Jaffray’s Katie Anderson could not be caught.
The 21-year-old handily won the weekend’s Monster Energy Boarderstyle competition at Fernie Alpine Resort, taking home bragging rights and $800.
“It was fun,” said Anderson. “The girls were riding very well. It was a good way to end a rainy day.”
No stranger to victory, Anderson has been snowboarding since the age of six and is a member of Canada’s national snowboardcross team.
She has been competing since high school and last season she enjoyed a third place finish at the FIS Junior World Championships in Yabuli, China and first place finishes at both the Senior and Junior Nationals at the Big White Ski Resort near Kelowna.
Racing four at a time, 32 men and 12 women qualified for the Monster Energy Boarderstyle finals after time trials on March 17. The competition is a hybrid of boardercross and slopestyle.
Riders were ranked by how quickly they completed a grueling course that challenged the riders’ ability to stay in control while maintaining maximum speed. The course included severe turns, various jumps, a pond, steeps and flat sections. It was not uncommon for riders to collide with each other mid-race.
They were also judged on the quality of the trick they performed off a large jump at the bottom of the course.
“The event is rad,” said Phil Fournier. “So sick. You might be a racer, you might be a trick rider but here it comes down to both.”
Fournier, a 24-year-old resident of Whistler, won the men’s competition and took home $5,000.
He got a little help from second place finisher Dan Barker who shoved Fournier twice during the final race, which added to his speed.
“I boosted you twice,” said Barker, who took home $2,000. “He was cutting my line.”
It was the third stop of the Monster Boarderstyle tour. Anderson and men’s competition fourth place finisher Chris Bradley, the two locals who placed highest, have earned spots at the tour’s final stop at Whistler Blackcomb on April 14 and 15.
Honourable mention goes to 24-year old Marie Claude Tremblay, a Fernie resident by way of Saguenay, Quebec, who was in second place in the final race when she fell during the pond-skim.
“I was right beside her and [Anderson] hit the pool first,” said Tremblay. “It created a wave so when I came right after, the wave got me full force and I fell. Maybe I should have checked my speed a little bit.”
Tremblay called her dip in the frigid water on an already wet and frigid day, “not that bad.”
It was Tremblay’s first boarderstyle competition ever and despite a soggy last race, she got fourth place and earned $100.
“It was just fun to gather with a bunch of wicked women that have the guts to do this,” she said.