The London Freeze held at Battersea Power Station in London has probably been my most anticipated event off the year, watching all the international guys on the city big airs for the last years has definitely inspired me to think that’s something that I want to do. This year I was given the chance to compete in the Battle of Britain on the Friday, against 15 top UK riders.
The jump looked really fun, but it was definitely the most scared I have been standing up there, looking down on the in run, waiting to drop in for my first run. Once I had got a few jumps done, the nerves had eased off a little, and I felt a little more comfortable on the jump. The competition format was head-to-head, so I did cork 7 mutes’ both runs, up against Andy who knocked me out with a sick misty 7 high nose grab. The rest of the competition was really fun; it was cool to see Paddy doing his double cork 10 in preparation for Sunday’s competition.
Later that evening, it was the style mix competition, with only two British competitors in – Woodsy and Paddy in. It was a really fun competition to watch, Paddy did really well in it with his double cork 1080. It was definitely great to watch Phil Casabon with his perfect 900 nose to tail on the jump, and then Bobby Brown with his double cork poked 1080 mutes, which actually won the competition.
On the Saturday, it was the Snowboard FIS competition in the day and then the skier’s rail jam later in that evening. I drove in with Woodsy on Saturday, as he and a few others had slept at mine the previous night. For most of Saturday, it was pretty chilled out, hanging out with each other before the rail jam later in the evening. Once the snowboard competition had finished, they started to prepare the rail jam, making the landing the in-run to the rail now.
I ended up being the ‘guinea pig’ for the rail, which I wasn’t too fussed about. I had a really fun time sessioning the rail, as did many others, apart from when I fell off the side off it. Although I didn’t make the rail jam final, which I didn’t expect as I was up against the worlds best rail skiers, I had such a sick time playing around learning new tricks on the rail. On Saturday evening, I ended up going back to mine and having a fairly chilled out evening, as I was very tired to say the least.
On the Sunday, I drove in again for the Freeski Big Air competition. The weather didn’t look too good, it had been raining all night, and the jump didn’t appear to be in a good condition. The competition didn’t event look like it was going to go ahead, but by 3 o’clock, to my amazement, the shapers had done a brilliant job and got the kicker in a working condition. Due to an avalanche of snow down the in-run, it meant that they had to use snowflex as part of the in-run, more to the UK rider’s advantage.
The international riders, were spectacle about this to say the least, but at the riders meeting, with a lot of chanting and cheering “Woodsy, Woodsy, Woodsy” they persuaded Woodsy to go up there and test the jump. Woodsy got up to the top of the in-run, and there was a little bit of a delay, which added to the tense moment. When Woodsy dropped in, everyone held their breath for a minute, not that we needed to as he went off the jump doing a 360 truck going all the way down to the bottom of the landing.
The riders seemed a little more stoked now, having seen that the snowflex was working as an in-run and they all began to get warmed up. In the qualifications there was all sorts been thrown down, from the likes of kangoroos, double cork 10’s and 12’s and then rodeo 9’s, from the likes of Andreas, TJ, Bobby and Russ.
I thought the qualifications were awesome, but after seeing the finals I soon changed my mind. The finals of the competition were one of the craziest I have ever witnessed. Bobby was the second last rider to drop in, and stomped his double cork 12 poked mute, scoring 98. With Russ up there being the last rider, everyone thought there was no way he could be beaten, but he dropped in, and stomped a double cork 12 guitar grab and scoring 99. The crowd were so stoked, as were we all, it was such a good event. No one would have thought early in the morning, that it would turn out to be an event like this. To top of the evening I got to Chase and Status live too.
