Rip Curl Snow Tour – Perisher

Jordan launches a backy against his own will.

In partnership with Rip Curl

Mountainwatch | Chris Booth

“Who wants to see Jordan launch Sun Valley Rock!”

Yeeeaahh! the kids roar. “Backflip” one of them yells. “Yeah backflip” I yell back, encouraging them.

“Back flip! Back flip! Backflip!” we all chant.

Jordan is not looking stoked, it’s his first day back on skis this winter and he’s barely done his boots up. Turns out driving ferries across Sydney harbour doesn’t give you all that much time to ski. But he’s the pro guy on Rip Curl’s Instagram, to chicken out now would just let them down. And besides the kids have spoken, now he must backflip Sun Valley Rock.

I lead the kids down to below the rock, it looks pretty big and, I’m afraid to say, not all that soft. Jordan looks unsure above, but covers it up well. Eventually he points it and launches. He soars into the air and lays out a perfect backflip, it’s big!

He comes to his feet perfectly. He’s done it! oh no wait, he’s flying through the air. He’s double-ejected… and he’s cooked, he’s lost everything, his goggles are halfway down his face and filled with snow – full yard sale.

The kids explode in applause. Their day just went from heaps good to rad.

Turns out that no matter how pro or how sponsored you are, or what sweet tricks you can do, there’s nothing that will impress kids more than seeing you stack it massively.

…

Our Perisher stop on the Snow Tour coincided with a bluebird day and another little coating of fresh snow. Seriously, how good is this season.

How good is this season. Georgia Baff hikes for some freshies.

Perisher let us join their First Tracks program so it was an early start, but totally worth it once we saw the full moon, and then even more worth it when we saw the sunrise. A cruisy morning in the mountains is always nice, but I reckon early ups are underrated.

Full moon over the main range. Gotta be up early to see that.

Jordan and Boothy check out the main range.

After a couple of pow slashies we went had a bit of a pow wow with the winter Sports Club juniors. Katya talked about her recent success at the Sochi Olympic Games and Nate answered questions on how to avoid injuries.

Katya with an early morning slashie

The crew have a yarn with the Winter Sports Club juniors.

Both Nate and Katya started off in these winter sports programs, so it was a cool opportunity for juniors to see just how far they can take their skiing and riding if they stick to it like Nate and Kat have done. Being slightly less of an Olympian and slightly more of a skibum, I went and did backflips with a whole crew of talented young shredders.

Rise and shine, it’s backflipping time.

In the arvo we linked up with the kids from the Perisher Development Program and hit up Mt Perisher. The ‘devos’ (dee-voze) were keen to just go and have some fun, so we cruised the hill as a pack, finding all the little wind lips and jumps along the way.

The junior devos were stoked to cruise the hill.

The ability level of all the young girls was great to watch, Ruby stood out from the pack with her rad airs.

For me it was amazing to see just how good kids are these days. I don’t know if it’s the skis or better coaching or what, but they are way better than I can ever remember me and my friends being at that age. I guess that’s called progress.

Oskar Schultz is 9 years old. He is in the junior winter sports freeski program and shreds the hill like you wouldn’t believe.

Huge thanks to Rich, Damian, Sam and all the crew at Perisher for letting us come and play.

After coming down from the hill the crew signed a few posters and handed out a prizes at the Rip Curl Jindy store.

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