On Saturday the 7th of November 2015 the Telegraph Ski & Snowboard show played host to the London Ride ski big air event in Battersea Park, London. The event was organized by the British Freeski Camps, responsible for training many of the UK’s leading freeskiers and supported by Ellis Brigham, who generously stepped up with the event prizes.
The standard of skiers was exceptionally high on the fifty foot purpose built jump with all sorts of flips and spins being showcased to a large crowd of spectators hoping to see some raw talent and just a little bit of carnage. The competition format consisted of a qualification round to seed the skiers for a final. Each rider had two jumps with the best one counting as their overall score. This relived the pressure slightly allowing for a little bit of error on the first jump and ultimately increasing the standard of the tricks.
Team GB’s Madi Rowlands stomped a sweet 720 spin to head into the finals leading the women with Justin Taylor Tipton’s super grabbed corked 900 leading the men.Finals consisted of two jumps again with the best one counting. The level of riding stepped up again increasing the risk of crashing with some of the top skiers in qualification being knocked out and therefore missing the super final.
The super final had initially supposed to be the top four men and top two women heading up for a high pressure one run scored jump however judging in the finals was incredibly tight. Jodie Grant and Thea Fenwick scored the same so the judges had to send three girls up for a 3rd run. Likewise with the men Dean Harris and James Machon were tied taking the men’s super final up to five riders.
Throughout qualification, finals and the super final there was no clear leader the whole way adding to the suspense, anticipation and tension amongst the crowd and riders. The women really went for it with Jodie Grant crashing a misty 540 and Thea Fenwick not quite holding onto her backflip. This lifted the pressure for Madi Rowland’s who only needed to put down a nice floated 360 for the crowd to take the win. The men’s super final was incredibly tough with Justin Taylor Tipton nailing 720 and grabbing his ski for what seemed like an eternity to finish in 3rd. Haydyn Fiori stomped a lofty misty 540 taking it way down the landing zone to get 2nd and Olympian James Machon taking the win by a few clear points with his huge clean 900.
Next year the London Ride will be back, bigger and better. Thank you to all the riders, judges, camera folks and organizers who helped to put on a spectacular show with a special thanks to Ellis Brigham for providing prizes and support!
