 | |  | | | | | | | | | The Orange AIM Series Artificial Boarder/ Skiercross Championships, Midlothian Ski Slope, Hillend. Phew - what a mouthful!
Once again, as Summer rolled around, so did the AIM Series. In case you don't know, the AIM Series is a great series of events run by the Soul Sports people, where they tour schools around the country, set up events and even arrange free lessons for kids - all in the name of furthering the sport of snowboarding. Good on 'em.
Anyway, the school bit has come and gone and despite various computer problems leading up to the event, the weather was glorious and the riders went off.
Saturday was the snowboard event and a ridiculous 59 boarders showed up. There were three events here: the 'Boardercross Championship', the 'Slopestyle' and finally the 'Big Air' comp, so, being the organised fellow that I am, we'll start with the Boardercross.
The event was run over three heats and, despite the sun slowing the course down, Hillend local Michael Bates put his racing experience to good use to take the win, with Matthew Gibson and Craig Howie coming second and third. Incidentally, Bates also won the Skiercross on Sunday - well done that man.
In the women's category, it was the superbly named Mollie Percival from Bury, who made the trip up north to take the win.
Moving swiftly on, the Slopestyle was pretty much all about three lads - Craig Howie and Peter Weir (both local boys) and 11year old Jamie Nicholls fae Halifax. It was close, but in the end Craig managed to take a well-deserved win. Take a moment to think about wee Jamie though - 11 years old! Seesh! Imagine how good that lads' going to be when he gets older if he sticks with it. I feel so old.
In the women's event, the greatest collection of brilliant names lined up for the top three places. Ahem...Posy Dixon, Mollie Percival and Alexa Hohenberg (I swear, I'm not making these up) all went off, but local girl Posy got crazy technical and took the win.
In the Big Air comp, Craig Howie once again took the win with a ridiculous backside 900. Get on lad - up the locals!
I couldn't make it on the Sunday, but the results are listed below. Thanks for all who helped make it such a good day, and here's looking forward to next year.
Skiercross Results:
1) Blair Aitken, Edinburgh
2) Simon Bates, Edinburgh
3) Andy Bennett, Sheffield
1) Emma Londsdale, Settle
'All photos copywrite of Dopeshots.com | | | |
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