Official video from ProFreestyle in The Hague
Check out the official video from the rail jam… so stoked to make the finals and come 4th overall.
Can’t wait for the same event next year!
Thanks to Reuben Principe for the invite!
Tyler Jay Harding
ProFreestyle in The Hague
I was lucky enough to be invited to the ProFreestyle rail battle which took place in The Hague over the last few days!
I had the privilege of spending two days riding with the nicest group of guys at one of the sickest events I’ve been to! The set-up was amazing, right in the city centre. At the end of the first evening they announced that I’d made the finals but the final itself was delayed to the following day.
The finals kicked off on Saturday late afternoon – it was awesome with everyone throwing it down. At the end of the session I was stoked to learn that I’d come fourth overall!
You can read all about it on the ProFreestyle website round up (in Dutch!)
Thank you to Reuben Principe for organising this weekend I won’t forget it anytime soon…
Shoreditch Showdown
I was stoked to get an invite to the O’Neill Shoreditch Showdown. It was an amazing event – I made it through to the finals and eventually finished 4th overall. Well done to Tyler, Ross and George!!
Love the photo taken by Kyle Meyr – awesome!
What a Month of Skiing!!
The past month has been amazing! I have been skiing at my best in a while and to my luck this month there has been three comps – the first and second legs of the Southern Freestyle Series and the Oakley Grom Games!
Swadlincote – Southern Freestyle Leg 1
The first of the month saw the first leg of the Southern Series, which was being held at Swadlincote dry slope. The competition was great with a fairly good atmosphere. Everyone was throwing it down, especially Tom Coe and Kiki Patel with his wizard tricks…
At the end of the day I walked away with the 1st under 14’s male title.
Oakley Grom Games
Next up was the Oakley Grom Games which, the same as the year before was being held at the Chill Factore. When my family and I got there we signed in and then went off to catch up with people we hadn’t seen in a while. When I finally got out on to the slope I saw how sick the setup was. After skiing for a while I started to get the feel for the flow of the course and from the way everyone one had skied during the jam I didn’t think I was going to get a podium at all (as my category was 12-17) but to my surprise I was called up for 2nd place!!
I then was even more amazed when I found out I was in the finals with James Machon, TJ Harding and Murray Buchan, who had all been skiing really well. It was a sudden death final and in the first round I was drawn against TJ Harding but because of my bad choice of line and his sickness I didn’t beat him. So I then competed against Murray (as he didn’t win against James Machon) to decide the 3rd and 4th places. I corrected my line and beat Murray for 3rd place overall with James Machon in 2nd and TJ Harding in 1st. Pat Sharples put on an amazing games it was totally awesome – can’t wait for next year!
Chatham – Southern Freestyle Leg 2
The final comp of the month was the 2nd leg of the Southern Freestyle Series which was at my home slope Chatham. As soon as I got there the atmosphere was already fun and intense and everyone wanted to go up and ski as the setup was really good. Everyone skied really well throughout the day especially Tom Coe, Tom Saunders, Kiki Patel and Ollie Powell.
The finalists were then announced and I was one of them. After a short break, everyone put down their final runs… there was such a high standard. At the end of a fantastic day, it was time for prize giving – I was called up for 1st under 14’s and 2nd overall.
Now all that is left is the final comp at Bracknell. So let’s wait and see what happens.
Sno!Down
The first of the summer comps kicked of in CasVegas last weekend.
The Jam was a 2 hour session, the set up was amazing with lots of awsome rails. As the Jam started, me and TJ Harding headed out to start warming up. After the first few runs I had really got used to most of the features, I was straight in doing K-feds, Super Feds and 450’s out. By the end of the night I had landed tons of sick tricks like nose tap 5’s and 630’s!
- Nose tap 5
After the jam we had a quick break and then got back on the slope for a team event. The rules were that we had 4 runs in our teams to go mad and crazy. The whole event was about creativity. Our team captain Adam came up with some fun ideas and we put them into practice in our first 3 runs and on our 4th we put them all together. We had Liam lying upside down with his skis up in the air for us to tap or ski slide. Then we had Tim sitting behind the gas pipe with his poles in the air for us to jump through and finally, we had a guy grabbing our skis/boards and spinning us on the box!!!!!
Results
At the presentation I was called out for second place in the 13-16 year old category, Josh Jenkins got third place and Tyler got first.
And yes, I was stoked!!!
Podium Finish at Castleford British Snow Tour Mini Brits – Slopestyle
Had an amazing time at the Castleford Slopestyle this weekend – we travelled up early on Saturday and arrived in plenty of time for a sausage sandwich before hitting the slope for a practice.
In the jam session I got a good feel for the rides and was stoked to win a spot prize.
In the actual comp I was first to ride in my age category (12-16) – I laid down a solid first run, my second was better and turned out to be my best as my third run didn’t quite go to plan.
Results
There were a lot of great skiers in the comp, including all the local Castleford crew so I was amazed when my name was called out to take the bronze prize in the 12-16’s category – Woooooohoooo!!! Harris Booth claimed silver, and my ski buddy Tyler Jay Harding got the well deserved gold.
Super-stoked at the Mini-Brits in Norfolk
Just got back from a brilliant weekend in Norfolk where I had a fantastic time seeing all my ski mates while competing in the mini-Brits!
On the Saturday we arrived early enough to search out the local Sainsbury’s for a good breakfast to set us up for the day. When we got to the slope we were stoked to see a good turn out and a challenging set-up for the slopestyle.
we kicked off with a rail jam – I got to work straight away, getting the feel of the slope and tried out as many tricks as I could. At the end of the session Pat announced that I was the winner of the Jam for the Youth Mens section. I was stoked with that!
Slopestyle
After the rail jam we began the slopestyle competition where we got three runs each – my earlier practice during the jam session paid off and I laid down some steezy tricks with my best run including a K-fed on the top gas pipe followed by a switch-up, pretzel 270-off on the box rail and then finishing off on the down-up-down with a slide followed by a 450 off.
Slopestyle Results
At the end of the day we had the awards and I was announced as the winner of the Youth Mens Slopestyle which was fantastic for me as I was up against 14 of the top guys in the country. TJ Harding came a close second with my Southern freestyle squad team mate Tom Saunders coming third.
After the rest of the awards were announced they moved on to the overall positions for the day and when they called out the results I was stoked to hear that I had been placed 2nd overall in the mens Slopestyle across all age groups – 52 competitors including most of my heroes. Local legend Tom Coe secured the top spot with an awesome run while Chris Wadsworth came third.
Big Air
There was an entertaining quiz night where some of the adults took may be a little too much advantage of the local hospitality but the Chatham Chavs did well to finish second against some stiff opposition.
We got to the slope early on Sunday and started with a practice session for the Big Air. My best run in the comp was a cork 720 which Pat said I had put my own style to, but I very nearly landed a cork 9 in my final run.
When the results were announced I was mega-happy to find that I’d come 4th in my age category against 14 other competitors and 12th overall in a field of 45!! Super-stoked!
SkierCross
SkierCross was a total riot! I put down a respectable time of 16:56 seconds in the timed heats which put me 6th in the heats – not bad for a freestyler! I got through the quarter finals, despite having to run the race twice! I finally got knocked out in the semi-finals after a very tight battle that saw me cross the line holding three ski-poles – what a fight!!
Special thanks to my sponsors Waterbird for continuing to support me with my skiing and to Ski Bartlett and K2 for supplying my skis.