Snowboard Yukon sent a team of seven athletes to compete at the Alberta Provincial Series Jan. 27-28. The focus of the trip was Saturday’s slopestyle competition. The course at WinSport in Calgary consisted of three jumps followed by two rails. Athletes are then judged based on the difficulty, amplitude, variety and execution of their runs.

The competition was a success for the Snowboard Yukon athletes.

“Everyone landed their runs. We were really pleased about that,” said Snowboard Yukon Head Coach, Esa Suominen. “It is so valuable for our athletes to get experience at outside competitions,” he added. Thanks to Lotteries Yukon and Air North for the support.

Stian Langbakk followed up his podium placings at the BC Provincial Series at the beginning of the month with another outstanding performance. He landed both his runs in qualification to finish first in his heat. He demonstrated an incredible level of consistency by landing both his runs in finals as well.

This was good enough for second in Male U15 and second overall of 38 total riders.

On the female side, Aven Sutton had a great competition, finishing second in Female U18. She executed a new trick on one of the rails that she had just learned in practice immediately before the competition.

Mason Stehelin also did very well in his qualifying runs and just missed out on the 12-person final by placing seventh in his heat. Other results were Leo Spiers-Leung seventh in Male U15, Will Stenzig 11th in Male U18, Connor Boland 17th in Male U18 and Tycho Roy-Gelinas 20th in Male U18.

Langbakk, Sutton, Spiers-Leung and Stenzig are part of the eight-person team going to Arctic Winter Games in March.

– Submitted by Snowboard Yukon