Well it's been a long road, but we're finally here, the AFP World Championships at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler, BC. This event is a giant bookend to what is the North American competition season. While it's true there are events all year long, the WSSF is a way to cap the season in a blowout fashion. And what better way to start the beginning of the end, with slopestyle qualifiers today?
The slopestyle competition held on Blackcomb mountain is steep, fast and scary. With seven varying features, it leaves little room for error and any decisions must be made with snap judgements. With three rail options, three jumps and an ever-difficult quarterpipe, the course is unforgiving and quite the show will be put on at tomorrow's finals. But let's not put the cart before the horse, as today was the first official competition day: men's slopestyle qualifiers.
Beau James Wells 360s the last jump.
This being the AFP World Championships, the top 20 AFP ranked slopestyle skiers get an automatic bye through the quarterfinals, leaving 50-odd guys left to battle it out for a mere ten spots. The day was icy, hard and fast, and the light was beyond flat, yet the comp still went off. Some of the best Canadian and international talent was on hand to do battle on course. Yesterday's practice session was limited due to even worse weather conditions, so today was more or less it. But to lighten the mood, none other than TJ Schiller and internet sensation Reed Speedman were working the mics today. While many of the names in today's field were up-and-comers, there were some bigger names hidden in the lists: Henrik Harlaut, Antti Ollila, and AJ Kemppainen.
With the men's qualifiers in the books, all attention turns to tomorrow's semifinals and finals. Hopefully the weather has a bit more sunshine in the cards for tomorrow, but nonetheless, the fun here at the World Ski and Snowboard Festival from Whistler will keep on rolling.
| Heat 1 | Heat 2 |
|---|---|
| 1_ Antti Ollila – 84.0 * 2_ Henrik Harlaut – 82.0 * 3_ Noah Morrison – 80.8 * 4_ Carson Lehoullier – 78.8 * 5_ Aaron Blunck – 77.2 * 6_ Max Heard – 76.0 * 7_ Kolby Ward – 74.4 8_ Walter Wood – 72.4 9_ Bryce Baker – 68.6 10_ Matt Crawford – 68.0 11_ Jon Anders Lindstad – 66.8 12_ Cameron Smith – 66.6 13_ Taylor Wilson – 65.8 14_ Colby Stevenson – 63.0 15_ Frederick Illiano – 61.8 16_ Jonas Hjohlman – 60.0 17_ Matthew Wilcox – 58.4 18_ Sam Ruttiman – 56.8 19_ Michael Granger – 56.4 20_ Chris Verrue – 55.8 21_ Mitchell Wilson – 55.4 22_ Cody Cirillo – 53.2 23_ Charlie Stevens – 53.0 24_ Austin Karker – 51.2 25_ AJ Kemppainen – 43.4 26_ Zak Mousseau – 22.8 |
1_ Lyman Currier – 85.0 *
2_ Tim McChesney – 84.2 * 3_ Joe Schuster – 81.8 * 4_ Erik Hughes – 74.8 * 5_ Jaeden Schneider Clark – 74.4 6_ Reid McEachran – 72.4 7_ Colby West – 71.8 8_ Keaton Carlson – 66.6 9_ Michael Brush – 65.6 10_ Kieran Nicula – 64.0 11_ Corbin Lefebvre – 62.0 12_ Simon D'Artois – 61.2 13_ Zhach Pham – 61.0 14_ Beau Wells – 60.8 15_ Kirby Sutherland – 57.2 16_ Ben Maxwell – 56.8 17_ Alex Ferreira – 55.2 18_ Yukon De Leeuw – 53.0 19_ Justin Jackson – 52.6 20_ Thomas Pool – 51.6 21_ Patrick Baskins – 50.2 22_ Dustin Sittier – 46.6 23_ Terry Butt – 41.8 24_ Quinn Waddell – 40.4 25_ Tyson Oland – 25.2 26_ Evan McEachran – 9.2 |
For more information on the Telus WSSF, visit their website or follow them @wssf.
For more information on the AFP and its rankings, visit their website.
