Erin Sketchley is the golden girl of slopestyle. She won the gold medal this weekend at the B.C. championships as a member of the Mount Washington Freestyle Club.
At the age of 12, Sketchley practises her skills daily on skis. And now that she stands on the gold medal podium, all that practice has paid off. In the winter she lives part-time on the mountain and part-time in Campbell River. She goes to school on the mountain at the Podium of Life Ski Academy.
This weekend she competed in moguls and dual moguls and placed in the top five in her age class. But when it came to sliding rails and hitting jumps, she won the judges over. Her winning routine included a big spread off the first jump, followed by a very difficult sideways slide on a rail, followed by a slide on the scary rail named Battleship.
A combination of a jump and two rail slides impressed the judges (most of her competitors avoided the rails) and Sketchley earned a score high enough to win her the gold medal.
Racers also freestylers
Podium of Life Ski Academy entered a team in the BC freestyle championships held this weekend at Mount Washington. Every one of the seven Podium of Life athletes that competed this weekend was a racer. And it turns out that racers are pretty good at freestyle as well.
The Mount Washington Freestyle Club hosted this huge event in style. The competition was moguls, which is bumps and jumps, and slope style, which is a combination of jumps and rails. The event was held under excellent weather conditions, which showed off the mountain very well to over 300 visitors. There were about 160 competitors ranging in ages five to 19 years old.
This was the first freestyle event ever for the racers who competed for Podium of Life. Of course, they were nervous and did not know what to expect. But they had a lot of fun and did quite well, said coach Shane Harle.
In the Super Youth category the two star racing sisters from Comox, Bryn and Emily Johnson, age six and nine years old, challenged the freestyle skiers in their events.
Bryn, who competed as a five-year-old, came away with the gold in moguls and the silver in slopestyle. Emily earned fifth and moguls and eighth in slopestyle. Sylvi Nymann of Campbell River won fourth place in slopestyle and a seventh place in moguls. Justin Watt, a nine-year-old from Courtenay, finished ninth in the moguls and eighth in slopestyle.
In the Youth division Kole Harle earned a 10th in both moguls and slopestyle while Logan Frame finished 12th in moguls and 16th in slopestyle. Maja Nymann finished 9th in moguls and seventh in slopestyle. These three youth, from Campbell River, live part-time on the mountain and spend their afternoons with the Podium of Life skiing.
"It was a pretty brave thing for these racers to do, competing in an event that they do not trained for," says coach Harle. "I am proud of them to have competed in this event with courage and commitment."
Podium of Life has one more week left this season, and will begin registering students for next season. "So the freestyle world better watch out for the racers next winter," Harle said.
鈥� Podium of Life Ski Academy
