British Big Air Championships

Once again Laax was bathed in glorious sunshine and it was a go big or go home day for Britain’s finest snowboarders with Billy Morgan and India Stephenson bringing home the bacon in the Giro British Big Air Championships.

There were 12 spaces for men and six for women in the finals and it was a hotly contested battle in what judge Will Hughes described as “the highest standard of British snowboarding” he has ever seen. Contestants were stomping double-corked backside 10’s, an array of switch backside 9’s and a special mention goes to Jason Molyneux for landing a double backflip and sketching out of a triple. This year each rider had three runs to throw down their best shapes, with repeated tricks rendered null and void to whittle out any one trick ponies and encourage creativity.

Billy bagged gold with the trick of the day, a double-corked backside 10 as well as a cab 10 earning him 76 points. Chris Kightly picked up silver with a super tidy frontside 10 and a switch back 9, and in third place was Sam Turnball with a raucous double-corked backside 10 and a backside rodeo 720.

Billy Morgan quoted: “I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I guess the judges must have liked it. I’m stoked to have regained my title.”

This year the ladies took it to the next level and showed how much the women’s side of the sport is progressing with spins off the large kicker as well as some styley tweaked out straight airs. Newcomer India Stephenson took gold spinning a backside 360 tail grab and a method off the large kicker, scoring an impressive 41.5 points. Last year’s champ Katie Blundell from Devon picked up silver with a floaty backside 360 and Becky Menday took the final spot on the podium after landing a frontside 180, a method and only just failing to finish off her frontside 360.

India Stephenson quoted: “Today was a great day, the jumps were nice, it was sunny and it was so good to win.”

Giro British Big Air Championships Results
Men Women
1st Billy Morgan 1st India Stephenson
2nd Chris Kightly 2nd Katie Bludell
3rd Sam Turnball 3rd Becky Menday

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