes into the Free Ride World Tour judging [Applause] hi my name is berty denovo I’m one of the pre- rde World Tour judges we score Riders from zero to 100 when the rider leaves the gate he has a score of 50 and then the score goes up or down depending on what we see there are five judging
Criterion the number one Criterion is the choice of line we’ll judge whether the line was difficult or not and whether the athletes did the best out of his line Choice then there’s airon style how big is the jump how many are there were the tricks in the air was the rider in
Control in the air how were The Landings The Landings are part of the jump then there’s fluidity we judges are here to decide whether the athlete was really fast or kind of slow compared to how exposed or how difficult it is to ski then there’s control here we’ll judge
Whether the rider was in control at all times then there’s technique for pros we don’t really judge their technique but we might take off some points if they Sid slip in a place where another rider was taking turns the score like a temperature will go up and down so that
We have a score in our heads when the rider crosses the Finish Line all right so that is exactly what they’re looking for and now we are seeing the judges in action we’ve got lauron lob best the commissioner of the Free Ride World Tour alongside berti denovo those two sharing the
Commissioner job this year and both of them have been doing this since the Free Ride world tours Inception uh as well we’ve got Michelle Manning out of Utah and lauron gotier Larry coming from Whistler BC all of these all of these judges have such an incredible wealth of
Knowledge Tom you’ve been judged by them uh many times over the years a difficult job they’ve got it is it is and you know what 50 50 of the best riders in the world are putting down so many great runs and it does come down to the
Details uh and all the little little things that you see so they definitely have their work cut out to them with for them today uh on this action-packed venue it’s going to be short and quick and they’re going to have to be on it but we’ll see all right well we’re lined
Up for kicking horse but of course we have already got one event in the bag here on the freeer ride World Tour by Peak Performance in 2024 let’s take a quick rewind and see what went down at the verbi Pro 2 1 which has oh already in the air half a second into his run I came this year with a wild card and luckily I did first on the first event so now it’s a bit less stress for the next pretty stacked field of snowboard women from experienced veterans to a few
Rookies with the winning on burbia gives me for sure a good start of the season but for sure it’s just a star so just going to continue doing what I like to do and hopefully goes well as well we’ve got smiles and tears on our Free Ride World Tour podiums three two
And it looks like she wants to take a chunk out of this big butress here going huge and managing to hold that one my mindset was like there is a huge lever this year for sure and all the girls are super Riders so I wanted for
You to go big she is flying out there and lining up another huge air fourpoint Landing looking super super strong coming out of There taking that one pretty deep yeah I had a good start into the season uh with the first win but I think in the sport you have to compete in every race the same way and always be Focused oh what an unbelievable show we had in verb and we have it backed up right here at kicking horse incredible we’ve got hittig Nua uh de la R and Suzanna VK all sitting pretty at the top and right now the kicking horse Golden BC Pro we’ll be right back after this short Break Welcome back to the Free Ride World Tour by Peak Performance we are at the kicking horse Golden BC Pro I’m Dereck fous I’m joined here with Tom pyer and we are ready for snowboard women the action is about to kick off here just a few short minutes to go before the
Snowboard women drop in on T1 South here at kicking horse a sparkly sunny day chilly down in the shade but it’s actually a whole lot warmer at the start where the Riders are hanging out so they’re feeling pretty good and they are fired up absolutely and we’ll see what
The sun is doing you know it is sitting in the sun off uh starting is going to be nuia cassen coming in first in verbier the current leader uh and then starting off today is going to be Marissa CAC who’s just underneath the cut uh so she’s got a lot of pressure on
Her yeah so Nua sitting first right now in the overall rankings with Anna Martinez the rookie just behind her and then we’ve got a couple riders that are down below looking up that had some crashes and some serious issues at verbi so they’re going to be looking to put a
Stamp on today and get themselves up on the good side of that cut line now we’ll have a look at what we’re going to be doing today exactly see Cody Bramwell up there getting himself ready these Riders just kind of going through it everybody’s got their whole mental preparation game it’s really important
To have the mental side as on point as the physical side and this is what we’re looking at today yeah we have Marissa cak like I said opening it up for the snowboard women and as as I mentioned she’s just underneath the cut and Faller behind her is Tiffany Partin and she’s
Just above the cut so a lot of pressure on these two moving into the second comp and the margins are so thin this season with two competitions being canceled so they’re they’re all going to have to bring their aame uh the whole category is super consistent with their riding
From verbi it was great to see so they’re all going to have their work cut out for them even nura she came fourth in 2022 here with a bummed ankle so she’s going to be looking to hold on to that lead uh and I’m just super excited
To see what these women come up with oh yeah snowboard women absolutely firing here’s what you thought the Peak Performance fun bet fan favorites these percentages are how many of you think these Riders are going to be on the podium so Anna Martinez got 64% of you voting for her Tiffany peraton the
Former Free Ride World Tour champ 63% and Estelle Rolio completing the Peak Performance fan favorite French Sweep with 56% of you thinking Estelle is going to drop herself into a Podium slot here so an all French fan favorites out there in the Peak Performance fun bet
It’s not too might actually be too late for this event if you haven’t locked your votes in but definitely a great way to get involved it’s essentially fantasy Free Ride it’s a good time pick your favorites bet on them definitely put money on it with your friends or at
Least bet beers we go up to the top you can see the Riders all getting themselves fired up there’s uh the the young rookie who’s sitting second overall pretty exciting for uh for Anna Martinez joining the Free Ride World Tour and all of the sudden she’s you
Know sitting on top of the leaderboard the overalls after one event yeah absolutely you know again a big picture look at the face we’ll see uh where these Riders are going to get drawn to in the category uh especially on a snowboard this crust can be quite challenging underneath uh it’s different
For skiers and snowboarders you know it’s just because it’s the same conditions doesn’t mean it’s easier for one or the other but uh we’ll see how they handle themselves yeah I think they they the conditions as they are currently are going to shine a magnifying glass on your Technique if
You’re te is not on point you’re going to get bucked and tossed around all over the place those Riders who have a solid edgo Edge technique are going to shine on this face the judges are going to notice it we’re going to see it you’re
Going to see it at home on your TV so definitely the riders that have put in the work honing that snowboard technique uh are are going to shine today and uh I’m excited to see it yeah absolutely me too a good look at the start there overlooking Golden BC here in beautiful
British Columbia we’re looking at start two the Riders did have to get harnessed in to go up there over the knife Ridge and this is going to be a great drone shot looking over the venue this is what kind of what the Riders see and they
Inspect from uh so you’re going to see all the lips the angles they might have um lots of creative options here today and you know as we get underway I think the Riders who are going to get some of this fresh snow will have a really it is
Going to make a big difference um as we move throughout the day yeah it’s cool for the Riders because both of those start gates in a normal or a normal Time of the Season or especially start two is not actually open to to ride so the
Riders getting a little bit of a treat and we are up to the top we’re kicking things off here with Marissa CAC riding at a Bend Oregon she’s been shredding with the friends back at Mount Bachelor in the break between the events Marissa coming from that film background Jones
Rider and she has fired up Marissa CAC our first Rider is on the face working her way out of start two down that Top Ridge uh we’re going to see where she’s going to choose to drop in coming down here enjoying that powder off the top a
Nice air right off the top a good n getting that line score built in already and another grab and air working things beautifully down the Run yeah a bit of a learning curve for Marissa in the first event she rode great but just wasn’t a super technical line so now we’re seeing
Her actually learn the ropes in Free Ride stacking those features up at the top of the face that gets us judge’s attention right away absolutely and as they work their way down here there’s so many trees so there’s not a lot of landmarks they’re really going to have
To be dialed in and she’s going to have to know exactly where she’s going here to find the air in the line uh many landmarks yeah absolutely that that can be a huge challenge if there’s too many landmarks and trees so she’s working her way down this tree section in the bottom
Working that spine beautiful turn and right off the bottom section now you can see Marissa is drawn to the powder there’s a couple sections where the slough has run down some of those gullies and now Marissa coming speeding into this lower wind lip getting herself off and this section we heard from the
Forerunners it’s quite wind defected so you could see Marissa’s board kind of moving around but not affecting her body position at all clean run top to bottom for the first Rider and that’s what you want to see you want to see the first Rider get down beautiful run by Marissa
Keeping it on her feet keeping it in control I didn’t see any errors or any inconsistencies there so we’re going to see what the judges are going to think of that but beautiful do watch look at that pow off the top of the Ridge and then awesome awesome nub to find and
Just working that energy yeah so the bars is coming up a little down in fluidity maybe because she moved across the venue uh the video judges scores are not actually scoring scores so that’s just to give us a little something to chat about and Marissa is so solid on that heelside
Edge which was one of the areas I was wondering how the Riders were going to fair when they got on the he heel side if they got bounced around that was kind of a uh a clinic in good snowboard technique right there yeah and as you
See her line there she has that cut down kind of through the middle of the venue uh and so when you’re going to do that you want to keep everything moving at a higher speed and keep that energy up waiting for the judges score here and
See what they’re going to get dialed in to open off dropping in first is really challenging because they’re setting the bar for the rest of the category so the judges have a very difficult job of where to gauge everything you know they want to leave room for other Riders and
If there is going to be um some bigger lines or some crashes all right here we go the score coming in for Marissa crak of 64. 67 she’s going to make her way over to the to the dinar hot seat and anxiously wait to see what the other
Riders are going to have in response to that run a solid first run for Marissa CAC Rider out of Bend organ she’s stoked the relief these Riders feel when they’re in the Finish it’s it’s just such a huge weight off your shoulders oh the The Rush that you have in the
Stargate through your run and then once you pass through that finish Coral it’s a comes all off your shoulders and it’s just the most intense feeling all right well we go back up to the top you can see the per and Rockies in the background the Glorious backdrop here at
Kicking horse absolutely spectacular as we have our next rider in the gate this is none other than former Free Ride world champion Tiffany peraton another French rider in the snowboard women’s field the French ladies definitely having their way with the uh with the snowboard women’s field there’s a ton of
Them and they’re all right at the top of their game uh while Tiffany is French she is still hanging out in verbi that is her home right now it’s great to see her back in the mix you know it’s unfortunate we had Katie Anderson go down so Tiff got that last minute call
Up for it with the wild card and she is on course dropping in from start one so already going to shake it up for the judges working her way through this shelf and this bench section uh there’s lots of features and opportunity off here so I’m excited to see what she’s
Going to line up coming in setting up this top drop uh there is a bit of Slough and runnel from the four runners they have to work through coming in lining it up getting everything dialed it is quite Rocky here so that’s one thing the Riders have to watch out for
It might be fresh snow but rocks are hidden it’s beautifully working her way nice and fluid through that section you know you want to make sure you’re moving you want to make sure everything’s going downhill and she’s doing a great job yeah fluidity definitely a big part of
The five categories and Tiffany airing off that we kind of missed the angle but looking clean as she gets down through these powder runnels and zipping across to this next section she’s got a little Boulder underneath her tip off it and straight in control on the landing for
Tiffany per coming down the tree section again like I said this is where Riders are really going to have to get creative and find these small Nubs and these airs to take off lining it up off the bottom beautiful air finding that fresh fresh snow you know snowboarders make these
Beautiful turns in fresh snow and it’s so nice to watch even as a skier coming out with speed into this wind buff section I’m nervous for a lot of the rid down here in the bottom because the forerunners said it is quite challenging snow off the wind lip keeping it on her
Feet beautiful run by Tiffany Partin keeping it through the Finish Corral I’m stoked all right you can see there the Finish Corral there’s not a lot of people crowded around it but just about 30 m to the side there’s a Sunbeam and all of the crowd that’s gathered down
Here is sitting in the sun Tiffany Pon kind of tossing her hands up as we take a look back at this run Tom working her way off that top you know that top is really tricky with the snow level there’s lots of sharks and she managed that beautifully keeping the fluidity up
Love this air unfortunately a bit of a butt check that was the angle that we missed uh that is going to be a huge dock on control and fluidity as we see from the video judge and that’s that crust that we were talking about underneath yeah you know one of the
Hardest things in in conditions like this when you get into the air you’re your eyes see powder and your brain sets your legs for a powder Landing which is a little softer a little more give in the leg but it’s only a little bit of powder on top of that really firm cross
So we’re seeing the score here coming in for Tiffany as it is a 5267 you can see the reaction her face tells it all she knows so Marissa CAC there sitting in the hot seat that was a big Challenger fend it off for Marissa in her quest to stay in that seat for
The whole snowboard women’s category absolutely and with these two women both on either side of the cut in the overall ranking at the end of the day we might see some changes now and we still have such a stack field for the women to come up yeah could see a little Switcheroo in
The overall as we make our way up you can see just how rugged this venue is the T1 South in the Super Bowl area the Riders had a short hike I think especially compared to the last event in verbi about a 15minute hike up the uh up
The Terminator face and we are heading back up to the top for Estelle rosolio French Rider another frenchwoman on the Free Ride World Tour she’s a DJ she’s a coder I don’t know if we’re going to get to see it but she custom paint painted
Her board and she was so stoked with the way it came out it’s hard to see just by the angle but oh yeah there you go bright pink she’s so stoked on uh on representing her whole Community Estelle rosolio is on course working her way out
Of start one again you know the Riders get that option and so whatever speaks to them they’re going to take first working our way into this technical section into the close out lining it up making sure she’s getting everything dialed and right off the nose stomping it staying in control
A little bit of a control issue coming in trying to shut out and again you see that’s where we see that crust influ influencing how the Riders are going to have to manage their speed um once you start going too fast it’s hard to shut down yeah really hard to slow down
Really hard to get direction and you know the instinct is to throw the board sideways sometimes a little bit of patience there we go now sick nose grab off the top all right well Estelle firing things up she’s got a couple big airs that’s what she’s become known for in
Sophomore year here on the Free Ride World Tour every time we see her strap in she is sending and another one keeping it in the fall line there balance and on point here for Estelle Rolio this is a great run keep coming down in the bottom this is the most high
Press situation you want to finish it off strong but you’re finishing an awesome run you just want to hold it together coming into the Finish cow you can see that she’s stoked holding on she did out that control issue but what an awesome run by a stealth three huge airs
I’m so curious to see how the judges pull this one up with that control issue but incredible riding all right Tom let’s take a look back this first air kicking things off forelle it’s almost as if she got lost in her spray there and then judges loving the line score they didn’t dock
Her too hard on fluidity and control yeah there might be there might be a little ding but she went so big you know it I think it it may balance itself out there and the rest of her run was so solid Estelle rosolio putting a stamp
Here on the T1 South face a really solid run you can see so fall line so direct and uh and just filled with features I have a feeling the judges are going to be pretty fired up with that one yeah that was an incredible run and let’s see
What they get we go score coming in a 78 for Rolio so Estelle taking over the hoty that hot pink board doing its job here on the kicking horse face big there for Marissa as aelle you know every time we we saw last year she would either
Explode or she do super well but every single time she was just out there sending and and kind of doing it with what seemed like a ton of Joy having a blast on the mountain so really exciting to see for Estelle as we move on we’ve
Got the T1 face here uh T1 South face and our next Rider is going to be a young Canadian who had her way with the challengers last year we’ll catch up with Aaron so yeah I’m excited to coming to Canada is uh feels a lot more familiar and I’ve
Skied at kicking horse before and I’m pretty excited to be back on home turf with snow that feels comfortable and and like home uh and I’m also super excited uh to have some friends and family here and supporting me and um yeah just feeling a lot more at home my strategy
To pass the cut well number one is stay on my feet that’s a big one and um just pick lines that I feel comfortable with and that I’m excited to ride all right Aaron so this is her home event she’s from just around the corner in Rosland she’s the snow School
Director at Red Mountain last year she absolutely crushed the Challenger Series taking first first and first and she had a bit of a rough one in um in verbi just kind of figuring it out it was her first time doing visual inspection which is definitely a huge thing to do on the
Beck de Ross but Aaron so now the Canadian Rider is on the face I’m excited to see what she comes up with here you know all the qualifier Riders have ridden this venue coming out of start one onto the bench again and it offers so many good options let’s see
What she lines up here it looks like she’s coming into a bit of a double right off the top taking the same air as Tiffany and stomping it staying in control shutting down that’s huge so you can line everything up coming to the next feature oh yeah Aaron with a strong
Start there similar approach to what we saw from Estelle but actually airing onto the platform now she’s heading way way out to the rider right these kinds of things they’re not going to hurt fluidity as long as you’re moving towards something now Aaron Gathering a handful of speed through the powder
Working her way down into the tree section now let’s see what she has lined up there’s a bunch of different glies with uh feature options milking that snow getting the snow up enjoying the powder a little bit let’s see what she has here down at the
Bottom I I think that shows some some real Savvy there from Aaron so popping right off the nose of that one and you can see she’s directing herself to where there aren’t tracks for these for these Riders where the snow’s not that deep but if it’s not chopped up then you
Still have an opportunity to throw some spray and control your speed so Savvy riding from so savvy so wrapping up her run here as she finishes out strong showing for the Canadian Rider putting one down on Canadian soil for the Canadian I love to see it let’s see what
The judges think and if it will be enough to knock out that commanding score that Tiffany just put down yeah absolutely all right we can take a look back here I really liked Aaron’s approach to that first feature dropping off and then sending right off the nose
As we see the judging criteria control way up fluidity and the line yeah you may be right Estelle may have had a few more features stacked in there and some of them were really big but nonetheless a solid run and I really like this final
Hit from Aaron and it was such a clean run too no no issues no hands down um I’d love to see that staying in control in tough conditions is extremely challenging and that’s why they’re the best of the best that’s right soone at home love you
Rosland all right well shout out to the homies there back in Rosland was a nice quick commute for Aaron so to get up here to Golden as the score coming in 7167 so Aaron putting herself into second as you said Tom that line of Estelle rosolio standing up to a solid
Challenge from Aaron Estelle went hard on that one and she’s been rewarded for it but we are not done we still have a stack field to women up at the top absolutely but this could also just be the score that she needs after the verbi
Run so this is great to see for Aaron let’s see what comes up next year she’s in the mix for sure sitting sitting pretty in second as we’re going to head back up to our current rankings Champion Free Ride World Tour leader this is Nua
Castan Baron she uh she was on the tour then she was cut from the tour she went back to the Challenger she earned her way back on and then she won her first event Back In The Free Ride World Tour family so she’s fired up Nua has had
Quite a journey in her various trips to kicking horse the last time she was here she rode on a broken ankle this time she’s lost all her luggage so she’s riding on everybody else’s uh borrowed gear but the Free Ride world free Rod World Tour family coming through for Nua
And getting her all kitted out and ready to go awesome dropping in in out of start one again it seems to be a popular start gate for the field let’s see what she has lined up she’s been down this venue before but in a bit better conditions and higher snow pack
Beautifully working her way through oh unfortunately clipping a rock and carrying too much speed into it she’s up let’s see if she gives us the okay here she did go over some rocks shaking it off yeah right in the belly of that heelside turn that whole Edge was fully
Loaded and then clipped a rock it is quite Sharky in there and this is one of the tricky bits of this venue right now oh Nua just getting scrambled up into this Gully she’s just going to have to rock ride on out of there but she got through safely and clean and she’s
Continuing to ride that’s awesome to see she can still put down some features and some stuff to get her line score and her keep her score up awesome air coming into the powder she wants Redemption for that top top section so she’s getting it working those power turns let’s see what
She can get down here yeah as you said Tom a bit of redemption and sometimes you can salvage a score even with a fall because you don’t necessarily want to give up and put yourself just you know commit to being last Salvage a few points and Nur is doing exactly that she’s riding
Aggressively here getting another little double bonus and a feature through the gut of that shoot coming down into the wind lip awesome grab pumping it and working her way to the finished Corral keeping it on her feet I’m glad to see she’s okay after going through those rocks
And like you said Derek tough for her losing all her gear to come here you know as a rider that’s your biggest nightmare absolutely yeah you can see we’ll have a look back at the replay as she approaches this she gets herself into position and then oh she lost the
Edge as the ground rolled away from her and it sent her right into those rocks so high line score we’re seeing uh from the video judge that looked like it was a real uncomfortable fall yeah absolutely and I’m glad she didn’t roll or go and do go over the next Cliff band
And she got back onto her feet she kind of got sucked down low working the pow down the shoot though and finding this awesome nugget right off the side keeping it on her feet you know as you said you can salvage a run and that’s what she did uh and that’s professional
Riding you know that’s awesome smart riding the the mental side of that to get yourself when you’ve just been rattled completely at the top of your run to be able to put yourself kind of back into the into the mental state just continue to perform on the rest a run
Extremely difficult that’s why these athletes are Pros so the score there for Nua 3633 that’s a tough one for her but luckily she’s still sitting on a first from verbier so she’ll be able to shake that off as we head to Georgia for the next stop but not going to be nur’s day
Today as we see Estelle rosolio fend off the current ratings Champion so that’s a big one uh kind of out of the way for Estelle in her Quest and as we only have two Riders left at the top that means Estelle is going to be on the podium
Today will Aaron and Marissa well time will tell as we head back up to the top for our next Rider who’s going to be Anna Martinez Anna a former Free Ride Junior world champion and right now sitting in second overall in the Free Ride World Tour an incredible start for
The young shanard shanard French rookie and pretty Big Splash in her debut on the Free Ride World Tour yeah she absolutely killed it in verbi and she’s the next only other women going up to start two that we’ve seen in this category coming in dropping Goofy on that toe
Side working that Ridge getting the PO it’s nice when there’s still some fresh snow you’ve seen a rider go but you still have lots of options for landing and takeoff coming into this Cliff SE section and boosting it stomping it staying in controlled great start to the
Top of a run working the corners of these Cliff bands is awesome and stomping it again great run from Anna so far coming into this powder field keeping her speed keeping that energy up that’s what the judges love to see in this riding on this short venue keeping
The speed and the energy going coming into third one getting hung up but making it work and staying on her feet yeah frantic Pace here from Anna Martinez a lot of strong backside riding she’s been on the heels side kind of moving from Riders left to right across
And stacking the features up Ana Martina put more features in I think than we’ve seen from anybody else another little Ollie there as she comes down into this low powder so strong from The Young French Rider and really really good statement here for Anna Martinez as now she’s down into
This wind crush this is the part where we hold our breath and hope that they can just keep it together through the Finish Arch and you can see her board shaking through it but she’s through the Finish Cal with an amazing run will it challenge Tiffany peron’s commanding
Score of 78 I think it’s going to be a great result for her today all right well unbelievable run there from Anna Martinez Tom let’s take a look back at the replay look at that pow moving off the top it goes right over the side stomping that first cliff
On the Traverse track to strong legs from Anna and coming into this next feature and also stomping it her Slough going off the side great management uh you know I expect to see that from a lot of the European riders in the bigger terrain that they they ride on um and
Coming into the tree section with a great Pace too you know making quick work of that smaller uh section at the bottom I love that turn there where she had the air and then she had to quickly slash back on her heel side to avoid running into that wall you can actually
See the little shape of the Jay there in the line tracker as Anna Martinez extremely technical most of those airs at the top all on the heel side edge as you said a goofy foot Rider so she was working that heel side and not getting jangled not getting bounced just holding
On um she is a CrossFit professional so you can tell that’s working out the legs and core Rock Solid as we see the score is it going to challenge a still it goes up into the 80s and a Martinez with an 8167 and taking over the lead from her French compatriot incredible riding
There from Anna Martinez love to see it the two French taking one and two right now that was an incredible run great line Choice great Pace great energy and again that’s what the judg is going to be looking throughout the day yeah and I think the subtle difference there
Between her and Estelle Estelle did have that small mistake but it was on such a huge line the score still boosted up Anna just as technical just as difficult and Flawless top to bottom absolutely and no control issues is what’s going to keep you up into those top three so oh
Yeah and we are back this is the last rider for the snowboard women it is Anna orlova in 23 she was the runner up or sorry in 23 yeah runner up here at kicking horse in third last year so Anna’s got a deep deep deep bag of
Snowboard skills and now she’s going to want to lay this down she’s seen The Gauntlet thrown down by the French ladies and Aaron now holding on to third we will see if Anna or Loa can have a say in the podium situation here at kicking horse dropping in from start one
Like we’ve seen from the rest most of the category coming in looks like she’s going to be lining up a big air making sure she’s getting it dialed from the top there’s not a lot of landmarks on that so they really want to make sure they’re coming to the right
Section let’s see what she has lined up we she’s trying to avoid those sharks as we saw from n and stomping it finding that pow Landing oh but Bor just bumping out from under on the heel side there unfortunately that was a really creative take on that section yeah coming into
That little shoot drop into the right it’s a bit hidden there but staying on her feet great speed in control shutting it out into the PO field and the tree section working off this nub here stomping it again you know staying in controlled she might have had a bit of a
Butt check up top but she’s flawlessly working her way through this bottom section and keeping a great Pace too yeah reeling this back in and getting her mind back across cross cord into this Gully now this is kind of chattery Anna getting on the heel side edge just
To shed a little bit of speed and catching another OE there so Anna orlova that was a bit of a roller coaster of a run it had some really exciting Good parts and then that one tough control issue at the top but I love the way she approached the section that took Nua
Down a little bit different uh angle and it kept her on her feet all the abely and working her way through the fin Corral she’s through she did go in probably the steepest most technical section so let’s see what the judges think of that in the line score uh great
Riding from a Powerhouse Rider and Veteran on the tour all right Tom walk us through this replay as we see her in this technical section at the top keeping her speed controlled and finding that pow landing and it looks like a she went over a tree which actually bumped
Her board and knocked her off balance but great riding through that shooting era air beautiful shutout turn high energy look at all these Landings and getting a grab in there as well and stomping it so clean and in control you can see the judges bars there from the
Video judge the line absolutely maxing out and uh as we saw the the fluidity unfortunately a little bit down as she did basically come to a complete stop um Anna orlova now we’ve got we’ve got Anna the other Anna Martinez sitting in the dinar Hot Seat Anna orlova waiting for
Her I think with that little control issue we’re not going to see it challenge Martinez here for the top spot on the throne as we wait anxiously these moments as a rider Tom how difficult are they when you’re just standing there waiting for the score you’re thinking about your whole career right now
Horrifying so as somebody that’s been there many many times um tell us you’re you’re praying and hoping and you know you got down but let’s see what they give her you know and I will say one thing we always want to look for that top spot but it’s those middle pack results that
Can get you through the cut at the end of the day it’s those differences maybe between a fourth a fifth um that have a huge huge impact on your overall so consistent consistent riding throughout the season is huge um judge is weighing it up you can see there the there’s a
Bit of a gap between Marissa CAC and Aaron so in third and fourth and you know a lot of these numbers are really to do with the ranking or is it going to place above or below and as you said you know a mid pack result in in these
Events can really Elevate you over the cut line so Anna now kind of nervously waiting for that score to drop she knows she she kind of had both sides of the coin there she had some really really solid sections and then she had one serious control issue so it jumps up a
71 for Anna orlova so that slides her into fourth that’s going to be honestly I think a pretty happy result for Anna knowing that she went down and for this young lady it’s all starting to Dawn on her as the former Junior world champion is sitting on the top of the throne here
In snowboard women the category is wrapped up and Anna Martinez absolutely putting a stamp on it as we take a look at the event standing look at that incredible riding from all the women today on this tough tough crust underneath we saw some huge airs throughout the category too uh they
Really put the judges to work today big time yeah Tiffany Peron there and Nia castan Baron rounding things out neither of them having quite the day that they were looking for Anna Martinez with the 8167 incredible riding from her and so stoked to see her come back and here we
Have the three Podium finishers Estelle rosolio in second Aaron so with her first Podium on the Free Ride World Tour and Anna Martinez backing up that strong start to the season in verbi with a win here at kicking horse and that is your Podium all smiles and cheers for these
Women today incredible riding and let’s see how this shakes up the overall standings all right well let’s see Anna Martinez taken over the top spot she’s going to be in that Leaders biit Moving Forward aelle rosolio now sitting in second Nua castone down to third but
Still above the cut and Aaron so just as you suspected Tom with a strong result jumping up to the good side of the cut here so a big shake up in the snow board women standings here after the kicking horse results come in and look at how
Tight the scores are between the second and third right now you know Anna Martinez with a good commanding lead but second and third are still up for grabs very much s coming in very much coming into the next competition and especially for Tiffany and Marissa all right well incredible riding
There from the snowboard women here on the T1 South face at kicking horse we are going to be right back with the kicking horse golden Beast c pro after this short Break Welcome back Free Ride friends if you’re just joining us this is the Free Ride World Tour by Peak Performance it is the kicking horse Golden BC Pro I’m Derek fous I’m joined in the booth by my good friend Tom Pier we’re bringing you all the action live here from kicking horse
Mountain resort and we are just about ready to kick things off with the snowboard men we just saw fireworks from the snowboard women a solid solid go here is where we’re sitting in the overall situation Victor dearo taking the big win in verba another verba title uh under his belt Holden Samuels and
Timmy schroer two Young Guns really making a stamp on things and then as we move down John pow sitting in exactly where he likes to be just under the radar a little bit and then moving on down we had a few Riders who didn’t quite have their way in verb Michael M
Liam Rivera who had the win here last year Hugo sah and Cody Bramwell I have a feeling we’re going to see Cody coming back firing today as he is one of the strongest Riders on this tour absolutely there’s a lot on the line today coming into the second competition of the Year
Here in kicking horse uh the men that did not make the had a bad run in verbi are going to be working hard today uh starting off today we have Gabrielle baton and followed by the American Brian stenerson the overall current leader Victor delaro is going to to watch two
Very skilled Riders work their way down before he gets to drop and then Cody who’s going to be hunting for a result is going to get a watch some watch these guys see what they can do uh the Americans today I think are going to have a huge Advantage who have come
Through the qualifying series here where traditionally we compete on quite a bit harder firmer snow uh so it’s going to be anyone’s game here today uh Tim schroer and Ludovic guya diad are going to be closing out the day two incredibly skilled Riders so it’s going to be an
Action-packed afternoon all right well let’s take a look at what you thought 50 82% of you thinking Victor De laoo is going to be the man here Peak Performance fun bet fan favorites 55% betting on Cody Bramwell and Leah Rivera looking for a big result here 45% of you
Feeling that he is going to be on the podium these percentages are how many of you think that these Riders are going to be standing on the podium at the end of the day here in kicking horse so PE performance fun bet get on it it’s a
Blast the it’s a fantasy Free Ride you can vote for your favorite Riders we see John pow just focusing up there at the top as he is uh I mean one of the most solid Riders on the tour understated as always but as soon as he kicks out of
The Stargate always exciting to watch you know one of the things I think it is is best about this Tom and you’ve lived it the camaraderie up at the Stargate is just so incredible it really is a family absolutely and you know everyone’s under the same pressure and nerves uh and
Everybody’s there for each other you know nobody’s nobody’s going to be uh closed off to anyone everybody’s focused uh staying in their own head space but uh it’s all one free ride family and if you know you’re feeling unsure about something uh they are you can just ask
One of your buddies uh they we’re all there to help each other uh we’re all there to compete and win but uh it’s a great great group of individuals on tour this year yeah so you know maybe give us a little bit of insight into that sort of start gate topof the- Mountain
Mindset cuz everybody’s got really really different um processes that they go through to get themselves ready some people can’t stop talking some people are cracking jokes others are off to the side by themselves yeah no it’s and you know it’s how you handle your nerves and how you can get yourself into that
Mental state before the Stargate and before the drop you know there’s a lot of distractions up there um I like to chat a bit stay a little a little bit relaxed you’ll see a lot of that with some of the Riders you know as we saw Cody and Michael standing there um
Probably having a good conversation keeping it relaxed but then as you move into that Stargate as you get put into that hot seat on Deck when they call your name it’s all focused it’s nothing but respect for the Riders you’re going to be going up to battle and trying to
Put it down uh so I’m super excited to see what gets thrown down here today um as I said the margins are thin this year with three competitions before the cut today could mean everything for some of these men in the Stargate all right so we are 30 seconds
Out from our first rider in the snowboard men’s category kicking things off today is going to be Gabrielle baton French Rider he uh he had a banging run going in verbi before he crashed and one of the coolest things I think about gab you know he he he came back from injury
He built himself back up but Anna called him half man half metal and uh he is sitting in in eighth place right now overall on the qualifier series for skiing that is insane yeah this man is a multi-talented Rider 37 years old he’s got a baby on the way such an exciting
Season for Gabon and he is now on course snowboard men underway here at kicking horse Gabrielle dropping out of start two opening it up for the snowboard men working that Ridge in that fresh snow and getting caught by a rock or crust going down let’s see it’s right at the
Top he can still absolutely salvages run coming off a huge cliff and going right bottom to that crust but holding on yeah how hard he hit with the back flip gab Landing almost dead sideways there on his heel side edge still tossing it though just going full send here for the
French Rider slashing the powder now that’s a tough start for Gabon and down again unfortunately you can see this is where anything that’s too high impact you’re going to find that super hard crust and come coming out through the PO enjoying a bit of it staying on his feet staying safe getting
To the Finish crowd mocking through unfortunately not the run that Gabrielle would have wanted today but it’s going to give a good read for the rest of the riders in the Stargate of how they’re going to have to adjust their lines big time yeah Gabon going all in on that Tom
As we look back to this first feature a huge air off the top just sending it and you can see right there the crush just absolutely takes your legs out I don’t I don’t care how strong you are and huge back flip to follow it up but again uh
Can’t quite hold on and you know that’s one of the things as we’ve mentioned you want to just keep sending it but eventually you’re just going to have to take yourself out of that uh go go go mindset and just get safe get down um
And as you see that here working that PO enjoying it huge turn yeah riding to the conditions is going to be the name of the game today Gabrielle Bon biting off a bit more than he could chew with that line and Tomy nailed it that that the
Read that the other Riders are going to get on that so 2733 for Gaton obviously huge control issues a couple of times I wonder how rattled he got when he was riding down the Ridge and started his run unfortunately by going straight over the front of his board and that’s such a
Big mental shake you know right then and there you just know that it’s not going to be the run that you want um and it just removes you a little bit from that head space you need to be in to stay completely focused and you know dropping
First is so challenging you know they set the are for the rest of the category on score so it’s a ton of pressure especially in the tricky conditions all right back up to the top we go with Brian stanerson Brian earning his way onto the tour through the challengers
Last year he wants to give a big shout out to rocker and Grizz his two pups as well his girlfriend and his sister traveling here with him to join him they were giving him a little bit of crap after verbier for shouting out to his
Dog and not to them so big shout outs to the stenard family as he is on course now out of start one ripping out of the start gate start one one coming down that bench lots of options here to get creative for the snowboard man for Brian
Working his way down to this top Cliff band avoiding the Sharks and staying on his feet stomping shutting it down over this Cliff band let’s see what he can line up getting a little caught up on speed popping and finding an awesome transition and bolts look at how strong
Those legs are off the nose and stomping again staying in controlled and he saw what that crust did and he said no thank you I’m going to be in charge today an absolute clinic in board control here from Brian stenerson as he makes his way over to this Rider right Gully getting a
Little Tangled in the tree but not going down in another air as he keeps it in the fall line you can see there’s only one track in this section heelside quick feet there for Brian stenerson as he comes down now into this wind press section lining up the bottom wind lip
Popping 180 and he’s riding switch I think he was looking for the nose butter there or just trying to keep going it’s actually kind of unusual with the temperatures being as cold as they are the snow especially in the shade has gotten really sticky yeah absolutely and
You saw that there you saw his board starting to get shaken but he made it through excellent control and such solid riding from Brian taking it to bolts all right Tom through this so strong at the top he didn’t even move you know that just stomped it lined up that transition
And awesome and staying in control through that crust through that chew up section you got got a little hug up on a tree but he managed to keep his balance and just staying in the air keeping that energy High popping off whatever he could find down there and a nice onebody
See look at that board Shake through that tough snow just keeping it super fall line from start one after that little bank and the judges love to see that yeah that was a strong run from stenny there as he now waits for the score he’s looking at the monitor looking at
Us shouting out to the sponsors let’s see what he get score coming in for Brian sters High 7667 so sters going to take over the hot seat from Gaton as he’s really put down a solid performance here on the uh on the T1 South face rightfully taking that hot seat yeah
That was great really really strong run and uh as we kind of said at the beginning of the show some of the North American Riders as well as the scandies and the kiwis are going to be solid on this face on these conditions as we’re heading back you know incredible run
There for Stenner yeah as you know coming right out of the qualifiers he still has this hard conditioned mindset right into his riding and he handled it beautifully so you know two very different runs to start off the category let’s see what the other men are going
To think well they’re going to learn a ton from that and uh you know really really solid like good line Choice lining up things without a ton of impact give a shot sure as as we move back up to the top this man leading the rankings
We got a chance to catch up with Victor my goal for this season is to try to find on each competition features that is inspiring me like looking at the face and yet to just write something that I would be stoked right all right well Victor as always looking for the
Inspiration from the mountain he’s wearing that fire bib that indicates that he is the overall rankings leader on the Free Ride World Tour taking a huge win in verbi to start the season off Victor was out last year with injury got the injury Wild Card back onto the
Tour and I’m pretty sure when that press release went out the rest of the riders in the snowboard men’s field shaking in their boots off out of St two right off the top super super technical exposed air and keeping it in control coming in off this shelf let’s see what he has
Lined up and ex incredible double oh my gosh gapping the Shelf Victor has a tendency to start his run with a bang and he has done that once again a huge move Victor going right away for the backside 360 and solid an incredible first half of the run here for Victor De
Let’s see what he can cook up down in this tree section where there’s a lot of hidden trees and Nubs to work through but he can be super creative coming in keeping the Pace High let’s see off this bottom little low angle cliff and popping staying on his feet working his
Way out incredible riding from Victor can you hold on through this wind buff section no wind lip air just wants to get through after that insane run well smart finish there from Victor you can’t win the comp at the bottom but you can definitely lose it at the bottom on that
Wind lip and Victor De Lao with a stamp on the T1 South face just classic day R run you know we’re going to see here on the replay this top section Tom look at that double and landing in right off the amount of control that you have to have
On that first landing to come off avoid rocks and stay in control huge backside three to follow it up keeping that energy and style score high the judges love to see a mix of both especially in this venue where you can be Technical and creative and there’s also great lips
And Victor utilizing every part of this venue today yeah and just showing that Savvy that he’s got in the lower tree maze keeping it pretty fall line not letting himself get caught up in the crust or the trees or anything if you keep your PO your board pointed down
You’re not going to get caught on anything and then just deal with the speed down on the apron Victor showing the veteran Savvy that he’s got across all across all venues as the score ramping up 8833 for Victor De backing up the beginning of the Season performance with
Another huge one as Brian stanerson stint in the hot seat coming to an end and Victor going to be taking his throne as the king of snowboard men absolutely and that was an in incredible run up top you know we didn’t get to see the replay of that entrance but it super exposed
Cliff right off the top like what he did in verbi right out of the start gate keeping the energy High we’re going back up to the start gate and we see Cody Bramwell here a couple years ago we had Cody in a three-way battle for the overall title with Victor dearo and um
Beo Blake Mohler The three of them just going back and forth blow for blow as Cody Bramwell the British Rider he’s back on tour after injury so exciting as he pushes out of the gate to start things off and I’m always excited to see what he has lined up because he’s so
Creative and has such a good trick bag uh coming in this bench section where we saw Brian come in earlier keeping it clean through the Rocks staying in controlled as he comes into this next Big Cliff band going through that Cliff shoot shutting it out staying on his feet keeping it simple
For him is going to be huge today after his finishing verbi working his way through that PO just enjoying a little bit this is where you can kind of reset after that intense top section huge back flip off that lip and staying on his feet through the shoot shutting down
Staying in control popping again working the bottom of that section Cody putting on a clinic through the bottom half of this venue keeping the energy and the pace so high I love to see that that’s classic Cody riding through the Finish Corral that’s exactly what he needed today just something on his feet
Something consistent and reliable Full Throttle Cody Bramwell that is exactly what we have come to expect from this man and he is going to be hyped up on that high five there with Victor as the two of them kind of just sharing their experience and Cody Bramwell blowing us
Away with that massive crosscourt back flip you can we’ll see here on the in on the replay Tomas he made his way through the shoot and then he just hit the gas yeah absolutely and staying in control shutting it down and finding up the trajectory for that lip getting the
Speed huge backy to just perfect landing and shutting down through the bottom of that shoot making quick work of it not getting loss in his Slough great show of riding from Cody through this today will that top section be enough to challenge Victor he kept it safe through that
Shoot but it was an excellent super super fluid line yeah you could see on the bars the line score was a little bit lower than what we saw from Victor with that incredible start we’ll see if we can uh catch some of their thoughts here oh my God you can see how intense
This short venue can still be for these guys Cody out of breath but what you get score 88 oh my God good well Victor looking very comfortable in a seat that he has become used to sitting in the dear hot seat there he’s got his board up top we’re
Going to be drunk in in a few we’re going to be drink in one hour there is going to be a good party for these boys love that all right well Cody Bramwell the score coming in it’s going up it’s into 71 67 so sliding in just behind
Brian stanerson and a couple spots behind Victor dearoo so that’s going to be a solid result Cody just needed something good to get himself back onto the uphill side of the cut and I think he did exactly what he needed to do yeah absolutely and moving into Georgia you
Know having a good result under your belt or something or a run that you’ve landed and completed is huge for your mental game as a rider in this season for sure confidence is everything on the Free Ride World Tour as we see back up the beautiful Stargate at the top of
Kicking horse We’ve Got Big Mike Michael M Michael having uh again a bit of a tumble in the first event right now sitting in 10th overall he’s another one going to be looking for a strong result I have a feeling for Michael that this venue and the conditions could really
Really fit nicely with his skill set he is so technically proficient in challenging snow conditions and that’s something I’ve witnessed in person so I’m so so excited to see what he has coming into the top section making quick work of those sharks and a nice three
Off the top over the bench shutting it down staying in control popping again unfortunately a bit of a wash but not nothing too major let’s see how he comes into this bottom lip another three stomping it boom for Michael M the long and lows coming through now he’s got to
Get through this lower Gully section completely pinned the board handling skills of Michael M coming through in Spades here as he is absolutely flying into the bottom section Michael M showing us what he can do in tough snow excellent line three right off the top backside over that shelf is so exposed
If something goes wrong yeah aggressive take from Michael M and he knew he had to do something you know going down in verbi he’s sitting lower in the rankings than he’d like to you guys are too kind you know Michael one of the kindest guys on tour so humble awesome look at that
Just didn’t even move just stomped and right off another air staying in keeping his speed up judges love to see that link of features again right into a PO Landing the the judges the the bar looking high and look at how fall line that run is just right down the middle
Of the venue oh that was so exciting for michaelm so strong line at the top the boldness of that 360 at the very very beginning off the shelf just popping off that edge and the judges have had their say score coming in 8133 just behind Victor De and Michael M putting himself
Into second and he is stoked that that is a great show of riding even with that little shutdown control issue he salvaged it and kept it fast high energy High paced lots of Tricks uh Michaels again such an incredible Rider in these conditions all right well incredible shot show so far
From the snowboard men these guys are just having their way with the T1 face as we had a chance to catch up with Holden Samuels after his strong performance in verbi yeah so it’s my second year on tour um I did have a really good start uh getting second
Place and that gave me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the year really trying to get another solid run down in kicking horse so I can guarantee a spot in the finals definitely trying to have as much fun I can on tour take advantage of the really
Cool place and people we get to meet um I’m also trying to win this year so well two years in a row for this Rider starting off the very first event with a huge result he was second in uh in verbi and now he’s going to be looking to back
That up the Boseman Rider him and Michael M really good travel buddies as well as Warren Doyle the three of these guys all living in the same Zone and Holden Samuels on course right now to try to back it up coming out of start one again uh there’s lots of option this
One so I’m not surprised that the Riders are taking this one they can also get fall on right away let’s see what he has lined up huge back flip off the top oh my gosh unable to hold on Holden Samuel is going absolutely ham out of the gate
With a massive back flip and another one not quite able to get the rotation Holden sending it off the top going for broke for everything and you know sometimes that strategy works sometimes it doesn’t but huge move and just keeping it in control now two crashes pretty sizable he just
Wants to get down uh you know this is where you say I’m going to shut it down get down safe um I’m glad he’s up and moving after two big crashes on this firmer snow underneath but massive back flip off the top keeping the energy high
And that just shows you what Holden is capable of doing and what he’s looking to do um this this is really an insight into mindset too because Holden Samuels already sitting on a great in his mind he’s like all right I can go for it here because I don’t need to
Worry about it whereas both Cody and Michael below the cut coming into this event they needed something solid so Holden going absolutely ham gunning for uh basically the win or that and not working out for him I think with the conditions but let’s take a look back
Tom this was unbelievable boom huge set and just laying it out and yeah you can just see there it’s that crust underneath that just comes up so fast even with that fresh snow and trying to go for it again here I think he got a little uh his pop got a little delayed
From the Fresh snow in that fresh takeoff working his way down you know second year on tour 2 is also a challenging spot to be in you’ve you proved yourself now you want to stay on yeah well Holden Samuels is going to still be holding on to that great result
He had from verbi this one is not going to be a Podium result for Holden but he certainly showed us what he’s got in the bag there Holden Samuel score coming in at a 22 that’s going to be good enough for sixth so far as Holden going to just
I think do a bit of a systems check hopefully he’s feeling all right after a couple of heavy slams yeah and you know his you know his good buddy Michael M runs the uh it’s a really good advocator for the head and the concussion program
Here on the world tour uh so I’m sure he’s going to take a breather sit down and be okay hopefully he did finish the run on his feet so here’s where we’re sitting Victor dearo in first Michael M in second Brian stenerson sitting in third spot another Boseman Rider so the
Three best buddies going back to back to back the next one in the crew Warren Doyle he had a solid run in verb we’re going to see him now kick things off this guy has the whole package he’s got all the tricks and unbelievable board skills Warren Doyle SL couple slashes to
Get things started coming out of start two working that Ridge coming into that same a we saw Gabriel hit huge air and Stomps it staying in control you can see him holding on working that power and popping keeping that energy high off of anything he can find afterwards coming
Into that lower tree section mocking and again finding another nub to pop off that’s huge for the whole line score breaking through his spray and his Slough so pinned here for Doyle as he is top to bottom one of the fastest runs that we’ve seen finding every little
Feature and he really found the angle that Gabon missed on that top Air finding a bit of transition getting a quick method there shout out to shout out to Method free ride as uh as Warren Doyle riding that crew and he is pumped big hugs for his roommate Michael M
Travel buddies and uh you know Partners in in the world tour here that was a great run there from Doyle yeah and you know what on this shorter face that speed the judges really recognize just keeping everything linked finding that angle and sending it just getting the
Grab and holding on you saw him come back but staying in control overall and finding all these extra side rollers and lips to pop off try got the tree tap there he might have been trying to go over it but you know great bonus points gets the method there holds on great run
Tom you spoke earlier that you thought the long and low airs were going to be the key on this face today with the conditions with that firm snow underneath and uh we saw Warren just sticking exactly to that blueprint working out for him for sure that run
Top to bottom absolutely pinned with a massive Air at the top so again the line score as we hear him and Victor just kind of trading stories we held on it was better than I thought to be honest sweet that’s awesome to hear better than he thought you know he did
Take a high impact air off the top and so far it’s a 50/50 crash land rate so that’s going to be again a challenging thing for the rest of the guys up in the start gate yeah and I think that was a testament to him doing his homework that
Angle that he took he did find a little bit of a roll over to land on that gableton definitely didn’t have and uh and for him to be able to stomp that was incredible now the judges having to get to work as they’re putting their scores
In trying to match up what the Riders did to those five criteria and the numbers coming in here for Doyle 7967 so putting himself right in the mix with that a solid effort from the American Rider out of Boseman really really strong statement and another one who was looking for something good and
He has delivered it absolutely and going straight to the friends all the fans supporting uh you know we’re all friends down at the Finish Corral Victor giving him mad props for that run it’s great to see all right well no breaks here at the kicking horse Golden BC Pro young Swiss
Rider Liam Rivera he has been it feels to me like he has been in Free Ride forever first got to meet him way back in 2016 at the junior world championship and he’s been in the mix ever since Liam Rivera riding out of verbi and he is on
Course here at kicking horse out of start one lots of different start options for these men today let’s see what you can line up after that huge back flip from Holden coming in taking his time to set it up and get it just right in these tricky conditions huge three and holding on
Shutting down that was so technical spinning off the heel Edge over that exposure Liam Rivera getting things started with a bang here in the snowboard men’s category he’s got a nice diving board lined up underneath him as he sets to switch the backside one 80 Liam just bringing all the technical
Tricks here loving to see all the tricks getting thrown in and popping off that nose in the tree section Right Above It keeping the pace up working his way through let’s see if he can get another feature here and wrap up that line score awesome riding from Le holding on
Through these trees coming out flying into this wind buff section again this is where runs are loss into the wind lip stopping it with the extra credit and coming into the finish Corral tons of Tricks tons of grabs the judges are going to love that um looking at the
Pace that we just saw from uh Warren you know we did see a little bit of a fluidity hold back from Li on some of those setting them up but there’s a trade-off to getting your tricks right and getting them landed yeah let’s take a look back at this first one Tom
Stomping it holding on in through that chop that we’re starting to see the venues getting ridden out now 180 to 180 super clean you can see that crust getting him to wheelie holding on but still in control finding that pow making clean work of the bottom section you
Know as this stuff gets ridden out there’s going to be a lot of little trees and he just navigated that beautifully yeah Liam with a completely different take on this competition face going into an area that we haven’t seen a lot of traffic but making very very good work
Well Liam and Victor just catching up there Liam waiting for the score Victor sitting very comfortably in the dinar Hot Seat as he has seen a couple of big Challengers bend it off with that huge score that he laid down early in the snowboard uh men’s field but a really
Really strong run there from Liam Rivera and we’re going to see where these points end up you know I’m starting to see a second third fourth fifth are all starting to stack up pretty tight with points and scores so you know we’re going to see how the rest of category
Shakes up but we’ll see where Liam ends up sitting after that run huge huge run with tons of tricks and grabs um keeping that energy and style score high well anxious moments for Rivera as the score coming in with a 78 so Liam moving himself into fourth place you can
See his reaction he’s like wow what’s it going to take yeah yeah it’s going to be you know it’s an interesting day it’s those you know B three or four or five medium to smaller features or three big features um and staying in control and it’s just it really depends on the Rider
Style where they’re at and the overall it’s all these little things they have to account for and see how they can put it down on this day real Bunch up there between second and fifth right now in the snowboard men’s category we head back up to the start gate where we are
Looking at Hugo Sarah Hugo French Rider living in verbi running the Free Ride team there this guy is he he is truly the epitome of giving back he’s always friendly he’s he’ll take people riding he’s he’s kind of a favorite among among the youth and the younger Riders he’s
Just sort of takes everyone under his wing and I was so stoked after he got cut a couple years ago to see him earn his way back through the Challenger Series and see Hugo sah back on the Free Ride World Tour and the amount of skill and consistency that that takes is
Massive coming out of start one Hugo coming out with some speed you know he’s quite a tall individual too and that that can make riding and Free Ride challenging working his way through that bench making quick work the top section coming into a cliff band we haven’t seen
A lot of other Riders go into making the first tracks yeah Fresh Tracks for Hugo dropping in and now he’s lining up right off the nose of the butcher a perfect connection with the ground Hugo Sarah with a strong statement at the start of his run coming through that section into
This nose awesome front side three holding on shutting down the crust isn’t going to get the better of him today working his way into the top of this tree section navigating through it looking for his landmarks you know all these lips and knobs are going to start looking the same eventually so you
Really got to do your homework coming into this bottom nose fall line with the back three and connecting again Hugo sah now pinned out so bringing the freestyle onto the kicking horse T1 South face Hugo sah was another Rider who went down on a hot run in verbi and now really showing exactly
What he’s made of as he gets a big hug from Victor De La coming flying across Victor still holding that fire bit but a really really good run for Hugo this is going to be a run that might shake it up here and it’s going to it was a super
Solid run and I love the creativity up top we had seen anyone go there finding it off that top n setting up with the crust and the conditions getting it perfectly dialed and just going to bolts didn’t even move made such easy work of that feature great great job keeping
That energy and trick with the three coming in again keeping the Pace High yeah airon style and technique maxing there for uh for Hugo a a slight ding on on fluidity as he kind of lined it up but we could see Victor dearo loving it he’s in a comfortable spot and just
Watching your friend shred is one of the best parts about all of this oh yeah absolutely you know seeing what they’re all capable of knowing how well they can ride and just getting to see them throw it down on a good day is probably one of the best feelings to Landing your own
Run so let’s see what Hugo can pull off here will it be enough to put him into a top well I love hearing these guys just catching up Victor or yeah Victor always stoked for the rest of the crew when they lay one down it’s easy to be stoked
For your friends when you’re sitting in the hoty too it’s a pretty comfortable spot so the judge is getting to work again the snowboard men consistent across the board as we see right now the situation Michael M still holding on to Second Doyle in third we saw Liam Rivera
Slide himself into fourth so it’s really stacked up there in the point and and second to fifth is tight right now you know it that’s only going to get tighter throughout the day and so let’s see where uh Hugo can slot in there yeah I
Think he’s going to be right in the mix with the rest of those boys as the score dropping now moving on up a 79 so Hugo into fourth right now so strong strong showing for Hugo sah the French Rider out of verier high fives for Victor as
He is going to move off and another strong Contender fended off by the man leading the rankings holding on to that fire bib as we head straight back up the pace absolutely frantic here the kicking horse Golden BC Pro we are underway with the snowboard men’s category you can see
Tracks starting to form there’s some runnels from the slough pouring off the cliffs as the Riders riding above some of these features as we’re moving on in to the man who is the most understated but one of the most solid Riders on the Free Ride World Tour John pow Jonathan
Penfield living in Squam is still riding under that American flag we’ve seen him win multiple stops on the Free Ride World Tour over the years he’s so solid on his board as John pow gets things started no surprise here coming out of start two for John Penfield loving that
Pal on the top of the ridge coming into this Cliff shoulder keeping it clean lining it up as if nothing just happened there but stomping that air and huge backside three to bolts classic Jonathan Penfield style so quiet so understated but just such a shredder as he works his
Way into this top tree section making quick work of the top of that venue coming in finding this rock knob setting it up into the shoot trying to work off the side of these uh these little runns at the bottom of the venue is super fun for snowboarders again
Maxing out that energy and air style getting the grab extra bonus points in the bottom coming through super clean run from Jonathan Penfield in classic style yeah another solid solid run never never put a hair out of place Jonathan Penfield across the line we see him you
Know across the spectrum of the venues the steeper and gnarlier it gets the better you see John Penfield perform um but again he’s just so solid top to bottom never put a foot out of place finding some creative features as look yeah that top up finding that transition in the PO
Landing there and huge backside three to bolts you know he’s an excellent Rider in these conditions he’s no stranger to riding hard hard tough conditions and he’s always always excelling in it let’s see if the bottom line score will be enough to challenge the top of the field
That we’ve seen today after some great riding and big tricks through the bottom section though yeah he had a strong top and It’s tricky in that bottom tree to line up there’s almost like a a gluttony of options where there’s too many choices to you end
Up Goods here and there all right good turns here and there for John pal score coming into 69 so John Penfield into eighth there as he is kind of reacting to the score maybe not quite what he was hoping for judge sport is always tough
You you you do your bit and then the judges have to do their part yeah and you know it’s also challenging you know at a certain point in the start gate you stop focusing on other Riders and start focusing on yourself um and if you miss
What other guys are doing and see those little pieces of information that you could gain it’s you know it’s to no fault of any Z but not the score that I think Jonathan wanted to walk away from you could see it on his face but still a consistent result on his feet still
Means a lot in a small season for like this for sure back up to the top Timmy schroer riding out of inbrook he’s a staple in the inbrook Free Ride scene this man another one who’s coming back from injury he’s got a ton of metal in
His body but it didn’t look to slow him down at all as he finished on the podium in his very first Free Ride World Tour event and he is now on course here at kicking horse out of start to again the top of the venue working his way down
The ridge as we just saw from JP going all the way off to that nub looks like he’s going to be taking quite a different line we have seen huge three and stomping it milking that fresh line in the PO the judges are going to love to see that super creative high speed
There for Timmy Schroeder as he’s taking a completely different approach to the rest of the Riders and another untapped feature Tim schroer fighting for balance there he has got it solid on his board and he’s just getting a fresh power run here too he doesn’t have to worry about
Any tracks now he’s navigating this tree maze on the bottom right of the venue this is where it’s going to get really tricky for Riders let’s see how he handles it huge P slash just loving it I love to see that getting the extra air and the bonus points at the bottom
Finding his way through the look at that footwork through the trees down through the wind buff section creative fresh new line the judges love watching something new yeah you can clearly see there uh the as he hit the line where the wind has had an effect on the snow the board
Bouncing around but not causing him any grief as Timmy Schroeder across the line definitely oh looks like he caught a tree there on his pants as the a little bit of a new vent there on his pants that’s tough on a Min minus 20 day at kicking horse oh wow right through into
The base layer I’m hope he’s okay here but he’s walking fine all smiles yeah we didn’t even pick that up somewhere along the way a tree reached out and wanted a piece of Timmy schroer pants well that’s what you get when your greatness after that run in verier and
That awesome creative line that we just saw and stomping that three like it was nothing you know the when you’re going to do a trick you have to do it perfectly that’s kind of the rule here is they don’t want any mistakes if you’re going to max out of future and
Holding it there through the crust so one thing that I’m curious about this line Timmy really saw it at the top but this Gully down below didn’t offer a lot of options for features for him to really kind of send it and and cap the runoff with a with an exclamation point
Victor absolutely loving it there you can see on the line tracker that lower section in the Gully there’s not a lot of meat on that bone so it’ll be interesting to see what the L what the judges do with the line score there for Timmy oh yeah that’s a good cut to the
Leg through the base layer so Expos skin out here at kicking horse that’s going to beilly for Timmy schroer but let’s see what the judg has thought of that new fresh creative line you know you can’t understate those especially on a day like today on these smaller venues
That are a little more compact it can be quite huge for the line score and that’s the king score that they’re going to base everything off of at the end of the day still excited see you out in Georgia well I just just love the energy
Of the Riders when they’re in the Finish Line the the the job’s done and they are just kind of it’s the equal parts relief and Stoke going to strip naked later but have to do it now instead all right score coming in for schroer an 8.67 the judges loving what they saw
From Timmy schroer like you said Tom that creative approach and that huge crosscore 360 at the top getting the judges fired up absolutely and you know when you do a brand new line there’s no standard set from previous lines or features right as the other Riders hit
That you know if you’re going to make an air on a cliff that was already stomped it’s going to really hurt you but Timmy finding a new line back up to the top here closing it off with Ludovic guo di well Ludo guat he is the reigning Free
Ride World Tour Champion he had uh he had a solid run in verba but then everyone else just went full Dynamite mode and kind of pushed him down a bit he ended up eighth so Ludo I feel like his both board handling skills and strength are going to lend themselves
Well to both the snow conditions and the venue that we’re riding on here today at kicking horse as The champ is on the face the last man in the snowboard men’s field dropping in regular out of start one coming down that bench slashing the pow getting the energy up lining up this
Top section and the feature that he’s going to choose to open up his run with awesome double stomping it staying in controlled shutting down finding that Corner again staying in control yeah really stacking it up there three features right off the bat for lud getting the grab a little more Riders
Left than we saw other people land and that gave him the opportunity to land in fresh snow which at this point in the game is huge and lud goet now just pounding his way down the central coar of this T1 face let’s see what he has
Lined up here a huge back flip stomping it and a little bit of a catch but it didn’t look like he went down and just pinning it out of the bottom getting out of the venue he says I’m done with you almost going down in the dream killer
Section there over that roller and he’s through safe Ludo high energy bang bang bang Feature Feature Feature off the top the judges love to see that all hugs for the French at the bottom Victor congratulating Ludo that is a wrap for the snowboard men let’s see how he can
Round out the day yeah let’s take a look back Tom this top section of the venue or this is the bottom section with this back flip I thought he was going to be over rotated but he managed maybe a bit of a butt check there yeah yeah a bit of
An over rotate to a butt check but holding on to the bottom let’s see how that rounds out it might not be the score he want with so many clean runs today you know control issues speak a lot when there’s only a handful throughout the category and the rest of
Riders did do a very clean job but that’s the name of the game when it’s so tight all of those little defining factors are going to really come into play so lud G he had I loved it at top he stacked up so many features back to
Back to back to back really getting that therometer up and then back flipping off that lower one just setting it a little bit too hard over rotated slightly was able to bounce back up for in the initial show of it he was kind of disappeared in the powder cloud and we
Were like oh yeah it was clean and then the replay uh well shows more yeah it it shows you everything and look at how tight the scores are coming in from the top of that pack from second all the way down to sixth place you know only
Separated by a point that’s nothing that that’s a huge show of riding so Ludo with a 6633 that’s going to put him into 10th so a bit of a disappointing day for Ludo guoda the champ not having the greatest start to the season so far but
I have a feeling we get onto a big face in Georgia and we’ll see Ludo come back firing so officially now as official as it can get from anything you hear from us Victor De Lao with another win two first place under his belt with two events in the bag that is incredibly
Dominant from this just a classic Showcase of Victor delaro riding today and in verbi the consistency consistency that he has at that level um on all these different venues too you know that’s what it takes to be a world champion you have to Showcase great riding on a different set of venues and
Victor doing a great job that is your snowboard men’s Podium as we see it Michael M Victor delaro and Tim Schroeder all right well here we go this is what we’re seeing right now in the overall fwt rankings Victor holding on with a strangle hold now almost 8,000
Points ahead of second place Timmy schroer the rookie now sitting in second overall huge Michael M Jumping Up From Below the cut to into third so incredible show for those boys doing exactly what they needed to do yeah and unfortunately Ludovic and Cody not getting the scores they wanted today
It’s going to come down to the line in georia for them yeah all smiles showcase The Bling The Watch great riding gentlemen three runs in the 80s here from these three guys Michael and Timmy schroer really doing what they needed to do but neither of them quite
Able to knock Victor De after off the top and look at the overall standings how it’s shaking up Michael M scooting into second place overall this is actually the event standing so Victor Michael and Timmy that is your Podium incredible riding from them Warren Doyle moving himself
Way up as well Hugo sah all these guys really strong performances as you said Tom the points stacked all so close together we’re going to go down to the finish line and catch up with the man himself Victor dearo laying it down once again here on the T1 South
Face Victor dearo backing things up incredible riding there huge congratulations tell us about the top section of that run that was so Technical and so solid up there can hear oh we got a little communication issue here with Victor all right we got him now Victor run us through the top
Section of your run so technical so solid in there in a line that nobody else even saw uh yeah so I know I knew the snow condition were going to be super tricky like super light snow and super hard bottom and uh I just still wanted to do
Something that uh where I was attracted and the only thing that I really wanted to ride was this top section I really was not sure if he would work on or not and that’s where the good snow was at the very very top so I just followed my instinct and forgot about the
Competition tried to at least and uh and it worked so I’m Stu well huge congratulations Victor dearoo with two wins in two starts unbelievable run and unbelievable statement from Victor dearoo he’s here to play great riding Victor love to see it all right the the kicking horse
Golden BC Pro we’ll be right back after this short Break Welcome back to the Free Ride World Tour by Peak Performance this is stop number two the kicking horse Golden BC Pro I’m Derek fous I’m joined today in the booth by Tom pyer free ride World Tour standout Rider over the years and today Free Ride World Tour co- commentator you
Know it’s good to be on this side of it and watch some incredible riding so far ESP especially in these uh tricky conditions for them to navigate but awesome riding from the snowboard categories today some bigger airs than I expected too to very clean Landings lots of diverse riding and unique Styles
Today so I’m super excited to see what the skiers are going to put down because you know just because the conditions work out a bit better for snowboarders doesn’t mean that it’ll go for the ski as well all right let’s take a look at where we’re sitting in the overall
Standing Zanna vck holding it down with that dominant performance in verb man lski the Young young rookie sitting in second with a huge run in the first event Molly armanino head viic vessel with the Slow Burn she’s just you know always looking at the big picture and
Then we’ve got a bunch of Young Riders that are absolutely solid so strong Astra chud Lily Bradley coming back from injury Addy Radford always looking for something different looking for a totally different take on the face young Lydia Nelson we saw her with a great
Start early on in this in her run in the first comp and then unfortunately going down uh then we see Justine dor Le and Taylor Dobbins both of these Riders not able to uh to make it here uh so big shout out to both Justine and to Taylor
Hopefully you guys are watching from home this is what it’s going to look like for the ski women coming up next okay let’s see how it opens off again we’re moving to Suzanna opening it off after a big win so that’s going to be challenging a lot of pressure and as I
Said before you know dropping first and setting the bar for the rest of your category is a tough position to be in followed up by Lily who’s always also looking to do something creative and a huge sender as well um I’m excited to see how HCK a veteran on the world tour
Um incredible riding throughout the years and we’ll see how she manages this today uh she’s in a great spot to uh start putting down a big result and get up into the mix yeah so many good Riders the talent just absolutely stacked ski women blowing up at season after season
One of the most fun events to watch or parts of the event to watch so Peak Performance fun bet fan favorites these are the percentages of you that think these Riders are going to be on the podium head vessel with a strong majority everybody knows what she’s
Capable of Mani the young rookie she’s uh she’s Gathering a fan base here we saw her blow it up in verbi and have no doubt that she’s going to be looking for something fascinating and uh powerful today and then um missed the third one
There but will it was it was uh suanna I believe with another 50 uh 50 percentile rating which is huge from the fan base so let’s see what these women are going to throw down today and you know as you mentioned before I’ve my couple seasons
On the world T watching the level of riding from the ski one just Skyrocket has been insane so you know bigger trick bags it’s going to be an awesome day I think uh you know lips are starting to be set in uh as the venue gets a bit
More tracked out you can start to see the things that work and the things that don’t work so exactly and the the field is just so stacked you know if you want to win here you know in the in the immortal words of Freya Turner you’re
Going to have to send it you got to be on point and the the delicate balance between not enough and too much we’re going to see it we saw it in the snowboard men you know the guys who who were on top and Snowboard women as well
With a St the ones who are on top went hard you cannot let your foot off the gas on the Free Ride World Tour and I think you know one of the worst feeling things and you could probably speak to this better than I could is when you
Think okay I need to put down a safety run and then you end up 12th because you didn’t do enough yeah yeah absolutely and you know again with the depth of riding and the consistency through throughout the uh category uh that is going to be have something they’re going
To have to look out for all right well we had a chance to catch up with Zanna VK about mindset and mental preparation here on the Free Ride World Tour yeah like the win in verb was really unexpected for me my mindset was like there is a huge lever this year for
Sure and all the girls are super Riders so I wanted really to uh to to go big because I have a huge respect for the all the other girls and yeah to end up winning was just amazing but for now I’m like I’m like at zero again so I take
Every comp after comp and I think the objective for for everyone of us is to to win the title and after the win in ver for sure I have this in mind even more all right well a fascinating look there into the head space of our current
Rankings leader z v going absolutely ham in verb huge airs perfectly executed the Scott Rider kicking off the ski women’s category coming out of start one with some Pace let’s see what she lines up off this bench in this shelf that we’ve seen utilized throughout the snowboard
Category lining it up coming off the different direction and stopping it staying in controlled a little back seat caught in that snow let’s see what the judges think and going off the nose stomping it again though making the Redemption for that little catch up it’s so tricky when you get your skis
Out of the fall line and that crust is underneath they tend to hook up and spit back up the hill tiny little high side so Zu vtic now just trying to salvage the rest of it and doing a great job keeping things pinned in the fall line
Now coming down this section you could see her almost get caught up in the wall there yeah the snow now that it’s getting tracked out is getting quite a bit different and more challenging working her way through the bottom enjoying a bit of pow but you see if she
Digs in too hard she’s hitting that crust and you can see her skis start to reflect a little bit in different directions so that’s what the skiers are going to really have to watch out watch out for but keeping it on her feet and putting it down opening up the
Ski women let’s see where the judges are going to place this but we can see this we can see the she knows she knows yeah Perfection is going to be what’s required here if you want to sit on the top step of the podium and Suzanna VCH
Knows what that feels like just a short two weeks ago with perfection so Tom take us through the replay here lining it up off the nose beating your Slough and stomping it beating your Slough is huge you can see the landing and get all your get your legs down right where you
Want them um and then boosting that little lip through the middle section beautiful turn beautiful link of features and finding extra bonus points is huge for your line score in this venue as well and she did an excellent job of that coming through the bottom and keeping her Pace uh and you know
Cycling back keeping that fall line line is going to be a huge huge factor with the speed but all right well the Scott Rider there in the Finish she’s uh I think she’s calling out a medium on her personal review of The Run um we’re going to see
What the judges had to say about it somewhere right around the medium range I’d say 65 points flat for zusa VK she’s in a good spot though with a win under her belt in the overall situation even a medium result here is going to keep her
Right in the mix for the overall and some of these Riders definitely already looking big picture towards the latter part of the season and you saw how easy it was for her to find that crust in the skis to get deflected and how challenging it is going to be for the
Rest of the skiers today um and so you know a 65 rolling in with that Medium score could actually be something super solid at the end of the day we just don’t know what’s going to happen all right well big picture view here of the top of the Terminator face as we catch
Up with Lily Bradley and see what her thoughts are about today my objectives for this season were to not push myself too hard coming back from from an injury uh feel good in my body and be proud of myself I don’t feel like I have uh result objectives but I
Would love to like land some tricks in a run I’d love to land a three in a run um I’d love to throw backy in a run um but main objective is just appreciate the experience all right good look into the head space there Lily is coming back
From a knee injury tearing the ACL surgery last winter so early comeback for them as uh right now they’re just trying to get back into the mindset and into the physical state of a free ride World Tour athlete and Lily coming out of start one let’s see what they line up
Off the top here cutting in early lining it up and again it’s Sharky in there they have to watch out for all of those little things that are being exposed now coming into the second Cliff ban and sending it off and stomping it holding on you saw they just almost got
A back slap but held on super strong legs and boosting that no Shifty keeping the energy High working her way into the tree section yeah no real indication on this run of a sore knee from Lily Bradley as they’re roasting through this lower section and Ada Daffy Lily Bradley that’s like a
Glimpse of the personality and a spread eagle bringing the Tahoe Vibes to Free Ride Lily Bradley sending this run and I think she’s I think they’re going to be really happy just top to bottom another one oh ly Bradley has got us just grinning in the booth here top to bottom
Just Powerhouse riding for the Tahoe Rider and that’s a Showcase of the energy that they have you know the spies the spread Eagles just going back to the roots of fun good skiing I love that all right Tom well as we go back up to the top Lily off this one clean Landing
Solid as you said going deep into the suspension but no issue Landing it as they roasted off that one too this is a strong statement from Lily Bradley that the knee is looking and feeling all right yeah that’s a good sight to see especially on the crust and making quick
Work of the venue there’s the Daffy having fun with it you love to see that as a skier staying true to the originalities of the sport and the Retro days and a great fall line line too yeah Lily absolutely always is one of the best energies on the tour always
Bringing the Stoke as we see the score sliding in a 74 so L Bradley going to be taking over the hot seat from zutic with that clean run and a strong statement that the recovery is going well for them and they are back to play love to see it
Great line putting down a solid run to set an example for the rest of the ski women today let’s see what gets brought on next well loving the energy ski women kicking things off with a bang back up to the top you can see just the kniferidge up
There as we move to our next Rider this is Lydia Nelson Lydia 19 years old she was a junior last year transitioned immediately after Junior worlds into the qualifiers and then found herself winning on the challengers boom boom boom and she went from Juniors to Free Ride World Tour just like that Lydia
Nelson riding out of Glacier Washington and on course now here at kicking horse out of start one again working onto this bench that provides so many different options for their line Lydia going all the way through is she going to go to that section that Tim went and opened up
A fresh pow line yeah way over here to the Riders left for Lydia Nelson only a couple of tracks as she comes back to a big dog making sure she’s lined up on the right spot as this one’s got some kick to it and Lydia flying off the step
And clean Super Creative quick footwork feature I love to see that keeping it technical but keeping it smooth and consistent and fast coming back across the venue and boosting that nose stomping making quick work of it coming into the tree section enjoying some fresh snow as she comes down a real
Creative link up there for Lydia Nelson as she is now motoring her way through this lower section this is where those tracks have exposed the crust so we’ll see how Lydia is able to navigate this as she gets herself onto the top of this nose sending it into the Gully and
Holding on now she stays in the fall line coming out with some speed into the dream breaker Zone let’s see if she’ll hold on through this wind crust we have one last feature sending the wind lip getting some good absorption on it not letting getting getting too bucked on it
That’s a big thing and coming through with a clean run yeah that was veteran riding from The Young American athlete showing as you said Tom absorbing the wind lip a little bit so it’s not to get bucked in the crust cuz that definitely can especially I think maybe even more
So for the skiers than we saw with the snowboarders as we take a look back at the top section of Lydia’s run look at that footwork into that little Gully and off the nose you have to be so dialed with your trajectory and then right off that second tree Bush lip coming down
Across now keeping it moving as she traversed back into a feature is so important for fluidity and ski but we saw the video judge docking it down a little bit and that might just be for the out and back that we saw but overall clean riding from Lydia yeah linking up
Two very very kind of disparate sections of the venue but in the fluidity category for the judges if you’re moving towards something they’re not going to knock you too hard for going across the venue as we see here the score coming in for Lydia Nelson sliding into third with a
560 so Lily Bradley fending off her Young American compatriot and Lily going to be holding on in the dinar hot seat there all hugs and all friendship at the end of the day when they get down so much support throughout the Free Ride community and the Riders start lless I
Love to see that that’s something that’s always been consistent and it’s grown in uh current in past years yeah big time Family Affair as we Zoom back in onto the Stargate this is one to watch she is the boss the Free Ride World Tour veteran sitting in sixth so far that is
Incorrect heig is actually sitting in fourth overall and the Peak Performance Rider looking to make a big splash she’s always kind of chatting about the balance for her between consistency and just showstopping magic and head getting way out there over the exposure to start her run into that super technical
Entrance and off the nose into that doublet we saw Victor going stomping it just avoiding the rocks oh my gosh sending it from head viic holding on as she’s shutting down her speed coming into the tree section firecracker start to the Run classic head vessel style
Keeping it low and fast through that I love to see it that smart veteran riding that I know hedvig does and hedvig is so strong this crust having no effect on her directly off the nose huge stomp there for vessel as she has made short work of this kicking horse venue that is
A statement from edig vessel as she flies through the finish a massive run from the Norwegian Rider bringing the fans to their feet was insane that top Air if we going to look at that replay but I think she came so close to that rock and that is huge those trajectories
Right just sending it well Tom let’s take a look back the start of this run absolutely firing off that boom stomping it and coming out with speed and holding on great technique great strength yeah she definitely had a moment there in the powder Cloud you can see one ski kind of
Kick out and then this lower one again wrapping the turn straight off the nose waiting patiently in the fall line for balance before she starts the next turn every single bit of that run just screams veteran performance that was such a solid run there for vessel
Absolutely that was a perm Bing I was hoping for more but yeah that is a firm crust you hear it from her the veteran herself oh my god well you can see Lily Bradley looking over at headbig somewhat in awe it’s one of the coolest Parts here of
The Free Ride World Tour is these Rogers getting ride with their Heroes 8.67 for the Peak Performance athlete as she puts herself on the top of the pile so far head big vessel with a strong statement after verbi we had a we had a good chat and she was like I don’t know
If I really did enough you know and especially with both Manon and zuza going absolutely Buck Wild on that verba face so she’s come back swinging with a huge performance here at kicking horse and a big statement to the rest of the ski women’s field AB absolutely and I
Love to see that just getting it perfectly dialed knowing which feature is Right within her range in this snow quality and making quick work the venue back up to the start gate yeah we take no breaks here at the Free Ride World Tour astd Shay loose riding out of that
Powerhouse lasar Free Ride team Astra 20 years old um she’s a former Free Ride World Tour sorry Free Ride World Junior Champion as well we got a handful of them in the field here astred now on course and looking to back things up and
See if she can have a a reply to what we just saw from HCK taking it right fall line out of start one making quick work through that technical section and carrying her speed beautifully into this next Cliff band ASD is an absolute sender taking it off this nose to a bit
Of a backs slap you saw we she found that crust but bounced up holding on fighting for balance there athletic moves from ASD Shay loose finding another feature here going cross the Gully trying to manage the speed here as best she can stacking features yeah absolutely as it’s getting skied out
It’s getting a lot faster through that middle section I think it’s taking them a bit by surprise making quick work of it though staying in control staying on her feet not letting it get the back of her J with the back flip off the wind lip at the bottom talk about bonus
Points talk about risking it and that is okay to dive on the ground there in celebration what a Gamble and is he stomped it off that lip with the back flip well the contrast in that run a huge Air at the top with the big back
Slap we’re going to see in the replay and then the first Rider of the day to really dig into that bottom windl feature making quick work and just knows exactly where she needs to go through there navigating the rocks and I think she kind of landed on a tree Mogul thing
Which kicked her back right away but she popped off and stayed fall line on her feet and just laying out that back flip to bolts yeah and Tom on the replay the backs slap didn’t look as bad as it did in in real life definitely the butt down
You know the judges look at multiple stages of backs slab stage one your butt touches stage two it’s your backpack on the ground stage three your head’s dragging in the snow so probably oh of course we’re not judges but probably closer to a stage one on that but on a
Huge air onto hard snow and then the backflip at the bottom head’s going to be nervous now cuz that was a really really solid one for Astra chus the French you know we we saw her kind of on a slightly mellower grade earlier in
Verb now what are we going to see 86 67 for ASD Cho a short stint in the hot seat for HCK and astd having her way with the venue today huge hugs for these women that backy paid off huge huge risk I love to see it the trick bag is deep
Across the category so that’s going to be super inspiring for the rest of the women super solid riding from astd making her way down that whole venue flawlessly and they didn’t dock that backs slab you were right it’s about a stage one or stage two so so probably
Would have seen that score jump up into the90s if she hadn’t had that little issue but the rest of the run just holding up all categories lit up and AST shose after you know a bit of a tough one in uh in ver with a f i mean tough
She was fifth so but you know we’ve seen astred come to be very comfortable at the top of the rankings and she’s done her part now as we head straight back up to the top Molly armanino shouting out to The Mule there to the homies back in Tahoe Molly armanino always exciting ski
Women fireworks as expected and this is one to watch as you will probably if you blink you’ll miss this run Molly armanino all pinned always finding creative and unbelievably technical ways through the mountain so I have a feeling we’re going to see the same here from Molly as she gets things started
American Powerhouse coming out of the start gate number one into this top section let’s see what she has lined up again coming down to this Cliff band working her way through it flawlessly navigating it getting through those rocks you know the Rocks here are super grabby you you touch one you could lose
A ski sending it off the nose and just shorting that Slough cone transition and you saw she got put back seat that crust forced her into a bit of a high side and she unfortunately went around sending that bottom nose so still having fun with it making her way down you know you
Can still Salvage points as we said so she’s going to do her best to do that coming into this bottom tree Cliff feature and all the way Riders right into a bit of pow having some fun with it well as we have come to expect from Molly armanino going absolutely huge
Right off the top ropes on that upper Cliff unfortunately not quite able to hold on it is a bit oh no Molly catching a tip on a tree the trip wire effect there taking down Molly armanino and that is the difficult part giving us the
Wave she is all good catching a tree is scary for skiers legs can go in different ways and twist but that’s the challenge at the bottom and a 360 a little bit of a hit tuck having fun with it you know it’s still all about fun for
The Riders and we saw it the two different challenges to The Venue unfortunately took Molly down today the crust off that top big cliff and the trees through the bottom hugs from her American counterpart Lily uh it’s all support we’re glad to see smiles and that Molly is okay yeah and for Molly
You know she’ll be able to shake this one off she’s got a Podium finish already in the first event of the season in verba so as we look back am mly armanino run really technical at the start and then she was lining this one up kind of thought she might go into the
Gully and then we saw that track boom and unfortunately yeah just not quite able to hold on yeah and and and you know as in those those tight shoots the slough cones provide transition and she just didn’t quite make it but holding on through that nose uh still showcasing
How solid of the Riders and there’s that tree right underne C you can do nothing about that it’s going to take you down unfortunately uh and that’s what a lot of the Riders have been nervous for in this bottom section you know if you if you do that with some
Speed it could be a very tough day um and back up yeah we’re on a slightly low tide year at kicking horse with um with overall snowfall so a few more trees that are out of the snow and in play especially on the lower half of this T1
South venue and so one of those unfortunately taken Molly down but the Scot Rider still all smiles as she’s just trying to figure out where to go wants to wants to go say hi to the friends and get hug and support getting an 1833 not the score Molly’s going to want
With the two crashes unfortunately but as you said Derek she has a great standing result from verbier this is definitely going to be one she can wash under the bridge yeah for sure the crowd Gathering here braving the cold weather they’ve got a nice bit of sun to stand
In here to watch the kicking orse Golden BC Pro go down here on the T1 South face we are back to the Top This Rider coming out of Shaman mean Bon with a big win here at kicking horse last year she had a couple tough ones and then just
Climbed out of the hole by dominating the field at kicking horse so she’s comfortable on this face she is comfortable in the big mountains she’s a just such a strong SK she’s a ski instructor back in Shaman so the technique is absolutely dialed and that’s what’s going to be really
Important with the challenging snow conditions if you can load up that downhill ski and stay balanced then you’re going to find success in these conditions and she’s sitting overall just under the cut so we’re going to see what she’s going to have to put down coming out of start one Megan working
That bench coming out with some Pace let’s see setting up high early on through it into this technical section working her way getting over those sharks and through clean coming into this bottom Cliff band making quick work to the top let’s see what she’s going to
Line up here off this bottom nose yeah there’s been a few riders that have taken a chunk out of this one Megan but on solid there every single Squat and lunge she did all summer paid off dividends right there and another big one so Megan Bon oh no no unfortunately
Getting grabbed by some tracks and the chewed up snow maybe a bit of a tree or a rock there you know it’s it’s still a roll of the dice there just ripping her leg back you can do nothing about that as a skier that is so hard to deal with
She was doing everything flawlessly up until then too oh and you can see just devastated there as all almost a carbon copy of the way she went down in verbi with one ski just getting pulled out from under and unfortunately it just stole it away and Megan baton finding
Herself now without a ski waiting for a ski Runner to come from the top to collect the equipment that is heartbreaking for the French Rider she was on point up to that stage nothing but my heart for you Megan I have experienced that and you know as a rider
There’s as a skier there’s nothing you can do when your ski gets taken off your foot like that unfortunately that is a uh I believe it’s a no score too right if you lose a ski so tough showing especially after showcasing some top tier riding through that top section of
The venue too and you saw how strong she was off those Cliffs too to bolts you know she really did have it dialed and that’s a going to be a tough day for Megan but that’s the challenges that the skiers and the Free Riders do face on
All these different venues and uh you know sometimes it’s a bad decision they made and sometimes it’s bad luck and that one’s just bad luck yeah 100% bad luck so you can see asri sitting there in the hot seat here watching her uh you know her country mate with with such a
Solid performance oh looks like Megan’s just taking things into her own hands going to go up and retrieve that ski you can see this is actually a really good picture of How firm that snow is under the powder you know in the fresh snow it’s all right but right underneath it
Is that that melt freeze crust that we had from uh from the warming event a couple of weeks ago so Megan’s got her ski uh physically okay but emotionally that’s going to be a tough one to swallow yeah and especially she was just under that cutline result with ninth in
Verbier uh this isn’t what she needed today so it’s going to come down to the line in Georgia for Megan uh and you know she’s going to be welcomed with hugs and lots of down at the bottom because as we’ve mentioned before that’s just bad luck and you hate to see that
Happen to such a skilled Rider yeah and mega now going to be finding herself in the exact same position that she was in last season with two bad ones so you know the good thing I guess for her from a psychological standpoint is she’s traveled this road already she did the
Exact same thing last year she had a couple really rough ones and then a win so she’ll be coming into the next stop the Georgia Pro hungry and looking to just go all in uh for that one and do exactly what she did last season to put
Herself across the cut line and into finals as Megan now is just going to make her way down the face get off the venue and uh and get some consolation from her fellow Riders and working her way through the shoot just getting down you know this is where you just step to
The side having fun off a little nub at the bottom staying on her feet working the powder you know there’s still fresh snow so of course any Rider is going to ski it and have some fun with it at the bottom but give it up for Megan that is
Just a hard day in the office yeah and the crowd giving her lots of love as she comes across the line oh almost getting taken out again as she gets a big hug from as CH luus your current leader here in the ski women’s category just over halfway
Through Megan Bon with a no score so that’s a heartbreaker for her yeah yeah and you know as she goes back to jorgia maybe in a bit bigger terrain she is is uh from sham so that could be super advantageous for her as well for sure the big Peaks yeah that’s definitely
Where she finds herself most at home so yeah hug a bit of uh bit of consolation for as as they catch up and Meg now Dina star Ryder going to just move herself off the stage here chat’s hugs catching up now it’s time to relax
But all right well we are going to go back to the top our next Rider blowing our mind in their debut on the Free Ride World Tour the Peak Performance Rider man Oni we got to check in with her on the kind of mindset it takes to succeed at this
Level uh my mindset for this competition is to have fun enjoy try to do some uh cool lines that inspires me and yeah just have fun and see how it goes I looked at the face today and it looked really playful lot of uh wind lips and
Cool and fun terrain so I don’t know well we have been anxiously awaiting the debut of man lski on the Free Ride world World Tour she lost last season duee to an ankle injury and then she came back this year and showed us all exactly why
She got herself that Red Bull helmet the Peak Performance Rider started her season off with a bang in the hot seat for a long time until zuza came on and now man on on course ready to show us what she’s got out of start one again
It’s a popular one today for the ski women category making her way through this tricky Sharky technical section lining up that exit getting through it clean that’s super huge that’s stage one done through the venue coming into this Cliff band let’s see what man On’s going
To line up cuz she can absolutely send it and stomp as we’ve seen in verbi right off the nose and to bolts nothing is going to move her she is such a solid Rider coming into this nose and a huge 360 a little butt check but staying in
Control let’s see that’s going to the judges are going to see it but it was a small one and she’s right back on her feet moving through the venue yeah small control issue on a big move as man and lski showing not only the Free Ride skills but also the freestyle bag of
Tricks that she has under her belt making her way now down there’s a lot of complicated terrain underneath here Manon now popping off that bottom section and she’s going to come out into the apron so Manon lki I wonder if she you know her and as spend a lot of time
Together is she going to line up a big one off this wind Li as well let’s see let’s watch huge backy and just pulling it around to both stomping it for man on finishing the run off with a bang look at how stoked she is she knows what she
Just put down that is going to be a run contending for the top spot such a high level of riding from Men on well these two are best buds they spend so much time skiing together and they are just so fired up for each other you know the
Two of them scope that thing together and like should we flip it yes we should definitely flip it they both stomped it and that’s that’s what you love to see it’s an individual sport in the Stargate but you still have your friends and your teammates around you that can help you
Pull off that stuff making quick work showing her a technical ability her strength off this Cliff to bolt another a huge three showcasing her trick bag and it was Tiny it was just a little hand track not even a butt check butt check and you know the judges recognize
How hard this condition is so I think she’s going to be very happy at the and it almost looked in this lower section you know from nearly halfway down the venue that she was just focused on this you could see her laser focus the turns you know maybe few more turns than some
Of the other riders that have bombed through there and that’s because she had her sight set on that wind L for the back flip so these two women showing the freestyle element in the ski women’s category absolutely going off and these two at the pointy end of the Spear of
This movement this is insane to watch such a good showcase and high level of riding today putting the judges to work so let’s see what they’re going to come out with two huge clean back flips from the friend and there’s definitely some room in that overall score too for the
Rest of the Riders uh you know it’s not super stacked up at the top so let’s see where Manan ends up patiently waiting with her friend and we’ll see you know astd so solid headbig with that gigantic Air at the top 84 for manosi so edging head vessel out of second and showing
Exactly what the judges want to see out here from the ski women a couple big airs the very technical section at the top a 360 and a back flip in a run Man On lki Solid run not quite able to bump her friend off the top but a huge statement from Manon yeah
Absolutely making that top three now very tight though with the 84 and an 86 I believe so we’re going to see what’s going to get shaken down at the rest of the ski one category but putting the bar in a very high position for the rest of
The women oh yeah so we’re going back up to the top this is start to B we’ve got a little bit of an intermediate spot that the Riders were allowed to choose from in between the two and you know we were talking about the freestyle movement here’s another one Addie
Rafford a huge Contender always she’s been touring her movie around and all just cruising with her friends and on course now so coming out of a very high start they have kind of this option of start Tob working way through that shelf making quick work of those technical
Rocks in section coming into the pow lining up this Cliff that we saw from Hugo getting it lined up and taking it to bolts such strong skiing from and coming into a fresh takeoff and landing and just oh getting bed there just quite getting eaten by that crust you can see
When you land a little bit crosscourt your your legs are on a bit different of a elevation so you really have to be sure of where you’re going to land and you know unfortunately taking her down a bit of a high side she’s collecting her thoughts for a second both are still on
Just missing her pole there just uphill of her for Addy raford as you said Tom exactly that out of the fall line especially when the the Snows hard it adds you know almost like an exponential element of of GeForce when you land and added just getting squashed by that one
And you can see in her bomb hole above her she actually lands and then there’s this big deep patch of snow so I think it went from quite firm to quite deep and soft and it you know being on that offset angle out of the fall line it can
Catch you really quick uh and that’s just the variable conditions out here today unfortunately yeah so Addy Rafford with a really really strong start to that run I love her Approach at the top two airs one of them with one bomb hole and the other one with no bomb hole so
Even this late in the game still finding a fresh take on the face but unfortunately going down so Addy raford it’s not a no score bosi stayed on so she might be able to salvage a little bit of uh a little bit of something but
That is going to wrap it up for hers uh for her contention at least for the for the podium right now so with only one Rider to go we’re going to see both the French Riders on the podium for sure BL the only only one who can have a say is
Head vessel going to be able to hold on to that Podium spot we will see and I was so excited to see what Addie would have in store she’s such a creative Rider with her lines and the feature she chooses um but and again you know with variable variable conditions it can just
Be bad luck and again we just saw another great example of a great Rider being taken down by tough conditions and add has really been uh been kind of taken into the crew by the French homies both uh both astd and and Mana they’ve been all riding together with Addie and
Her brother and Max Palm all right Tom have a look at this replay pouring the slough over the cliff just such high energy making quick work of the technical section up top and coming into this top Cliff that we only saw Hugo Sarah hit and just stomping it see how
In control she is making that turn onto her next feature and right there it’s the deep snow it’s the hard to deep snow that kind of pulled her off and high-sided her a bit Yeah the combo of the snow and a little bit too much turn uphill you know the the the the
Commandments of Free Ride land balance then turn and that turn coming just a touch early for Adie so you can see she’s bummed to see the way that went down 3367 add’s going to make her way off which is uh yeah another disappointment this is the glory and the
Heartbreak of competitive Free Ride you’ve got your friend sitting on the top in the Dina Star Hot Seat and you’ve just had your chance and unfortunately had it not quite work out so disappointing but we are straight back up we do have one more Contender for the
Throne here sa Blan she is riding out of verbi she is such a talented Rider so strong so clean one of the strongest techniques in the game she’s got a win in verbier under her belt you know so you know she can get it done and firm
Snow is no problem for seil right now she’s sitting in sixth overall she’s going to be wanting to move up and you know today if you want to sit on the podium you’re going to have to execute some fireworks and seil certainly capable of that absolutely coming out of
Star one onto the Shelf taking a really early entrance into this Cliffy Rocky technical section from the Swiss Rider and finding Po and it looks like she got caught up on rocks right into it the fresh Landing you can’t see and rolls off right into the shoot on her feet
Right in her face but staying in control through it and off that lip I think that whole top section will be a bit of a surprise for her still that she’s still skiing down the venue right now collected it in one piece yeah hardly even dock for fluidity there as she just
Took a roll and then her skis were pointed straight off the lip so she went for it so blon now trying to salvage something on the bottom half of this T1 South venue making her way through this section getting tougher and tougher the more it gets skied and this nose now
Popping off that into the fall line and SE blon now onto the apron pinned here Full Throttle for the bottom section for the Swiss Rider she comes across that sun shade line and zooming into the Finish area absolutely you know know big dock on control but as we mentioned she
Just took it down the Rocks I think got her there you know that top section is so bony the snow here in kicking horse is quite dry so it doesn’t settle onto rocks so you have to be so careful around it let’s see here yeah you can
See the way that her ankle and ski collapsed that is absolutely a rock getting the best of her feet but tumbling and straight through into the shoot like it was nothing yeah High Line score there for sail she bit off a big chunk of this venue and it’s it’s one of
The hardest parts about visual inspection you look from the ridge you look from across the valley it looks like powder and you don’t even know until you’ve landed that that was 2 cm of powder sitting on top of a rock and I’m glad I really hope you know landing
On a rock can be a season Ender for a tip FIB an ankle a hip uh she’s standing there let’s see I hopefully she’s not in too much pain or no injuries but disappointing to say the least so that’s going to be a seventh there for sevil BL with a
40.67 as she go goes over to congratulate and console with aich jus unfortunate end of the day for siil Blan as she’s going to make her way off looks like she’s moving a little gingerly hopefully she’s all right as that definitely was a big impact yeah
Absolutely yeah a bit of a limp there you know it’s such a surprise you’re so ready to land in a four-point landing with all your strength and if you hit a rock it can be scary but such a high show of riding today ask shal is taking
It home with a beautiful Showcase of free rides King for the women followed up by a Powerhouse run from Manan and headbig the veteran Lily sneaking into fourth uh and you know as we saw we moved down the rest of the field some incredible Riders uh seil uh we’re
Looking at Molly uh Megan just unfortunately getting the conditions getting the best of them um and some bad luck really yeah such a great showcase there the combination of free ride and freestyle from these women so aicho locking down the wind Mani with another second place incredible start to the
Season for the rookie and HRI head vessel doing what she does climbing up the rankings with a very solid performance here at kicking oron this is what things look like now in the overall manosi taking over the leaders bib with two Podium performances ostrich Alo has
Jumped way up into second overall zus VK down into third it’s actually a for second place look at that that’s going to be so interesting coming into Georgia and for the rest of the overall results unbelievable the ski women action heating up here and kicking horse delivering as it always does magic in
The ski women’s category so we’re going to go down to our ski women’s champion at kicking horse Astrid Sho combining free ride and freestyle in that give us a little look into what went into selecting that line and how you execute Ed it uh I didn’t really do the line one
I I planed I was a bit surprised by the snow so at the end I I know that there is this little leap and I was like okay I have one thing to do so let’s go and yeah that’s fun that’s awesome to see and you know the snow conditions were challenging how
Did you feel throughout the full like from top off top to the bottom of the Run was it what you expected that hard crust underneath uh I was thinking that this snow uh was like more hard but finally it was really nice and yeah good snow well congratulations Aster that was
So amazing to see such an incredible run thank you so much unbelievable show from the ski women as we have come to expect AST Shay loose putting a stamp on it and earning herself a gold medal the Free Ride World Tour by Peak Performance will be right back after this short Break Hey how’s it going my name is Jay I’m getting ready to go 4 run today we’re going to go check out the venue see how we get there carry you to bring you to the boot packing of T1 dude it’s a it’s a mix of emotions right now I’m
Definitely a little bit nervous to kind of ride uh I think getting the chair up there we got a pretty good plan for it going to hike it a little ways I got some guys going to help me carry it um I think we’ll make it up it’s quite the [Applause]
Hike yeah this is the point in time where the heart starts going let’s go Baby 2 one [Applause] Dr Hey it’s nice on top just float Baby welcome back to the Free Ride World Tour by Peak Performance it is stop number two in the 2024 season we are at the kicking horse Golden BC Pro my name is Derek fous I’m joined in the booth today by a special guest Tom Piper Free Ride
World Tour standout himself and now here to give us all the insights we have had fireworks so far in the first three categories Tom unbelievable show here at kick Norse absolute showcase top tier riding from the snowboard women men and the ski women so far so this is what the
Overall standings look like currently Max hittig taking the win there in verba with just a classic hittig performance solid never put a foot out of shape Finn bilis really kind of showing his capability of learning and Christopher Turell back from uh what he said he’s
Like oh I remember when I was good well he is still good and now he is sitting in the the top overall as we move down through the rankings we’ve got some big names a little bit lower than we were get used to seeing them Andrew Pard down
There in 10th it’s out of 22 though he so he’s still sitting on the good side of the cut is AAL and then as we move through we saw a ton of riders go down at verbi pro at the verbi pro so a lot of the people on this part of the
Rankings are going to be looking for a big day today and they are absolute Heavy Hitters Max Palm Marcus Goen way ho Oscar M almost everyone on the back side of that cut has it in them to take a number one spot today it’s anyone’s game and this is what I’m excited for
You know the depth of talent from 1 to 22nd right now uh I I would essentially treat it as 00o as anyone’s game rolling into this absolutely every single one of these Riders completely capable of delivering a win we’re going to find out as we make our way through the category
Whose day is it who’s made the smart choices who has picked picked a line that rides to the conditions and then are able to execute it on the day we see the 2022 World Champ there Maxim Shao up there at the stairgate these nervous moments for the Riders up at the top
Absolutely and you know we’re looking we’re looking at uh Stan Stan Ray is going to be the event Wild Card a Canadian from Whistler blackholm followed up by Jackson Bathgate the other Canadian on tour his brother Cooper Bathgate spent two years on the world tour along side myself uh we all
Grew up together and then some huge Heavy Hitters right off uh Blake Marshall is going to be looking for a big score today as well as Kendall Goodman uh and then we have Christopher Turell a veteran right in the middle of the pack it’s going to be beneficial for
Him just watch some Riders so max hitzig the current leader going to be dropping in the middle he’s going to get a see a lot of solid riding and put it down for himself and then you know everybody on the back end of that is just they it’s
It’s it’s going to be an incredible day yeah there’s not a single name on there I’m looking through it right now that can’t win today if they uh if they put it together yeah absolutely and you know it might be advantageous to be at the back now with some tracks going through
The venue already and seeing how tracked out it’s going to get so aul was stoked to draw the last drop he was really happy about that he said he can gather a ton of information and then it’ll help him make his decisions for his run as uh
We take a look here at the Peak Performance fun bet fan favorites we’ve got Max Palm with 53% of you Max hittig with 52% of you and Marcus Goen making the cut here with 30% of you thinking that these Riders are going to land on the podium today Peak Performance fun
Bet fan favorites it’s your chance to play Fantasy free ride and get involved in the game you know there’s probably some beers on the line out there in Free Ride world so these are the three that you guys think are going to be uh are
Going to be on the podium in some way shape or form and of course they would love to be as well as we head up to the top this is so exciting you know Stan Ray the wild card we got a chance to catch up with him and ask him what it
Feels like to be in the mix here uh it feels amazing getting the wild card for the kicking horse Pro event my thought behind it was I’m not getting any younger and I might as well ask what’s the worst that can happen I’ve always wanted to compete in Free
Ride it’s really cool to be able to compete here in Canada and there’s also three other guys from Whistler so they’re a bit younger than me but I got to watch them grow up and um hone their skills and those guys all three of those guys are like super talented and amazing
Skiers they’re all better than me but uh I’m going to try my best and see if I can keep up to those guys well stanray growing up in Whistler he was on the Canadian ski cross team he’s an ex games Rider he’s been I mean a standout in the
Ski movie scene for years Stan Ray just delivering some of the most action-packed performances we’ve seen on movie screens across the board so excited he wanted to give a big shout out to his wife Olympic gold and silver medalist Kelsey uh these guys are are just you know the super power couple of
The ski world and Stan Ray for the first time ever taking the start in a free ride World Tour event Stan Ray at kicking horse opening it up for the ski men coming out with energy and speed he’s always stoked it’s representative of his riding making quick work of that
Top technical section getting a nice safety grab in working his way around at holding his speed into this lip huge air getting a little bucked in the air but holding on on that hard crust stomping it high speed high energy and a big three from Stan holding on Landing it
This is exactly what I expected from him oh let’s go Stan Full Throttle and he’s going into this far far ski left area we haven’t seen anybody over here yet we saw Cammy Armand pioneered this Zone A couple of years ago and Stan now on top of this buttress catching the lily pad
Landing oh my a huge Tomahawk punch front uh look at those tracks let’s hopefully we see a head tap here that was a big big impact there’s the wave in the head top I’m glad you’re okay stand sending a huge air out of the bottom I knew he was
Going to take a bit of a gamble on a run today he didn’t want to just take it to you conservative to Showcase that you know he is a Powerhouse legendary Free Rider well he certainly is and the top half of that run was incredible so fast
So Technical and then Stan Ray getting on top of that gigantic building siiz butress of rock and the lily pad move to get into it means you can’t slow down off the lip no all the speed comes and that Landing just not playing ball with
Stan and you have to be so committed at that point you’re in look at that the fans the the pit viper guys stop kicking horses I’m a huge a huge advocate of homemade fan signs and the pit viper crew out here just keeping the Good Times Rolling absolutely and you know I
Do want to say one thing back in 2022 when we ran the venue for the Free Ride World Tour here was the last year I had the chance to ride it we saw a lot of the ski men working across from that Riders right to Riders left offer
Offering those multiple lips in a row to link up features it looks like he’s going to make it down a ski losing a ski again it’s all good laughs you know skiing on one skis very challenging so yeah I mean Stan Ray wanteded to show up
And put on a show here for the crowd for the fans at home and he certainly did that going absolutely Buck Wild in classic Stan Ray style there is no half speed for this guy and he really showed it there uh you know it this is this is
Going to be interesting because we’re going to see if the big sends are actually going to work in these snow conditions didn’t work out for Stan no but we saw some of it work out in the snowboard men category ski women and Snowboard women category it is possible
You just have to find those right angles and the right transition Landings uh so that’s going to be huge and you know he did take an air all the way at the bottom where deeper snow could have accumulated that’s not as wind affected or moved around so that also could have
Taken him by surprise but we’ll have to see what the replay says if it was a uh crust underneath issue or a true good fashion ankle grabbing deep snow problem well the local Canadian crowd here going absolutely wild for Stan as he comes into the Finish Tom take us through this
Run coming in high energy off the top setting up for this lip keeping it a nice and smooth a little Buck that’s that hard snow but landing so solid that’s the strength and balance that Stan has and then coming in to this 360 fresh lip and holding it together a
Little bucked off by that lip but here we go off the lily pad gets the grab and punched right down through the snow that’s that’s a big Cliff to do in these conditions and you know that’s the gamble that you’re going to take but the second his skis touched the ground they
Were off that’s such a heavy impact as we see the crowd filling in here at kicking horse as we get a bigger Sun patch we get more people out that are willing to Brave the CT so that’s a no score for Stan Ray but it was awesome to see his showcase
Classic riding through the top of the venue all right we are going back up to the top skien underway if you’re just joining us we saw our Wild Card Stan Ray operating truly in a wildcard fashion going absolutely ape on the on the whole venue really Full Throttle at the top
And then full send at the bottom as we slowly zoom in back up to the top with the Free Ride Club alum 2016 Junior world champion Jackson Bathgate as you said Tom twins from uh twins of Cooper Bathgate you and Liam Piper as well as Cooper and Jackson the multi sets of
Twins growing up in the Whistler Free Ride Club and Jackson Bathgate on course here at kicking horse start one he said he wasn’t too nervous about the hard snow as he’s grown up riding on this through qualifiers and did that last year quick work through that top technical section just holding on
Getting a little drawn to the high side coming in off a huge Cliff huge nose let’s see if he can hold it together and just getting taken down but you know that’s the crust he stayed on his feet moving forward off another huge Cliff to the parking lot and bolts Jackson
Bathgate the three biggest Cliffs on the venue right off the nose of them making quick work of this bottom section he just wants to get out of it now yeah punching into that Wind Drift there Jackson Bathgate with huge three huge airs at the top of his run and now just
Pinned down through the sunshine as he kind of comes into this wind defective section and crossing the line at full speed for Jacko so you know it he’s definitely a bit of a victim of that hard snow but not even making a slight concession in line for the size of those
Airs absolutely and the judges are going to recognize that the size of the air onto that snow quality underneath is such a Gamble and you see there yeah a little drawn onto his shoulder but that is the symptom of the crust and then lining up this parking lot flat huge cliff and
Making it look like nothing Jackson bath gate such a solid Rider growing up with him perfect and this crosscore transfer again catching the transition absolutely perfectly he kind of plugged into the wall here but managed to make it work and actually even added a little feature there it’s a solid run there from
Jackson Bathgate top to bottom um ski men starting off with a bang yeah showing everyone else at the start that it is possible to take the biggest Cliffs to The Landing to the right Gore coming in for Jacko with a 72 flat so he’s going to take over the dinar hot
Seat there The Whistler Rider putting a stamp on things and showing exactly what’s possible on this venue as we saw Stan Ray showing what’s not quite possible on this venue so two contrasting runs there and we’re only two into a 22-man field as we go
Straight back up to the top of the T1 South face here at kicking horse you can see how rugged it is all the way from top to bottom as we drop in our next Rider Tio magnan he is an Olympian he is an unbelievable freestyle Rider but his
Transition to Free Ride has been seamless he had a banging run going in verb before he got taken down by the Heartbreak Hotel feature at the bottom but TBO Magna make no mistake he is not just a freestyler his free ride is solid he’s good over his skis and I’m so
Excited to see what he delivers here today TBO dropping out of start one let’s see where he’s going to go through these technical sections up high making quick work of it managing his Slough coming off the nose getting a nice safety grab boosting those energy points coming around holding his speed getting
A little thrown but holding on I think he was trying to go for that lip but the hard snow got him there and pushed him off line sick flat spin with the Japan grab to bolts stomping it TBO absolutely showcasing his freestyle background when in doubt throw a sick flat spin and
Stomp it yeah catching that one as well oh and TBO just getting the skis out of the fall line and unfortunately going down there for TI magnan that was not quite exact well for sure not what he was looking to do there the top section fireworks for tibo and then that flat
Spin unbelievable absolutely and that’s you know such a solid freestyle background and you saw how easy it is for him to get those tricks around in those scenarios off those features that are perfectly set up for it uh I was wondering if he was trying to go for
That lip that we saw Stan hit and I think he got a bit bucked off let’s see replay will tell us coming in look at the technical ability moving those feet around the Rocks quick safety grab and then right there the chopped up Snow and
He kind of came off a bit of a tree bump and he couldn’t get those edges back onto make the turn and look at that flat textbook Japan spotting to Stomp and Tom if if you’re right in he missed that then that means the rest of his line was
Completely made up on the Fly which is incredible for him to just have the eye to go to plan B and then that’s where it all came apart unfortunately for tibo Magna getting across the fall line the skis hook up in the crust right away and just shut you down absolutely let’s see
How the judges do but 4767 at the end of the day not what tbo’s going to walk want to walk away with after verba but he showcased his level of riding again it’s one of those things where the conditions just sometimes we’ll get the better of You you can hear the boys just catching up about their experiences on the face as we see the whole T1 face starting to get a few tracks in all the different areas there’s only a couple of spots left that don’t have any track and I have no doubt that some of those spots
Are going to be uh you know going to be well used by the rest of the riders in the field as we go straight back up our next rider in the gate Blake Marshall one of the most EXC fting runs we saw at at verb with a huge 360 and then just
Stuck in the fall line to probably well in the range certainly one of the biggest Airs of the day wasn’t quite able to put it together but Blake Marshall is kind of having a Resurgence he was another one who was a staple on the tour he got knocked off he earned
His way back through the Challengers and he is on course in a Rowdy Zone here now out of start two into the technical part of the venue and into that double we saw Victor holding on stomping it making that hard snow look like nothing off the Note
And just getting put a little backseat on a back slap on that hard Landing we saw get taken down from by Molly but working his way in off this lip big flat spin right to his feet perfectly nailing the transition such a oh no Blake just getting snagged up on
Something so hard again bad luck such an incredible Rider taken down by something under the snow and a great little spfy to end it off always such a happy positive guy you can see the pace just building and building and building and as you come into those lower gullies it
Gets tight and it gets crusty and icy believe that yeah you can hear his disbelief he’s you know such a solid ride and perfectly getting that second pad on that double you know the math involved in that is huge and right off of this nose you can see the crust getting him
Backseat a bit but he held on like nothing no problem great flat spin right to the transition like it was effortless and then let’s see what happens here it was a big patch of deep snow I think one ski in the deep snow yeah and I think
There’s patches and parts of the snow is quite a bit deeper than these Riders are expecting yeah the wind is pushed it into some little drifts here and there and when one foot goes into a drift and the other one doesn’t it gets pulled back Dad if you’re
Watching what a shame what a shame oh sending love to the parents yeah and I mean that just tells the whole story you put all the time the travel the energy into picking a great line and then just taken down by kind of you know a small thing with a big catastrophic result
There for Blake Marshall so really unfortunately to unfortunate to see him go down like that and similar to tibo you know showcasing such great technical ability and freestyle 5633 to end it off for Blake not the score he’s going to want to walk walk away with yeah so
Jackson Bathgate holding on to that top spot currently sitting in in the hot seat but we are early days in the ski men’s field right now as we look back up at the start gate panning across from start one to start two to start 2B there a few Riders looking like they’re going
To be probably dropping out of there as is our next Rider this is Salt Lake City’s own Kendall Goodman Kendall just always with such a creative Take On The Mountain he’s got so much style and he’s so strong his run on the back earlier this year with the with the nose butter
You know just bringing the Marcus eer VI he’s such an exciting Rider to watch he brings a different style than a lot of other Riders but certainly working in the Free Ride space as he has just constantly been a player earning his way on through the Challengers and now
Kendall Goodman on course from start 2B working his way through that technical section we just saw Blake came down I think the Riders are going to work this double and stomping it getting it right onto that pad so important but getting eaten by some deep snow there coming
Into this second lip I think he knew that that Tomahawk is going to put him out of contention having fun with it another flat spin like it is nothing such a good freestyle trick bag from Kendall but also such a good technical rider up top as we just
Saw yeah so tricky conditions here Kendall floating the 360 on that lower one that Landing is hard oh and the tree just grabbing him oh coming out switch Kendall Goodman the Magic Man having a bit of fun with the unforgiving mistake coming out switch you don’t see it a lot
In Freer ride World Tour competitions that just goes to show how talented this man is on his skis you know I will say one thing that’s always impressed me with Kendall’s riding is his freestyle ability but also that understated Free Ride technical ability he possesses he has that Henri Carlo influence Style
With the dag under his helmet the big baggy clothes that He makes himself just so everyone knows and perfectly getting it onto that pad of the double and getting a little bit of a punch front and a tricky transition out nothing you can do about that yeah and you know Tom
We’ve seen a few Riders the the the landing there is okay but then it goes immediately to Flat it’s an aggressive transition into the flats and it’s taken a few Riders down this 360 and then we’re going to see he got pushed a little offline and then that tree was
Like n but no problem for Kendall Goodman reverting to switch popping back around and he was fired up on that one I I think the tree actually took his pole there did so he lost a pole to The Venue but that’s the price of Free Ride Kendall incredible incredible Showcase
Of riding but unfortunately getting taken down by the conditions a 367 dropping there for Kendall Goodman so Jackson Bathgate again holding down the top spot as we’re just about a quarter of the way through the field Kenny big uh big thumbs up to the homies at home another uh another Rider
On that pit viper Team all about the good time Kenny Good Times such a great Rider to see unfortunately not his day here in kicking horse well Jackson Bathgate sitting in the hot seat enjoying the view from the dinar Throne there he looks very comfortable there and he likes it hopefully he can
Hold on yeah love to see D the whole shot’s me right now boys love to see the wher boy holding it down in the hot seat but not going to be a comfortable spot yet as there are so many talented Riders still to come on
The field we may be just in a slight delay as somebody’s uh probably retrieving Kendall’s Pole from the forest as we are going to be making our way back up to the top Peak Performance and Scott athlete Carl rner Erikson this guy always a threat and Tom we talked
Earlier about the sweds and the kiwis being right at home in tough conditions you know you you see the Scandinavian Free Ride championships in O in May and it’s always just looks like the worst skiing but they have the best time on it and they don’t hold back and these guys
Have sharpened their knives of their skill sets and conditions like that so this is going to be light work for Carl rner Erikson as he is on course start to be coming in for the swed making quick work through that technical setion lining up that double again getting
Gapping the whole thing actually huge air and coming out with some speed holding on coming over that let’s see what he has lined up after that was a massive way to start this run and a giant back flip from Carl excellent riding standard riding that I have seen
From him making quick work coming through the bottom hot he is at the Stark gate at the bottom classic Carl rener Erikson skiing oh fire run there for the Peak Performance Rider the sweet you know you can’t get caught up in the crust if you never leave the fall line
Keeping it pointed downhill Jackson B coming over to congratulate him he’s putting his backpack on I think Jackson is seeing the sign on the board that Carl regnar Erikson May well have taken this first air enormous over all of it and a perfect Landing for Carl and just getting that transition right in
The soft snow too he saw you saw that pop and floating the back flip around like it was nothing for him he has those so dialed you saw those adjustments that he made off that to get his speed right and make sure he didn’t come off with too much speed
Miss that feature the control of of balance over skis that Carl R eron just showed an absolute master class in free ride so the Peak Performance Rider there he is stoked and the judges are too as it goes up to an 83 Carl taking over the
Denar hoty he’s put himself into a sweet spot here in the ski men field as we see high fives as as the boys exchange spots KL regar Erikson taking over the throne with a master class in free ride and freestyle such technical skiing full speed Full Throttle Kyle rner Ericson
Having his way with this venue absolutely and I love to see that you know when he gets a run down from top to bottom how he wants to do it you can you know and he is such a talented Rider working every part of the venue to his
Ability all right straight back up Carl’s traveling mate his roommate his uh his mentor Christopher Turell he’s back in the mix we saw him right up at the top of the standing in third in verier this is going to be another one that that is going to be a real Danger
Man in these conditions Christopher Turell you said tomy’s light on his feet he’s so smooth and he is on course now straight into it right over the edge blowing Slough over the cliff and we’re going to see the same move as Carl and making it look like nothing so light on
His feet just stomping that whole double and getting the extra bonus there popping over shutting over the speed and adjusting for a big backflip from Christopher Turell in through the shoot high speed here this has been a consequential area but making it out with no problems so far so interesting
Point of differences there and we’ll see it in the replay Carl was able to catch that feature he was able to get a speed back under control but Christopher added another feature above that Carl didn’t get so you know they picked that line together cuz it was almost almost
Picture Perfect they both ski nearly the same thing but one of them getting an extra feature High one of them getting an extra feature low absolutely you know I love to see that let’s see how it shakes out I think he was a bit quicker through the whole bottom though you you
Know Christopher toell is one of the fastest skiers on the world tour coming off that double big pop a little loose in the air with his arms if you’re going to make a comparison between the two runs the judges do look at those things when you ski very
Identical runs and just in textbook back flip to a perfect transition and right here Carl was able to control that speed and move left and we’ll maybe see it here on the replay Christopher goes pin fall on you can see the feature fly by but he caught another little popper at
The bottom but he got that extra one at the top so going to be interesting to see what the judges do with that in comparison or in comparing them directly absolutely the two uh the two roommates there at the prestige Lodge in Golden now you know really faced off against
Each other in the judge’s tent as we’ll see what they do with it Peak Performance Rider there the score coming up not quite able to Eclipse Carl and Christopher sliding himself into second I think those Two Fellas going to be very happy you can see Nick lren the
Peak Performance team manager in the background getting a photo of the boys together yeah he’s a happy guy right now as his uh two of his many riders in the ski men stable both executing great runs and we’re going back to another Peak Performance Rider this is Whistler Free
Ride Club graduate way ten ho coming out of wher he’s only 19 years old one year in the qualifiers and he earned himself a spot straight onto the world tour he delivered one of the most magical runs we saw in verb they gave him line of the
Day for it not quite able to hold on as I’d say a bit of a a kid mistake going full throttle off that bottom Cliff now we’ll see what way Chan got here on K com out of start two down the ridge into a new section we haven’t seen opened up
Making quick work through the powder wayn ho has no off button I’m sure he’s going to send it stomping this such a solid rider for his age his strength he is such a good solid Big Mountain Rider big back flip off the nose to bolts stomping it like it was nothing into
This goalie blowing up snow having so much fun with it boosting it finding a big transfer across the Gully Wayan ho once again finding an area that nobody else even looked at the huge Dolly transfer Gap at the bottom back flipping in air that’s caused people all
Kinds of trouble yes wait and ho bringing it home finally a run to his feet showing everyone what he is capable of he is such a dominant young Rider I’m sure the judges are going to be challenged with this after watching Christopher and Carl’s [Applause]
Run look at and you can hear the crowd crowd all right let’s look at this top section Tom so unique creative no one’s gone through it the judges love something creative in this venue making quick work skipping over those rocks staying Inc controlled and just boom crust like it was nothing underneath
Coming off that cliff and here’s the fall line backflip absolutely stomped to his feet great shut out great skiing and Free Ride skiing and this Gully transfer P he had to pick up so much speed to make it across if if at home I don’t know if it does it justice across the
Entire lower cool that that line tracker shows it exactly incredible scoping skills there keep in mind if you’re watching this at home these Riders scoped this from across the valley through binoculars so that transfer for Wayan I mean obviously he backed himself in his skills to to have that work but
Incredible here’s where we stand now Carl Regner Ericson Christopher Turell Jackson Bathgate that is your 1 two three what are the judges going to do with that run from way 10 that was absolute action from top to bottom Prodigy out of Whistler throwing it down
On the home turf in Canada will it be enough to knock uh Carl off the top seat oh man that was incredible I get so fired up for these kids I mean same as you Tom growing up in the Whistler Free Ride Club we coach I coach these kids
From 11 years old the rest of the coaches from The Whistler Free Ride Club I know we’re watching at home big shout out to all of you guys watching eating pull pork having a good time probably a couple pints in the mix absolutely as now that judges crew getting to work
What are they going to do with that very different styles I mean the top half of weit run was so technical so difficult but we did see Christopher and Carl with a huge Air at the top as well so it’s a real balance they had backflip off a
Wind lip where weiten had a back flip off a cliff there’s a lot of similarities but you know a lot of differences as well and all of those points are going to come into the judge’s consideration yeah and I think that creative top section is going to be
The thing that separates it if anything because we off from T Tim Schroeder with the back flip with that section off the far right they loved seeing the new line being skied here you know it’s a tight it’s a small venue let’s see here we go the score coming in for way chenho
8267 so he slots right between the two sweds with a into second right now a big hug there so for the Peak Performance Rider he’s going to be stoked and so is the peak team manager he’s got boys sitting 1 two three at the moment incredible show already for ski men and
We are barely into it as we are straight back up to the top Martin Bender the young Swiss Rider always he wants to give a huge shout out I want to give a huge shout out to Lego back in uh in verb that’s his young young crew all the
Uh verba Free Riders behind this guy and we lost the other kid from this uh from this creu Simone paradon unfortunately with the broken scoid is unable to join us here in kicking horse so Martin Bender the 2022 Junior free ride world Champion you can’t swing a stick without
Hitting a junior World Champ on the tour these days and Martin Bender is getting things started out of start to be over this Cliff lining up the double stomping it so strong for Martin Bender coming into this wind lip and a huge cork s and just under rotating it unfortunately
It’s such a gamble with those two rotation tricks in free ride because the math is so good for a 360 but the 720 a cork 7 is so much more rotation they have to be so sure of their speed and distance you know he is such a talented
Rider um unfortunately hard to see him go down tree in a ski I’m happy he avoided the tree uh that’s a scary one if I do say so myself near the trees absolutely yeah the tree just grabbing Bender ski there so uh it’s going to be
A bit of a project to might need a lumberjack to dig that thing out of there but Martin Bender uncharacteristic to see him unsuccessful on a cork 7 he’s got those on lock but that’s a tricky spot to do it and he just under rotated
Though he was so close you know and and again it’s a it’s a game of small margins out on the mountain right now so glad to see he’s up okay getting his ski out of that tree give it back oh it’s really wedged in there yeah wow Martin Bender having a fight here
With the local uh Flora so you can see the crowd just electric firing down here for ski men it’s the last category of the day we saw snowboard women blowing up we saw snowboard men put on a show the ski women absolutely electric as we look
Back here Tom the start of his run was so strong and he took the bigger part of that double to the judges recognize that a bigger Cliff off the second lining it up and there’s the cork 7 and he actually took it to his feet but I think
The crust brought him down onto his side so he did bring it around he didn’t under rotate it’s hard to see behind that wall of snow and tree there but and he just got bounced in the absolute most unfortunate Direction a wall of trees there waiting to receive him you know if
That was a clean slope underneath he might have been able just with his ninja reflexes been able to pull himself out of that but a wall of trees is a tough uh barricade to overcome and just having fun with it down this Gully blowing up some snow making it down in one piece
Looks like he’s all good get some fresh powder skiing in if you can Martin Bender showcasing pushing the sport double rotation tricks are starting to infiltrate their way in with this younger generation we saw Max Palm open it up last year with a double back flip
Yeah we’ seen Maxim Shau with the cork s we’ve seen Marcus Goen with the cork sens they’re out there and these guys as as we said about Martin they’ve got them un lock so it’s it’s no surprise to see them unleashing them here on the Free
Ride World Tour so that’s going to be a no score for the young verbi Rider but definitely doing Lego le PL proud with that performance there is uh you know all of these athletes there’s no half assing it in these runs they know everybody else uh they don’t exactly
Know what they’re going to do but they know they’re going to do something bold and uh and wild so everyone just coming out firing and we go straight back up to the top here on the T1 South face this man sitting on the top of the pile in
Ski men on the Free Ride World Tour Max hits we have seen some of the most electrifying performances in the history of the Free Ride World Tour and you only have to go back one year to remember Max hittig off the George Rodney usaki pyramid throwing down one of the biggest
Back flips we’ve ever seen landed on the tour he has got the skiing skills the freestyle skills and the just absolute Reckless bravery it’s the perfect combination he’s so strong so max hittig wearing that fire bit showing he is the leader on the tour on course now
Dropping in out of start one a lot of the riders coming out of start B making quick work at the top technical riding coming off this tricky section making it look like nothing through those rocks just Lily padding and a huge three off the shoulder stopping it Max hittig
Showing his strength again in kicking horse look at how solid of a rider he is it’s like it’s absolutely nothing quick work through the bottom straight lining out getting out of the trees what a performance from the German Max hitzig coming back into the Finish Max hittig kicking horse seems to be his
Mountain as well as verbier this is an incredible showing from him we saw Jackson Bathgate hit that Cliff look at the lily pad coming through that top section making quick work of it avoiding rocks and this so much trust in the snow pack and taking
It to his feet no control issues and a huge huge 360 like it was nothing on the landing well that was an incredible run from Max hittig as we’ve come to expect uh it honestly shouldn’t be a surprise anymore when we see hit deliver a performance like that top to bottom
Extremely technical huge airs with the tricks he’s got it all and you look at that line tracker so fall line so direct now the judges have got their work cut out for them hit a he’s stoked yeah and he really stoked well already the judges have had their safe and that is
Rocketing up to a 94 incredible score with this many riders left to go Max hittig once again delivering an electrifying performance here on the Free Ride World Tour absolutely firecracker run from Max hittig and that 360 was insane with this snow Condition incredible incredible run from Max hit but we take no breaks we’re going right back up to the top and we had a chance to catch up with the man who finished second in verba Finn bilis incredible rise up the Free Ride World Tour rankings yeah I think for me coming to
Canada was always a place that I saw on the movies that I was really inspired by some of my favorite video Parts have come out of this area and so to be here and um have the privilege of being able to ski and compete in locations like
This um just a childhood dream come true it’s hard to say if there’s an advantage coming into this event with maybe a more freestyle orientated terrain understanding of how to adapt to that terrain ultimately is what makes the the riding Excel and um definitely try to incorporate a few tricks here and there
Throughout the runs well it’s been an absolute pleasure to watch Finn bis’s rise through the Free Ride World Tour ladder he came on last year as a wild card he just an Olympic freestyler um but watching him learn every event just taking on a little more figuring out exactly what
The judges are looking for and adapting his style without giving up his style it’s so impressive and exciting to watch Finn vill do this coming out of start one over this bench into the technical Sharky Rock Air making quick work no hesitation from Finn through with ease
Coming into this bottom Cliff band where we’ve seen some Riders get taken down and a huge three unfortunately getting taken down to his hip on that hard Landing that Cliff has been taking Riders down all all day still having fun with it blowing up the snow you can
Salvage a run we have to be mindful of that and Finn taking the same channel Gap as wayen like it was nothing you know that he still has a smile on his face in the classic kiwi fashion I love to see it unfortunately not Finn’s day
But making it to the Finish caral yeah you know what I love about that is Finn’s older brother Hank became known for these wild transfers in in the Free Ride World toour space and way 10 was looking at his line he described that as a hank bis transfer so it was great to
See way 10 and Finn both see the same thing and for wayon to give credit to Hank so you know unfortunately for Finn lining up this 360 just didn’t quite get it together yeah and he pulled it around but just a little touch short on the rotation and if you’re under rotating a
Trick it can it throws off your landing and you have no strength in your legs yeah for sure the impact just goes up exponentially and uh and then this we’ll call it the Hank bis transfer at the bottom hopefully Hank is watching little bro throw it down here on the tour so
Finn bilis you know he’s sitting on a great result already so this one’s going to be one that he’ll just brush off one of the just most loveliest guys to be around so friendly positive energy just infectious and contagious always coming from Finn so score coming in there for Finn bis a
5333 not going to be his day but we know we’ll see Finn come back smiling and if we’re skiing powder in Georgia he’s going to be a huge threat absolutely let’s see what the rest of the categories bring up we’ve seen some Riders show that that crust is immovable
And we’ve also seen some Riders get taken down unfortunately by it and that that is what the challenge was going to be today and everyone knew that you know it’s and it’s a game of millimeters unfortunately you can land in a bit deeper snow and not feel it or for sure
You got to line up those angles and make sure you’ve done your homework well so speaking of huge threats the 2020 22 World Champ and the last time the Free Ride World Tour used this venue this guy came out on top he’s got a victory on
This venue and he is always hungry Maxim shablo is he going to go full free ride is he going to go freestyle I think we’re going to see a combination of both but always a threat start one one dropping coming out of start one taking a hard right approach we haven’t seen
This yet today this is so gutsy with the snow on the Rocks here in kicking horse it takes a serious set and sending a huge Cliff off the top a little butt slap and a 360 back into the venue like it was nothing huge transfer from Maxine completely new line though I
Love to see that and oh my gosh no unfortunately getting clipped by a rock or something in the run to that lip it looked like he was lining up for a front flip but clearly something had grabbed his ski and he got tossed into an unintentional front flip off of that
Cliff you can see ski coming off in the landing Max shablo going Full Throttle there and it just the wheels came off quick on that one yeah that is so scary because you were powerless in that position and you know I will say that happened to me three and a three years
Ago in kicking horse a rock on the takeoff took my ski and that’s it you can do nothing about it Maxim throwing down a brand new never skied before on this venue so I’m sure he’s going to feel that one sting but that’s the creative ey he took and
He had the choice look at that air work the crust just put him down but the landing gear held him such a strong individual and a big 360 back into the venue carving off that Lei into the 360 oh he got caught up wow so lucky that he
Landed in the snow there and not on a tree or a rock the the snow just grabbing his ski on the approach and then Shau the unintentional front flip off a cliff really happy to see him walk away from that one that’s a scary moment for maxim Shau absolutely and you know
What it’s so cool to see maxam choose a new line a lot of riders who have been on venues can just go for a line that they have skied before because they know that it’s a good safety not that that’s a great strategy in competition skiing
But to choose a brand new line off that technical section on the top is awesome skiing veteran line scoping he was looking for something fun you know I think he did have a really fun approach and attitude toward the venue regardless of the snow condition underneath this
Fresh bit of pow I’m glad to see he’s up and moving uh just again tough luck on this today exactly you chalked that one up that wasn’t a ride or mistake that was just unlucky that uh that the snow grabbing his ski there might have been a little shark underneath there that is
One of the Hallmarks of the venue currently as we stand there can be or there are little bits of powder on top of of exposed rocks and you can’t see them so there’s no way to know that they’re there until they’re stealing your ski and sending you into a front
Flip off the cliff it’s when it happens it’s too late and my sympathies go out to Maxim that’s a tough one he is such a solid Rider and a contender on this venue and uh he’s making his way down to the Finish Corral keeping it smart safe
Enjoying some turns now he’s he’s a he was a contender on this venue he’s opening up a gap for other Riders and other Powerhouse Riders to put something down to their feet yeah exactly that’s a big threat fended off there by Max hitzig and oh yeah yeah look it it just
Punched down and was just back behind him before he even knew what happened yeah there’s nothing you could do about that nothing anyone could do about that see if we can hear the story no yeah that it all catch and boom yeah there you go like it was nothing just he didn’t even
It just it was over before it happened so God the hardest thing was done I love that but that you know that’s fair the top of this venue is technically the most challenging with the Rocks the steepness the sow well sharing uh sharing the story there with Max hitu sitting in that
Dinar hot seat and really unfortunate for maxim shablo as he was on fire before that that the loading up the left skki and carving into that 36 the long transfer just such a skill move it was so incredible to see so that’s a big challenge fended off there by Max
Hittig you know but but there are many more to come we’re just at the halfway mark now in skien and we are ramping things up as we’re going back to the top for another local favorite this is Whistler Free Ride club’s own Marcus Goen this kid keeps you on the edge of
Your seat it’s an emotional roller coaster watching him action pack I mean watching him in verbi even the judges after were like what are they feeding these kids in Whistler every single feature had a trick lacing the turns corner to corner to corner Marcus Goen in the Star Gate cannot wait
To see what he brings to the I will say what are you feeding them as head coach of the Whistler Free Ride Club he is one of the two prodigies on the start L wayn and Marcus coming out of the Whistler Free Ride Club um such a solid rider for
Such a young age just such a Powerhouse such a Powerhouse so strong you know and his ability to react and adapt and showcase technical highspeed proficient Free Ride skiing is there and the freestyle the cork sevens the giant backflips are like seamless to him well and we were chatting last night I mean
Marcus comes from you know a a bit of the the Canadian ski royalty family his uncle Thomas Grandy the best slalom skier in the history of Canada so the technique is just baked into his DNA and Marcus Goen has certainly inherited some of that from the family and from the
People that he skis with Marcus Goen now getting set to kick things off last year in kicking horse he delivered an electric performance we know he’s comfortable now he’s on his own time zone you know he’s got his he’s got his friends and family around him and he is
Fired up to kick things off him and Stan uh Ray were scoping lines together so hopefully we’re going to see a more successful outcome if he goes over to the same Zone that Stan went to and and you know again you got to have you have
To roll those dice as a free rider if you’re confident in your ability you stick with it even if someone else got taken down in that same Zone because the line that you choose and speaks to you is the line that’s going to ski well Marcus coming out of start to down the
Ridge let’s see what he has lined up again into a new creative section making quick technical work of it and a huge 360 off the cat Road like it was nothing a quick redirect and another 360 with those both different ways I can’t see from here Mark is flying another spin
Bolts on that one too so we’re 2 seconds into his run he’s got three 360s already and we are seeing him heading out into this wooded area that only has one track in it Marcus Goen now into Uncharted Territory we are both standing up here in the announcer Booth looking at this
Run coming into Uncharted Territory can he hold on this is it off this cliff and stopping it Marcus Goen with a brand new line a huge Air at the bottom 3360 this was completely oh I am in disbelief he stuck with his guns he held those 360s he even
Got caught up on one on the runin and still committed this young buck is Unstoppable when he’s on fire Marcus go Goan AKA as I call him Gorgon putting down an incredible run here in kicking horse Matt’s hit has to be sweating right now absolutely that was just such a beautiful
Combination of pure free ride with that huge Air at the bottom and just wild pedal to the metal freestyle as he gets a hug from his uh I mean his childhood best friend Tom let’s take a look at this replay look at the technical work in here committing in that fresh snow
With the rocks and huge 360 coming around setting up getting that transition and another left three perfectly stomped great riding Showcase of his freestyle ability and you see that catch but still commits he’s patient he knew that he could come up to the lip and stomp that three and this is
The showstopper threw that lily pad and just stomped he knew exactly where he needed to go he had to commit on that lily pad and boom the angle was perfect it’s one of the few spots where you can find a big cliff on this face that still
Actually you can see Max hit is shaking so hit right now in the top spot Carl rner Ericson and wayen ho that’s your one two three this man Marcus Goen definitely going to have a say in that conversation as the judges get to work they’re lining up what he did with the
Criteria and they’ve already had their say the thermometer going up a 91 913 interesting score in my personal professional opinion but that goes to show how solid Max hittig is when he’s on and I think that might be the free the fall line aspect to max hit’s line
That was the big difference Marcus did work a little out far right and so it’s interesting to see but these are the nuances in the judging so yeah so Marcus Goen now sitting in second spot coming close but not quite eclipsing hits for that top spot with the score coming in
So shaking things up a couple Riders who were way down the bottom of the pile now moving significantly up we go right back up to the top for the Utah native Dylan Flinders this man he’s a professional skier he’s a professional downhill mountain bike racer coming out of Salt
Lake an unbelievable skier another deep bag of tricks flender honing his skills on the slopes of snowbird and always exciting to watch I can’t wait to see what Dylan unleashes on this T1 South face and Dylan dropping out of St two I know he is such a strong Rider strength
Is something that he possesses as a downhill mountain bike professional and professional Free Ride skier and he has a great bag of tricks too coming off this nose and stomping and oh just a little impatient there yeah absolutely that crust trying to set that turn before he pops back onto the center of
His ski Dylan’s going to be very disappointed with that one I know and a big backflip having fun with it getting it around still showing that he knows what’s up and how he can hang here making his way through that creative little tree zone and and now this bottom section
Popping clean for Dylan fenders as he makes his way off as you said uh Tom he’s going to be disappointed with that cuz he had such a strong start and laying out the back flip so he’s definitely going to salvage some points here there’s no giving up and you know
For for even if you’re looking at a mid-pack result a slightly higher mid pack result is going to put some points on the board and move you in a good direction towards that overall cut and it could be the Difference Maker because he is sitting at right below the cut
Line and these like I said before these mid pack results make a difference in that position you want to get through the cut I know we all want the win but you want to make it to next season yeah so the dinar Rider there you can see him in this extremely exposed technical
Section laying it down and he just yeah it was a little bit of impatience you got to wait until your balance before you put the skis across the fall line and Dyan Fender is just getting a bit impatient but then this back flip so perfectly executed and so clean so tight
So held to together in the air he has those absolutely dialed and just you know he making his way down in control salvaging those points for his run and this is the bottom back the extra bonus look at the style in that just Hands On The Hip riding out like it
Was nothing brushing it off the shoulders Dylan flenders such an incredible Rider always a pleasure to watch ski so score coming in for flenders it’s a 5867 so that puts him into seventh again a Salvage result potentially you know if he can get himself somewhere in the top
10 you know put some points on the board and give himself an opportunity to move himself on the good side of the cut and of course we’re not at the cut yet we still have a whole event to go in Georgia after the kick Mor Golden BC Pro
So Dylan fenders wrapping up his day as we see the tracks definitely starting to play effect there’s some rocks poking out at the top there as we look at start one the big uh pyramid Stargate we’re going to be seeing Oscar Manden another big threat hit it will be nervous Oscar
M and the French Rider coming out of aoras he had an huge run going in verbi unfortunately going down on the one that took out so many great Riders on an enormous backflip so he’s sitting a bit lower than he would like to be in the
Overall in 18th but Oscar M always a threat when we see him unleash on a free ride World Tour face absolutely and he has such solid technical riding skills and he has that charging big big mountain freestyle style as well so I’m curious to see what Oscar is going to
Cook up today coming off that early entrance over this Cliff stomping it over exposure holding on and boosting off this second man Boling it Oscar M such a strong Rider coming into this ma hit 360 and a giant backflip and holding on oh my God Oscar mandin well Oscar
With three huge airs at the top of the face with an enormous back flip and now showcasing his his skill as he makes his way down this maze it’s been chopped up catching the nose of that one and now just putting it into the fall line to
Escape those trees that have taken down so many riders Oscar Manden over this bottom roll and he’s going to pin it through the Finish Line top to bottom absolutely Flawless run there from Oscar M what an electric run so technical off that early right hook in air into the
Top and off that Cliff Jackson Bathgate hit into the back flip you know it’s that high energy High Pace uh skiing that the judges just love watch the replay here early entrance and going over all the rocks and just holding on you have to be so dialed and tight in
There because that second Cliff comes up and he just finds the perfect angle and this back flip here sets it hard floats it down a yeah that was just incredible we’ve seen only a couple Riders even w a piece of that and Oscar taking it perfectly and on that one just a
Absorbing with the feet cuz he knew he needed to make a couple Direction changes after and then that was just Flawless for the uh for the aoras rider and if I may the cats Oscar always with the cat stickers I love it look at the look at the fwt
Drawing the Canadian the Swiss and the Georgia flag there super hot to but I if I may if we look at that back flip again which I’m sure we’ll get a replay he went huge and his bomb hole looked like deep snow that’s good smart scoping and looking at the terrain and
The nuances in the terrain yeah finding a Wind Drift to land in the score going way up 9267 for Oscar men and sliding into first pushing Marcus go down into third Another one not troubling Max hittig in that top spot but a huge a huge one for
Oscar Menda and another man who was below the cut coming into this who has put his stamp on this so here we go your top five way CH ho Carl Regner Erikson Marcus Goen Oscar Mand and Max hittig now sitting on the well still sitting on
The top of the pile with the 94o run and the top three men are so tight and the fourth to sixth place men are also so tight so this is going to be a very interesting day at the end of it well here we go speaking of interesting this
Is a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit this guy holding it down for the Spanish fans the Canadian fans roaring down here at the base of T1 South for Abel MGA he studied under the uh Under the Umbrella of imar Naro always full speed Full Throttle and always exciting to watch
Abel on course now fast out of start one coming down to this technical section let’s see what he has lined up avoiding all those sharks getting over this cookie getting a nice pop and getting I I can’t tell what happened there he blew up so muchow coming around that Cliff band and
Let’s see what he has lined up here off this lip and a big 360 from Abel oh he caught I wonder if that was the spot where Maxim shablo crashed it looked like he skied into a hole there andall just hit rocked him Abel MGA going down hard
There and Abel is going to have wanted something a bit more from that after finish in verbier it’s going to come down to the line for him and he is such an explosive skier I think he was just you know trying to get one down on his
Feet yeah it looked like he was going well and then unfortunately just skiing into some kind of pit or hole that just took him out instantly and you can see the body language Abel just absolutely dejected after that that’s two tough ones in a row two no scores uh so far in
The 2024 World Tour season so a Abel MGA a real unfortunate outcome here at the kicking orse Golden BC Pro for him and I’m curious to see what happened in that snowcloud too because if he did go down he knows that and that can impact his
Mental game uh at the top of the run right there and then all of a sudden you’re in a different mindset working his way down to the Finish Line still in one piece physically I’m happy to see that after some of the crashes he has
Taken cuz he is a true true Free Ride sender Abel Moa getting love from Max hittig yeah we’ll get a look here while you see the crowd just vibrant at the bottom of the face at kicking horse mountain resort and Abel Moga unfortunate for the Spanish fans
Unfortunate for him as he’s just yeah the picture of disappointment but a tough one for Abel is another Rider going down on something not really hard to chalk that up to his fault you know he had good trajectory on there the 360 was well executed well rotated but then
Just getting slammed by something that he would have had no way of knowing was there absolutely and you know in the past if he’s gone down he’s gone down on something big something something that you know it’s a big line and this is just again a symptom of the conditions
That we have out there today now with a ton of tracks on the venue it looks like a war zone at the top of that with all the Rocks the slough it can be you know a rider can scope something and then by the end of the day it’s a rock all right
Well we are back up to the top this is your reigning Free Ride World Tour ski men’s Champion Valley rer Scott Rider Peak Performance Rider I called him the sponsor’s dream you know the the the lining up perfectly valy is your reigning champ he had a tough go another
One taken out by The Dream killer on the verbi FAO looking for Redemption and looking to climb back out of that pit that he dug for himself on the first stop of the Free Ride World Tour but this man is Mis consistent he delivered just consistent performance after
Performance last year you know always in the mix and then with a win in in Andora last year he’s always so solid looking forward to seeing Valley rer on the T1 South face of kicking hor Austrian Powerhouse out of start one coming through that technical section with so
Much speed shutting it down into a new air and sending it off that middle band and stopping it huge cliff in the middle from valy and a big 360 to connect right after holding on staying in control hitting this let’s see keeping it straight through this tight tree section
And pointing it getting the extra points get out of there clean holding on Valentine rener sorry valy rer from the top to the bottom in probably about 15 seconds such incredible riding well that was really smart from valet because he got a ton of speed and when you get into
That Gully system it’s so narrow if you start trying to make turns in there going that pace you’re going to get tossed into one of the walls and so so he made the choice to just keep it in the ball line and straight line all the
Way through the Gully let’s look at this he’s so quick through this section and there’s not a lot of distance he got a little shut down on the inside but then huge air off the middle band and just stomping it such strong riding from Valentine and coming into the 360 great
Set in control look at the spot holding on the landing gear those strong legs holding him up and this is where he’s smart he says I’m just going to keep it straight nice shut out turn and then goes all the way to the bottom because if you catch a tree or anything under
The snow at that speed that is not a fun way to end your day yeah the line tracker telling the story there after that last feature it’s Dead Fall Line pinned all the way to the bottom big smiles there for Valley rer one of the most positive Riders on the Free Ride
World Tour always happy these two traveling together uh they’re they’re such good friends and you know well they in the start gate they’re competitors but so much of this is just comes down to the people you have in your corner and they are definitely backing each
Other score coming in for Valley rer an 87 flat so putting him into fourth so the scores climbing up the board here as we make our way through and that is absolutely what he needed after his finish in verbier that fourth is going to hold him strong for now we still have
A couple huge Heavy Hitters to finish off the category but we are in the back three quarters so that is a good sign for valy let’s see what we have for the rest in store but I love watching that chosen air in that middle Cliff band
That hasn’t been hit before he took a gamble on it and stomped it yeah going so big the 360 and then just pinned out the bottom so Valley reer has had his say and we are going back to the top T1 South getting worked over here as we go
Back up and we are looking at Colton sha Colton a rookie on the tour this year winning the Challenger Series in Region 2 that is the North and South American region 26 years old living uh living there in Boseman working as an engineer on the side another you know we called
Them the the Free Ride World Tour over Achievers there’s so many of these athletes that are just good at everything they do and on course now out of start gate to be that little higher entrance over that Cliff section through the technical section lining up where
He’s going to go I have a feeling he was looking at something what Marcus is doing and a huge pop and just pillowing over that he made quick worth work of it and stayed in control I think he did come a bit short also popping and stomping
Colon is such a rider throwing so much consistency through the qualifiers and a huge back flip in the middle no I think that was the same hole that took Abel out that Landing is just maybe just got a bit munched by um by Maxim shablow and these both of those Riders Landing clean
And then just getting bucked immediately as soon as they come back into contact with the ground absolutely and I think when Riders start to hit things in all these different angles The Landings and the holes start getting all weird and it’s so so easy to just get taken out
And a big back flip to finish it off still having fun with it unfortunately finding the crust and putting it to his hip but Colton getting down to the Finish Corral well Colton shaft getting a big hug from all the homies Kendall Goodman coming out there to welcome him into the
Finish as well as Michael M so oh sorry that was that was Dylan yeah the homies always looking out for each other you know it’s it’s so tough when you have a day like that it’s just not what you want but coming in through this top and yet look at the
Control and the strength though to pillow something like that it’s huge to be able to adapt and stomping that middle Cliff band showing his strength and look at Landing it and I think his Tails got thrown up from being a bit bit back seat on that crch over rotated and a touch
Over rotated and if you over rotate a back flip it’s so hard to come back from especially in firms no conditions well Colton cha he’s got a decent result under his belt from verb this one’s not going to be a keeper but we’ll see him come back swinging as we
See him there in the Finish area just you know catching his breath going through kind of what went down so 28 point result that’s going to be good enough for 14th for Colton shaft you a field of 22 you know that again points on the board it’s not nothing for Colton
As he gives uh hitk a big fist bump and makes his way off the stage so incredible show so far from the ski man we’re going back to the top this young man absolutely electric we’ve seen him just deliver performances across the tour and we got a chance to catch up
With him about the level we’re seeing on the Free Ride World Tour the ski men category this year is insane it’s so cool to watch uh everyone ski and we’re all such a big group of friends and it’s such a high level so I think the only thing that changed is
That it’s more inspiring than the years before because everyone can have it if it’s his day and I think that’s really cool well you know there’s a look into the into the head space Max Palm they’re all such good friends but he recognizes the level of talent in this field from
Ski men is just through the roof at the moment and all of them pushing each other upwards and upwards and upwards every single stop it just keeps going up and Max Palm is at the Forefront of that every single time we see him drop in it’s just insane what he’s able to do
Dropping in out of start gate 2B Max Palm such an incredible Rider such a deep trick of deep bag of tricks and Technical ability and a huge three off the Gap and stopping it holding on no Max going for such an ambitious line and
He had it look at he gets caught on that run out too and that’s the hard snow if you’re a bit off balance I hope he’s okay he’s standing in a bit of a hunch posture Max Palm always knowing for giving it 100% And you know what he is
One of the guys along with this whole start list that actually makes me scared to ever want to get back into competing yeah and he’s pushed the sport in such a big Direction with the double back flips he’s brought in so always going to give
It hard day for Max pal but that just goes to show he threed the big gap at the top yeah incredible we did we didn’t think we were going to see a move like that off the top and Max Palm is one who is just swinging for the fences every
Single time he leaves the Stargate 360 off that and you know we’ll get a chance to to analyze and see exactly what happened there what took him down but you can just see the body language of Max Palm absolutely devastated to see that not go his way the Peak Performance
Rider always delivering the performances of the day and highlight rail stuff every single time absolutely and you know he did come second on this venue in 2022 as well so you know he’s he knows what it takes to do on this venue and he had it lined up and that’s always hard
Knowing that like you have the that advantage on these venues if you’ve podiumed on them before you kind of get a a read for them M the feeling what you need to bring and what you need how you need to ski and he definitely brought it but it’s it’s that tough snow condition
Now you know these are the top top Riders and like I said this is a day that like I would be even trepid to ski in a competition so good for them and look at Andrew par the last man he’s got to watch the whole show from the top
Yeah he’s just vibing out there a Paul waiting for his turn he will be the last man to go in the ski men’s field Max Palm going to be making his way down through the bottom Gully kind of just straight lining it having fun keep it together and a
Nice little spot oh oh he’s got his helmet in his hand and almost just drove his head into the ground on that ski off of the face he’s a kid it’s a young it’s that’s a young that’s a young man’s move Max pal all the friends coming yeah Tom have
A look at this so solid he comes around anded a little on the inside a little early with that turn he wanted to get to that lip and make sure he could get to that next takeoff but he almost was a bit I don’t want to say impatient but
Just a little earlier and higher on the Run than he thought and just ended up off the bump is the right word you know he had those two things lined up back to back and and this is something that is really difficult because the nature of this venue is quite compressed
Everything his helmet took a good brunt of a hit I think on a Rock when he went into the bush you can see a chip out of it on the front that’s why these Riders wear all that protective equipment you know the there is risk and consequence involved when you’re pushing at this
Level of the sport and yeah Max with the with the compressed nature of this venue and how close together things are managing the speed is really difficult with the snow conditions and Max pal not quite able to do it so hits it there that’s another big threat fended off for
Him are we going to see the same as we saw in snowboard men where it’s a back-to-back winner in the first two events Max hittig is certainly not going to be comfortable in that seat with the Riders we still have on the top of this face all capable of delivering a win
Here on the T1 South venue kicking horse mountain resort providing the backdrop for this stop number two of the Free Ride World Tour by Peak Performance and so far it has delivered everything we have expected from the Canadian stop on the tour absolutely Ben Richards is one
Of my favorite skiers to watch ski he is so styly he has huge tricks so technical it’s that kiwi nature a lot of what you see from Craig Murray a past Free Ride World Tour Legend yeah and Ben you know great friends with Craig actually roommates with Craig in Squamish this
Winter these guys moving over to Canada to have a go at the good snow so it was a quick commute to for uh for Ben and he is on course now out of start one into this technical shelf let’s see what Ben is going to have lined up and popping
Over the whole top like it was nothing opening up his arms like a bird just flying through lining up for the next feature I think this next one they can’t hit that one before and a huge three just getting it around getting a little bucked but staying in control and look
At the footwork off that bottom hit making it work connecting all three at High speed incredibly mature riding from Ben Richards yeah and so smooth so Technical and so fast that might be the fastest run we’ve seen from everyone a huge hug there from Countryman Finn bis
These guys they roll together they have a blast together and so exciting to see Ben Richards he worked hard to get himself onto the tour he was battling on the qualifier and Challenger level year after year so he had a fifth place already in verbi and that was an
Electric performance look at this just pop and so controlled and stomping it like it was nothing and that sets him up so good to shut out and look the three a little open up to correct for his rotation that’s okay when you do that and sucking it up absorbing that Landing
So he can stay in control his feet stay together and stomping that bottom little pocket air quick work from Brent Ben Richards on T1 South quick work smart riding let’s see how it places with the past runs that we’ve seen in the top five today well I’ll tell you the most
Uncomfortable seat maybe right now other than Max hitzig is in the judges tent as they have been put to work today with so many solid runs you can see them they’re they’re reviewing they’re watching replays they’re analyzing every little aspect every minut you know minut detail
To put it together cuz the scores you know at this stage was so many good runs that we’ve already seen incredible run from Ben Richards and he is stoked and a big thing that I say and growing up is it’s not what features you hit it’s how
You ski in between them and that can make all the difference in these short venues where if you’re 5T off of a turn it can severely impact how you’re going to ski the rest of your run and your fluidity and Ben just showcasing such good knowledge on that venue making such
Qui quick work yeah that was really good line scoping he knew he was going to be hauling ass so he picked things that worked together in sequence back to back to back to back and the way pulled his feet up on that final feature there’s a big lip on that and it’s pretty
Aggressive so just pulling the feet up absorbing some of the energy off the lip and allowing himself to stay in balance and it’s exactly as you said at the start of the day the long and lows are going to play well today and Ben Richard’s putting himself exactly into
The mix on that that was brilliant skiing from Ben absolutely let’s see what the judges think of this and there’s so many options on this venue as we’ve seen you know keeping it fall line there we go score coming in for Ben Richards into seventh with an 82
So we have so many scores in the80s and that was a that was another big one so solid result for Ben Richards with only a couple Riders to go and the judges having there say you know maybe if if you do compare some of those higher ranked Riders right now they had some
Bigger cliffs in their run where Ben he went big off smaller features so clearly the judge’s criteria matters line scor is King in this sport and Ben Richards but still a solid Keeper in a stacked field but you know as he stands seventh overall with a fifth in verbi massive
For the overall back up to the start all right so this young Rider showed us exactly what he’s made of and I want to make a correction ten katsuno he corrected me when we were chatting he said it’s not tenra that’s a English way
Of saying it my name is TLA so it is 10 L katsuno this young guy we’ve seen him in the mix in the Juniors he’s he was a standout on the qualifiers and the challengers last year and now he is in the Stargate again and in his very first
Free Ride World Tour competition ever putting himself into fourth such strong riding from ten as we await anxiously his uh his drop in here at kicking horse oh we are getting a correction from the judges on the score here as I’ve just been told in my ear Max hittig
Waiting in the hot seat he still has kenl and Andrew Paul are two Powerhouse Riders let’s see what’s being corrected here interesting development here as we got Ben Richards back out in front of the backdrop so we’ll see what they’ve decided to do let’s see how this goes I
Haven’t seen a correction ever in my history as a rider on the world tour no we’re forging new ground here so which I think is a positive thing because correcting and reviewing things is the best way they only have this one opportunity up up here today on the hill
As the rule book says to make these scores you know they can’t relook at a replay tomorrow night and change it it’s as it stands today so the judges being very professional they’re the best of the best if they have to make this call they made the right call let’s see how
It goes for Ben if you put some beers on Ben you could be losing some or gaining some interesting development here as we see the score now dropping again an 8283 so he’s actually moved up a position so Ben Richards now into sixth place interesting development there as the
Judges decided they wanted to they wanted to review there and and you know live judging is really hard because you have such a short time window to get it done but whatever that was they did it and now here we see in the overall standings on the day max hittig Oscar M
And Marcus Goen Valley in fourth Carl fifth Ben Richards just jumped above way Chan ho so that was the correction that they wanted to make Turell and Jackson Bathgate Dylan fenders rounding out the top 10 with two men to go we are moving back up to the start ten La katsuno
Ridder out of Japan he’s holding it down you know we haven’t had a Japanese Rider on tour since yasaki who we saw last night at the Peak Performance activation with his food truck delivering some of the most delicious food and ten holding that long tradition of strong Japanese
Free Riders and he is on course now ready to have his say here on the kicking or face ten out of start one onto this Traverse we’ve seen so much energy and so much stuff happen on blowing up snow having fun with it coming across the face into this Cliff
Band let’s see what tenlo lines up off off the Hugo Salin and stomping a little a little thrown off the lip but holding on coming off that next one so in controlled linking it up yeah back to back to back features there for TLA as
He makes his way down there’s a bunch of stuff stacked up he gets himself into this lower Gully and now picking up ahead of steam as he flies off the lower one of a little bit backseat but clean for TLA katsuno as we’re going to see
Him now coming over this final roll and into the finish with a bunch of speed TLA Cino locking in at the bottom that’s absolutely what he needed just put something on the feet same with Ben Richards Tena finishing fourth in verbi and let’s see how this puts him but it’s
Huge consistency is key in this sport yeah these Riders all want to be on the good side of the cut line after Georgia has we go back and look at handless run scoping it getting lined up making the corrections and stomping it finding some power to shut down in as well and right
Off the nose of that next one too he knew he needed to have his speed in control for that and then look at this landing on a little bump offc centered but so strong and in controlled and again makes the corrections for that little lip off the side of the goalie
And holding on look at how straight he is through the bottom so much speed holding in it down TLA katsuno incredible riding throttle wide open for TLA as he stands at the bottom all smiles one of the most infectiously enthusiastic Riders on the tour
6933 so Tena still in the mix in the top 10 as you said Tom with a fourth already under his belt that’s going to put a bunch of points on the board toward the overall for 10 left and it’s all going to come down to the last event in
Georgia to see who makes it on the uphill side of that cut so this man has spent the whole day sitting in that hot seat just watching Rider after Rider after Rider come down and throw down as we go back up to the top to the last
Rider of the day this is the pride of ala Utah a Andrew Pard we’ve seen him deliver fireworks moments across all venues always a good time just keeping the vibe mellow riding for that pit viper team sitting right now in 10th overall aul was well in the hunt last
Year for the overall when we unfortunately had the verb extreme canell he was psyched to draw blast he wanted to see what everyone else did he wanted to see what was working and what wasn’t so a Paul getting ready to kick things off Andrew paard such a smooth
Rider so technically proficient he knows exactly where to ski down the venue let’s see how he starts right out of the gate off the technical section from start one like it’s not and correcting his speed coming into this next Cliff Bend and huge floating Cliff to stomping it no thrown a little off
Balance so uncharacteristic of Andrew Pard I I have you know he had that in the bag he was floating you could tell that he was relaxed in the air and that’s the hard crust the variable unpredictable snow underneath Andrew is not going to be happy with that and
Again just making his way down to the bottom Andrew Pard unfortunately caught by the tradition today launching off the bottom roller you you can hear the frustration because when stuff like that happens and it’s not entirely a result of something they did yeah he bumed here let’s take a
Look back at this run from Andrew Pard so smooth on his Landings and so strong coming into this middle Cliff B let’s see and caught just absolutely caught he waited he landed he was pointed back into the falling but for correcting his turn and right as he started to turn
Something caught his inside ski it looked like and forced his feet out from under him uh Andrew Pard going to have to fight for it in Georgia yeah that’s that’s disappointing and you could hear him when he came through the Finish line he said I never do that so really uh uncharacteristic
And the body language says it all as speaking to the folks at home I’m sure his sister Jacqueline who was a standout on the Free Ride World Tour will be watching Andrew throw down he’s going to be bum but we’ll see him come back firing at the next event the judges uh
You know were waiting but there’s going to be obviously a huge control and fluidity dock for that one for a and you know I will say I grew up riding in the Juniors qualifiers and the world tour with this man and I’ve always looked up to his riding and his ability you know
When he is on he makes skiing look Flawless yeah he makes it look easy and he makes it look fun which is what I’ve always appreciated about Andrew’s style so score coming in for a PA 53 that’s going to put him into 14th he knew well before the score drop that that wasn’t
Going to be the result he was looking for today so we’ll see AAL moving into the uh the big group of riders all right so we’re going to take a look back at exactly where we stand at the event scoreboard here after the kicking horse Golden BC Pro incredible riding
Today okay looking at the skien we have Max hiig taking another first on the 2024 freead World Tour calendar with Oscar mandin and Marcus Goen throwing down two firecracker runs to come in second and third look at how tight fourth sixes with valy to Ben Richards and Carl Regner Regner in between such
Solid riding from everyone and rounding out the bottom the back half of the cut here you know we have a couple no scores and a couple really I just want to say unlucky airs from the from the snow condition these Riders are seriously the best of the best and I’m looking at some
Names in there Andrew TBO uh look at these three Heavy Hitters right at the back of the field today all with no scores Palm bender and Abel MGA all Heavy Heavy Hitters all just not having their day today so unfortunate for some unbelievably exciting for others the glory and heartbreak of competitive Free
Ride it’s an emotional roller coaster and kicking horse mountain resort once again just delivering an electric competition here Free Ride World Tour by pe performance stop number two here is your Podium three fine gentleman Max H AER manin and Marcus Goen rounding out the top three with some incredible runs
Today seriously seriously inspirational riding nothing but Stoke from the three of them yeah and the kids at home probably just getting fired up watching their Heroes blowing it up here on the Free Ride World Tour this is what’s happened now to the overall ranking a
Big shake up and no surprise to see Max hittig running away with it with two first on 20,000 points toell still right in the mix and Ben Richards actually sliding even up a bit Finn bilis down a little and then we’re see seeing some guys that were on the bad side of the
Cut moving up Marcus Goen valy rer Jackson Bathgate still holding on as we get into the second page and this is where it’s going to get interesting to see that line and where some of these Riders are uh relative to it and it’s so tight from 33d to about 9th and you know
If just because you’re on the good side of the cut doesn’t mean that you’re safe in Georgia everything can get shaken up right now absolutely so Maxim Shau has slid down way 10 ho has now put himself right in the mix he’s just on the downside so he’s got a strong
Performance and one more of those and we’re going to find him on the good side and then a whole bunch of stars and stripes there and we see these guys now with a couple of no scores really in deep uh with with what they’re going to need to do in Georgia basically it’s
Going to be Podium it’s a win almost or nothing yeah exactly all right we’re going to go down to the Finish area with your winner once again Max hit a commanding performance tell us a little bit about what it went into choosing that line compared with the snow
Conditions and how you did it today Max uh I thought the conditions are not that good uh I wanted to do another three or back here at the top but I thought one trick is enough and yeah I’m really glad I stomped the 360 on the third cliff and
It worked out perfect and snow was better than expected well stoked to see that Max hit an unbelievable performance you’re now sitting way up in the standings what goes through your mind going forward now such a commanding lead on the tour uh yeah I can’t believe that the tour
Started like this I’m so excited and yeah I think I have not that much pressure for the next come by really looking forward to Georgia never have been there and I’m really excited to to go there and compete and given all the snow that is falling in Georgia right
Now are you looking to send it or just keep it safe and stay in that top spot Max um yeah we will see if the conditions are good I try to uh stay in the top spot and yeah go all in we’ll see well you’re an inspiration and
You’re an absolute monster on skis Max congratulations today thanks man well there you have it your champion at kicking horse Max hittig wrapping up his day with another win here on the Free Ride World Tour his trophy case is starting to bulge with so many wins on the Free Ride World Tour incredible
Performance from the entire men’s category and all categories across the board delivering today absolutely and you know we did see a lot of tough luck taking out some huge names across every category and also some just incredibly talented incredible riding all right well we’re free ride fans this is now
Your chance to have a say in the results of the day the Free Ride World Tour Rider of the day voting is open the rider of the day is your opportunity to have a say who you thought was the standout Rider this is all categories included whoever you want to vote for
Whoever you thought delivered the performance of the day snowboard ski whatever whatever you thought was the action of the day you got the QR code there freerideworldtourtv thanks for joining us your insights into the indepth factors here on the Free Ride world tour super valuable have you
Had a good time in the booth today I have it was an awesome time getting to sit here and watch some worldclass riding Derek uh you know it’s super inspirational I’ll be doing the Challenger Series and maybe see you guys back next year we’ll see how it goes but
I’m shaking in my seat right now watching it so great riding from everybody great day thanks for having me it’s really been incredible and I’m just so impressed with all of the Riders across the board we had tricky conditions especially the later we got the tracks were there there were some
Bumps there were some holes but these Riders just show us why they are who they are and what they can do it’s so inspiring absolutely and the the quality is so high and you see what gets put down and how the sport is being pushed in this direction from 3 years ago to
Now so awesome day for everyone including all the staff that made it go off today seamlessly so incredible show all right well on behalf of everyone of the Free Ride World Tour myself Derek fous Tom Pier to all of you thank you for tuning in and joining us here at the kicking
Horse Golden BC Pro and we are going to see you very shortly coming up at the Georgia Pro the first time we’ve been there we’ll see you in Georgia the last Showdown before the finals the last opportunity to make the cut who will Master the mountain who will push the limits who will rule Georgia let’s [Applause] [Applause] go Woo
4 Comments
Anti-American judges?
Max Hitzig didn´t have the best performance today. Mandin and Goguen had better performances, for sure!
Marcus Gougen should have won
Look cold ! Here from Florida