Thursday at the Orange BRITS, in Laax, Switzerland, UK snowboarder James Thorne was crowned King of the Orange Air Time, jumping in from a total height of nineteen metres, beating off close competition from Nate Kern and skier Rob Taylor, who both landed their drop from a height of eight metres above the colossal nine metre quarterpipe, but both fell on nine metres.
The Orange ‘Air Time’ event is a free-fall competition that witnessed British skiers and snowboarders jump from a crane onto a snow quarterpipe. Eight of UK’s most courageous snow sports freestylers - six snowboarders and two skiers - were selected to jump from the platform suspended high above a free-standing snow quarterpipe (curved landing area).
Starting at the qualifying height of five metres above the quarterpipe, the competitors, including Jenny Jones, Scott McMorris, Gary Greenshields, Andy Bennett and Tyler Chorlton jumped one by one, until all competitors bar James Thorne had either fallen or bowed out.
After landing his new European record, James Thorne commented, “It’s pretty scary when you are up there, and looking down, the coping seems very far away. Once you are there though, you just prepare and go for it. I was very stoked to land it. What a way to end the Orange BRITS!”
The Orange Air Time event took place in front of hundreds of spectators in the heart of Laax, and was one of the biggest attractions at this year’s event.
Competitors:
Winner - James Thorne, Snowboarder, 24, Norfolk
Nate Kern, Snowboarder, 23, London - Landed 8m
Rob Taylor, Skier, 21, South Wales - Landed 8m
Gary Greenshields, Snowboarder, 26, Edinburgh - Landed 7m
Tyler Chorlton, Snowboarder, 19, Andorra - Landed 6m (sprained ankle)
Scott McMorris, Snowboarder, 24, Edinburgh - Landed 6m
Andy Bennett, Skier, 23, Nottingham - Landed 5m
Jenny Jones, Snowboarder, 25, Bristol - Landed 4m
Final Day at the Orange Brits - Snowboard Slopestyle
The Final Day at the Orange BRITS 2006 rounds off a tremendous week of championships
Last day of the Orange BRITS, skies were initially overcast, but as the radio crackles, and a voice permeates to inform that the skies above are clear where the course is, all are ready for some serious Freestyle Ski Halfpipe and Snowboard Slopestyle action.
SNOWBOARD – Slopestyle
This event is all about style, skill and tenacity. Rolling all of that into clean lines and landings on the downhill assault course, the competitors were faced with a choice of lines consisting of 8 – 15m size kickers, rails, boxes and an 8m wall ride. Jenny Jones was clearly out in front. After spinning 540’s with ease, both normal and switch off the biggest kickers, Jenny continued her technical run with a stylish tailslide to fakie over the flat box and a smooth 50:50 noseslide over the A-Frame box to check in first. In second, came Vikki Miller, whose strong riding has impressed this week and her Slopestyle appearance continued her notable form. She pulled off a cab 540, 50:50 to frontside 180 off the flat box and a really solid noseslide on the kinked box which the judges commented as top notch. She is a force to be reckoned with and has huge future potential on the British snowboarding scene. The only junior through to the Final was Laura Berry, proving her worth alongside the seniors as she firmly produced a frontside tailpress off the flat box and tamed the 8m wall ride Again, a future star internationally, having made big impressions as a British contingent and Orange BRITS regular.
In the men’s final Nate Kern, making his debut at this year’s event pocketed his second championship title of the week, after taking home first in the Big Air discipline yesterday. Proving better on the day, Nate executed a high class technical run of a switch backside 720, a switch 900 and gap to wall ride to finish. The photogenic Tyler Chorlton picked up second with a solid run consisting of a backside 900 and switch backside 720 over the jumps to gap the wall ride face. Slopestyle wizard and last years champ, Scott McMorris came in a close third after cleanly landing a switch 540, a huge backside 720 and a 270 rotation on and off the flat box. All in all, the top three made points distinction pretty hard for the judges and raised the bar further in favour of British snowboarding standards. Like Laura Berry, fellow youth Sam Cullum, did the junior category proud, only just missing to place fourth.
Results:
Men’s Big Air
1. Nate Kern, East Sussex
2. Tyler Chorlton, Brighton/Andorra
3. Scott McMorris, Edinburgh
Women’s Big Air
1. Jenny Jones, Bristol
2. Vikki Miller, Herts
3. Laura Berry, Milton Keynes
For More information go to orangebrits.com