Protest Slopestyle Champs Wraps Tour up in Style

The Protest Slopestyle Championships wrapped up the 2010 British Snow Tour indoor series in style over the weekend – Saturday 9th October at Castleford SNO!zone. Over 150 of the UK’s top riders hit the slope and the standard of riding was immense. The course set-up, which had taken four days to prepare, was a thing of beauty and showcased one of the most hotly contended UK slopestyle competitions to date

Protest Snowboard Slopestyle Championships
The slopestyle jam kicked off the day’s snowboard action and displayed the standard of riding to-come with Katie Blundell (women’s) Matt Cory (under 16’s) and Tom Hunt (over 16’s) crowned as the overall jam session winners.

In the Women’s Protest Slopestyle Championships an impressive 22 riders hit the slope and the standard of riding was really high making it a tough call for the judges. 2009 Champ, Lynsey Ashdown who had been riding consistently well all day cemented her position as one of the UK’s top slopestyle riders by adding the 2010 title to her collection. Lynsey’s winning run included a frontside 50-50 to fakie on the top street rail, a cab boardslide, switch-up to fakie on the box followed by a switch 50-50 to 180 out and 180-on 180-off on the bottom rainbow rail. Second place went to Katie Ormerod after a faultless final run which included a noseslide on the street rail, a backside 180 switch-up on the box and a technical 270-on 270-off on the rainbow box. Sophie Nicholls who’d been charging the course all day walked away with third place after she threw down a solid run which included, a backside 180, switch-up on the box and cab 180 boardslide to fakie on the bottom rainbow box.

It was extremely close during the Men’s Protest Slopestyle Championships with riders pushing the limits and raising the bar with rail tricks ranging from super technical to down-right ridiculous! Castleford local Tom Hunt, who’d been killing it all day, was crowned the 2010 Protest Slopestyle Champion. Tom’s run included a backside 180 switch-up, 270 out on the gas pipe, a frontside 270 to boardslide on the flat down rail, followed by a backside lipslide and a frontside noseslide to frontside tailslide on the bottom rainbow box. Second place with a selection of incredibly tech rail tricks which included a backside 180 to 450 off on the gas pipe and a cab 270 to Danish went to Scottish ripper Danny McCormick. Local rider, Simon Foster finished in third place with an impressive final run which included a frontside 180 pivot on the street rail, a 270-on 270-off on the flat bar, followed by a frontside boardslide 270 out and a backside tail 270 out on the rainbow box.

Protest Snowboard Slopestyle Championship Results

Women 1st – Lynsey Ashdown – Manchester 2nd – Katie Ormerod – Halifax 3rd – Sophie Nicholls – Bradford

Men 1st – Tom Hunt – Halifax 2nd – Danny McCormick – Glasgow 3rd – Simon Foster – Castleford

The inspirational Schools Tour programme also finished with a bang at Castleford, replacing the time-tabled double-physics at two local secondary schools with an interactive presentation and the chance to have a FREE ski or snowboard lesson, courtesy of the Protest Learner Academy. Hanging up their satchels for another year the schools tour team have successfully visited eight schools, presented to over 4,000 kids and given away 500 FREE taster lessons. A special shout out goes to team including, Becky Hammond, Paddy Graham, Pat Sharples, James Thorne, Sean Miller, Andy Bennett, Charlie Richards and Tom Coe.

To check out the photo galleries and videos from the Protest Slopestyle Championships and for a full list of results go to: http://www.britishsnowtour.com/championships/castleford

The British Snow Tour, 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 and Snow+Rock. Demo partners: K2 & Ride snowboards and Line, Volkl and 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.