Australian Junior Freeride Championships Wrap Held at Perisher Last Weekend

September 5th, 2019
The Australian Junior Freeride Championships, saw Australia’s best young riders compete last weekend. Sunny Steele, winning the hotly contested snowboard Rookie Halfpipe. Photo: Perisher

Mountainwatch | Events

The Australian Junior Freeride Championships wrapped up in great conditions in Perisher last weekend. The three-day event consisted of half-pipe and slopestyle in ski and snowboard and a rider cross for the snowboarders.

This is the biggest junior event of the winter and the three-day event attracted Australia’s best junior skiers and snowboarders competing in three disciplines with the halfpipe running on Saturday, slopestyle on Sunday and rider cross on Monday.

 

The Australian Junior Freeride comp is sanctioned by Ski and Snowboard Australia and is the premier event on the Junior freestyle calendar with the winners of each division being crowned the Australian champion. There were three divisions in both male and female: rookie (15-19 years), Youth (13-14 years) and Grom (12 years and under) and the standard was very high, the placegetters laying down some progressive and innovative moves to reach the podium in the slopestyle and halfpipe events.

 

Joey Elliss on his way to winning the youth division in ski halfpipe. Photo: Perisher

The weather was perfect for Saturday’s halfpipe comp with sunshine and light winds and the Perisher half-pipe stayed in great shape all day. Conditions were more challenging for the slopestyle on Sunday with blustery winds while the cloud cover resulted in flat light at times. However, the competitors did not hold back with the two-jumps and rail set up in Leichhardt Park the perfect platform for Australia’s best young skiers and snowboarders to put on a great show.

 

Jesse Parkinson put down a killer winning run to take out the slopestyle in Youth snowboard. Photo: Perisher

 

Monday’s rider cross was held in sunny spring conditions. Photo: Perisher

A return to sunny spring weather on Monday resulted in some great riding in the Sun Valley boardercross course, which held up well despite warm conditions.

Once again the Australian Freeride Nationals was a great event and congratulations to all the winners. Also, a big thanks to Burton, Skullcandy, Oakley and Volkl for their continued support. And of course, a huge thanks to Perisher resort, the events and park crews for putting on a sensational three days of competition.

Check out the full results here.

 

Stoked competitors after the halfpipe comp. Photo: Perisher