Thredbo Snow Series Rail Jam 2016

The Thredbo Snow Series is a beautiful beast. With multiple freestyle and race disciplines covered, everyone has a chance to shine and take centre stage. On top of this with groms, juniors and open divisions, frothy young shredders get to rub shoulders with some of Australia’s best.

First event on the Snow Series schedule was the Friday Flat Rail Jam. Funny story, we ended up holding it on the Snow Play area. It was early in the season with great conditions and most of the mountain open. However to produce a fun trick-able course for a diverse range of abilities is quite the challenge. Thredbo Parks has to get greedy… we need prime real estate and plenty of raw material to build with. We’re a small cog in a mighty machine and to secure the real estate and raw material, negotiations are required. After exploring the possibilities and extensive discussions the Snow Play area was locked in as the best option. Two nights of machine work and a solid day of hand shaping later the set up was complete… and without talking ourselves up… it looked sharp and super fun.

As the competitors assembled the flood lights fired up, the beats kicked in from the Ultimate Ears snow cat and the anticipation levels rose. Qualification was squared away and finalists decided for the jam session finals. With the jam format the competitors were able to step it up, pushing each other in their attempts to impress the ever watchful judges. Groms and juniors were up first and blew away the appreciative crowd with there jib skills. I’m sure we’ll see plenty from these kids in the future. Then it was time for the open division competitors to turn up the heat… and let me tell you, they did and it got hot!  Jake Carney proved to be a crowd favourite with his casual style and signature one ski, leg spread, rail slides. Turned out he was also the judges favourite taking out the win in the male ski division. Madeline Jones claimed top spot on the podium for the female skiers. The boarders made the judges earn their pay checks and some serious deliberation was needed to decide on the winners. In the end Zahra Kell and Red Dog finished on top of their divisions taking home the chocolates.

For all the results click here.

Next stop on the Thredbo Snow Series tour is the Ridercross on July 29th. It always a popular event with plenty of thrills and spills. Click here to register online for the Ridercross and all remaining Snow Series events.