The finals of the Rip Curl Australian Freeride Pro were run in great conditions on Thredbo’s Bluff today. Early morning fog and poor visibility forced organisers to push the start time back an hour and when the fog cleared the competitors were pleased with the conditions – a variety of terrain re-shaped by overnight winds and soft forgiving snow.
Today’s competitors had successfully qualified through Wednesday’s qualifying runs and the start list was made up of the best skiers and snowboarders in the country.
The first competitor on course was Ben Mates (Jindabyne, NSW) in the open snowboard and he set the standard with a scintillating run made up of 360s, rail slides and big airs through the bottom of the course.
Boen Ferguson (Jindabyne, NSW) was the first skier on course and laid down a sensational run, mixing it up with hand drags off the cornice, switch 720s (skiing backwards into the trick) and fast lines through the natural terrain.
Head judge Andreas Gloor rated the 2009 Rip Curl Australian Freeride Pro as one of the best events he has ever been involved with.
“The standard in the Open Men’s is what you’d expect from Australia’s best skiers and snowboarders, but the standard in the Women’s and Juniors really impressed the judges. They all hit it with speed and commitment and the depth has really grown in the past year,” Gloor said.
In the end the winners were the athletes who pushed it a little harder with defending champ Nate Johnstone (Mona Vale, NSW) winning the Open Men’s Snowboard and Charlie Timmins (Cooma, NSW) winning the Open Men’s Ski. It was a big win for Johnstone, making it two years in a row, and is just the tonic to get him primed for next year’s Winter Olympics where he is looking like a good chance to represent Australia in the halfpipe.
Timmins’ second run was the winner, the Jindabyne local, executing a huge 360 off the top air, followed by a 720 before skiing hard through the terrain and busting a massive air off the bottom rock.
Saph Farrell (Jindabyne, NSW) number one qualifier for the finals, won the Open Women’s Snowboard with a solid run and Zoe Jaboor (Mount Buller, VIC) won the Open Women’s Ski for the second year running.
The juniors turned on some excellent riding with Thredbo local Sam Tomasi winning the Ski and Ben Randall (Newport, Sydney) the Snowboard. Lauren Stavely (Mount Buller, VIC) won the Junior Women’s Snowboard.
The 2009 Rip Curl Australian Freeride Pro will go down as another huge success, cementing its place as the premier ski and snowboard event on the Australian winter calendar.
The Rip Curl Australian FreeRide Pro is part of the Thredbo FreeRide Series with proud media partners Mountainwatch.com, Snowboarder and Powderhound Magazine.
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