Billy and Laura bag gold in the British Protest Slopestyle Championships

Friday 255h March – A toughly contested slopestyle championship drew the curtain on a week of world class riding that showcased just how high the level of British riding has become; with Billy Morgan taking his second gold of the competition and Laura Berry defending her crown.
The girls set the scene and defending champ Laura Berry fought off stiff competition with a strong and stylish run including a 50-50 to frontside 180 on the down rail followed by a rock and roll to 180 off the goal post feature. In her kicker line Laura stomped a tweaked out nose grab, backside 3 followed by a frontside 3. Katie Blundell, who qualified in first position following her consistently solid runs in qualifiers, took silver with a frontside tail to Danish, a stylish back 3 and just sketched out on a backside 5. In third place was 14 year-old Nathalie Silkstone with a run that included a neat rock and roll on the goal post feature and a method and indy over the kickers.

Laura Berry quoted: “I won the slopestyle last year as well so I am pretty stoked. I got hurt in the middle of January so i haven’t really been riding so it’s good to come back and still be able to ride.”

Next up it was the boys turn and Billy was once again on form with a super technical rail section made-up of frontside tail-slide, Danish to 270 off, a rock and roll to fakie, a double backflip over the first kicker and both backside and cab 9’s to finish. Sam Turnball had an outstanding week and today was no different with the 19 year-old bagging silver with gap to tail-slide on the kink rail and spinning back 7, back rodeo 540 and a giant frontside 9 over the kickers. Finally, in third place was Scott Penman who threw down a crazy double frontflip over the first kicker and a tidy set on the rails with a switch board-slide and a front board-slide on the top down rail.

Billy Morgan quoted: “It was a close call, I didn’t know what was going to happen but I’m pretty stoked to win. I did a lot of acrobatics when i was younger so I think that has probably helped. It helps to be able to pull things round back to your feet.”

A special mention goes to 13 year-old Rowan Coultas who placed fifth after an astonishing section on the rails landing a clean front board-slide and backside lip-slide and stomped back 3, a killer method and a huge back 7 over the kickers.

British Protest Slopestyle Championships Results
Men Women
1st Billy Morgan 1st Laura Berry
2nd Sam Turnbull 2nd Katie Blundell
3rd Scott Penman 3rd Nathalie Silkstone

Don’t forget to check out the BRITS 2011 daily webcasts and picture galleries at www.the-brits.com, where you will be able to check out the Snowboard and Freeski action from the previous day’s competition.

The BRITS, which is part of the Swatch TTR World Snowboard Tour, would not be possible without its highly supportive sponsors: Giro, Protest, Trespass, SNO!zone, Cushe, Garmin and Snow+Rock. Demo partners: Ride, Salomon, K2 & Volkl snowboards and Line & K2 skis. Media partners: Whitelines, Huck, Flipside, Extreme Sports Channel, Downdays.eu, Skiclub.co.uk, Natives.co.uk, Metrosnow.co.uk and Snowboardclub.co.uk. Destination partners: Switzerland Tourism and LAAX.