Mont-Tremblant (QC), Canada – Under blue skies and warm temperatures Tuesday at Quebec’s Tremblant ski resort, Sebastien Toutant and Alexandra Duckworth were crowned the first ever Canadian slopestyle champions at the 2010 Canada Snowboard Nationals.nToutant, of Montreal, had a stellar ride Tuesday that earned him 46 points. His championship run consisted of cab 4 side to fakie, cab 270 to fakie on the down rail, 9 switch tail, and front 7 into a back 9.
“My day today was amazing. Amazing course. I rode really well and it was good times,” commented 17 year-old Toutant, still considered a junior rider.
Toutant’s season results are impressive, especially considering that he broke his ankle in December and only had one week of training before placing third at the Burton U.S. Open held the third week of March at Vermont’s Stratton Mountain. Before his injury he was sitting on top of the Swatch TTR professional tour, winning competitions in New Zealand and Australia.
Rounding out the men’s podium were Julien Beaulieu (La Beauport, Quebec) in second place with 41.4 points and Robby Balharry (Canmore, Alberta) in third with 38.7 points.
In the women’s competition, Duckworth, who hails from Kingsburg, Nova Scotia and is a member of the Canadian Snowboard Team, grabbed first place with a ride that earned her 40.2 points. Duckworth previously finished sixth in the Canadian Nationals halfpipe competition at Stoneham and her best result this season was third in slopestyle at the World Cup in Calgary.
“Today was a fun day. I decided I wasn’t going to do any safety runs, just the tricks I wanted to land. That’s what I did and it worked out,” remarked the 22-year-old Duckworth, who’s been boarding for eight years.
It was a tight finish for second and third. 15-year-old Samm Denena (Orillia, Ontario) finished in second with 35.8 points and Molly Milligan (Whistler, British Columbia) was close behind in third with 35.7 points.
The total prize purse for the slopestyle competition was CAN $6,250 with the top four riders in both men’s and women’s competition receiving an award.
Slopestyle has been one of the most popular freestyle snowboarding events over the last decade within the Canadian snowboarding scene. Slopestyle was introduced this year on the FIS World Cup tour in Calgary, Alberta, as well as on the FIS North American Tour.
“Slopestyle is a major contest and I think people really want to see it. It’d be super nice to have it in the Olympics,” commented Toutant when asked about slopestyle’s appearance on the FIS tour.
In slopestyle, riders compete individually on a course containing a variety of large jumps, terrain features and rails. They are expected to flow smoothly from start to finish without stopping and the judges look for similar criteria as they do in the halfpipe.
This 13th edition of Canada~Snowboard Nationals concludes the 2010 Canada~Snowboard Tour that featured 11 competitions in four provinces. The PGS competition is set to take place today and snowboardcross concludes the competition this Saturday.