A LANDMARK weekend for Australian Freeride saw Mt Hotham host the first ever certified Freeride World Junior and Freeride World Qualifier events in the first weekend of August.
The bubbling undercurrent of Australia's freeride scene burst through to the surface, with 130 athletes in the Junior categories and 72 adults competing in the open category, many of them in their first ever organised event.
The level of participation at the event speaks volumes for the grassroots level of support of the discipline which is one of the fastest growing sports in the world.
Competition was impressive with riders from three separate resorts taking out the podium places in the men's open competition, indicative if the universality of Australian Freeride.
Charlie Comben from Mt Buller took out the Open Men's division with a barnstorming run, one of several of the top riders who seemed to view the venue with a wider-angle lens than the rest of the field.
A massive backflip off a natural hit coming out of Peach Bowl was bookended with a pair of 360's going both directions before a clean and controlled end to his run was good enough for the top step.
Coen Bennie-Faull was a close second with a tidy run, his local knowledge serving him well in a run which appeared effortless despite the degree of difficulty of his plan. Nick Payne from Falls Creek took out the final podium position with a rowdy run early in the proceedings, including an absurd backflip off a mogul after he lost too much height to hit the booter out of the main bowl.
Both Bailey Johnson and Max Bardas looked on track to challenge for the podium before having some difficulty with the cliff section in the bottom.
Max lost some flow as he struggled to make it to the top to hit the final double, while Bailey managed to fall off the cliff backwards and still ski out of it, a trick which must've been hard to perfect.
Millie Evans edged out Ella Kennedy and Monica Piasecki in a hotly contested competition for the podium positions, many of the girls braving the cliffs where the men dared not.
Jess Winston Smith was solid in fourth ahead of Jazmine Zollinger in fifth.
Snowboarding saw Brianna Delfs claim the victory over Canadian Jaimie Figueira and Charlotte Lam.
Conditions were challenging for the snowboarders as the venue had frozen overnight and had the junior competition on the day before, making holding a heel side edge in above the cliff band nigh on impossible.
Tom Hill was too strong for the men’s field, showing a level of comfort and competency in the air that set him above the field.
The podium places were rounded out by Hotham instructor Valentin Becker and Alexander Kruse, just ahead of Cam Holdsworth who put down a strong run off the back of a Canadian winter.
Overall, 11 nations were represented across the junior and senior competitions.
Beyond the results, it is a significant step for Australian freeride to begin hosting FWT certified events and grow the grassroots of the sport.
Australian freerider Zanna Farrell, who last year qualified for the Challenger Series, came out to support the growth of the sport at the event.
"It was honestly so amazing, growing up we never had something like this in Australia to look up to or to aspire to," she said.
"To see all these athletes, mostly unseeded, competing in their first ever event; it just shows how much interest in the sport there is."
Dion Newport, founder of the New Zealand Junior Tour 10 years ago, came across to consult and help Australian Freeride find its own feet in a quickly evolving freeride landscape.
Speaking after the junior event, Dion had glowing words about the standard of riding and support from the community.
"The level of the riding here has really impressed me, and particularly the snowboarders here, the level is really strong," he said.
"This is a massive step for the sport in Australia, getting one event certified here will pave the way for other events to become certified FWT events, and help develop a genuine competition series here in Australia.
"The support of the community here for the event and the sport has been incredible, it has been amazing to be a part of it and to be welcomed into it, it's exactly like our little Freeride community we have in New Zealand and it feels very special.
'Australia, you should be proud."
Snow Australia representative Ben Bond was present to support the competition.
Speaking after the Junior event he discussed its journey towards becoming an Olympic discipline.
"It's great to see the support here for the sport, and while freeride will not be a discipline at Winter Olympics in 2026 (Cortina D'Ampazzo, Italy), however it may be included in the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps," he said.
The opening of a competition pathway for freeride in Australia has significant implications for this.
A country's ability to have a competitive international athletic pathway in large part depends upon its ability to develop a density of talent at home.
In other words, you need people in the sport.
Watching our swimmers in Paris win medal after medal is in no small part due to our enormous participation base in the sport, allowing peer groups that push each other, and talent identification at a young age which can help athletes tailor their training and target specific events.
The same is true for freeride.
Both logistically and financially for many families it is not sustainable to travel to New Zealand or Europe to compete in the sport, and so athletes with talent often end up in alpine skiing, moguls or slopestyle pathways due to the availability of competition and coaching programs across the Australian resorts.
The level of talent in freeride is hitting new heights in large part due to the first generation of kids that have trained the discipline from a young age.
Rather than having slopestyle or alpine athletes who are finding an afterlife as freeriders, these young athletes are coming into the sport as freeriders and building discipline specific skills right from the start.
Head freeride coach at Hotham, Jake Woods, competed on the weekend.
"These young guys coming into the sport now are so talented, they're pushing the old guard out of the sport," he said.
"Starting out training freeride specifically…it shows in the level that they're taking the sport to."
During August Thredbo also hosted the 'Battle of the Bluff', and Falls had a scheduled Junior Freeride competition which had to be postponed to late August due to weather and snow conditions.
This inaugural event at Hotham may open the door and allow these competitions and more to become certified FWT events and help our athletes build points to compete in Europe or earn wildcards to events around the world.
Finn Jacobsen will represent Australia next year at Junior World Championships in Kappl in Austria, and he is just one of a vast pool of talent including Jasper Rogers, Harry Rowden, Lulu Laird, Neve White, Eli Gregory, Harlem Pec, James Garth, Leonardo Grollo and many, many more.
The rolling of small stones that may start the freeride landslide has begun here in Australia.
JUNIOR TALENT TIME
SATURDAY'S junior competition began with a fresh chalky surface in Peach Bowl off the Heavenly Valley Chairlift as both ski and snowboard disciplines took on the challenge of a freeride competition with both man made and natural features do showcase their abilities.
Freeride gives athletes a plethora of avenues to showcase their strengths, awarded points for their line choice, control, technique, fluidity and air and style.
A three person judging panel award points on their overall impression of each riders run using this framework as a guide, with additional points for cleanly executed runs and deductions for falls or lack of control during a run.
A clear morning gave way to intermittent cloud, resulting in some delays as judges had to run competitors during brief breaks in the dense fog to be able to see competitors
Women's U14 Ski was taken out by Amelia Mahon ahead of Genevieve Dubrava and Darci Brien, while the U14 Men's was won by Harlem Pec, followed by Tavish Mahon and Dallas Teleskivi.
Finn Jacobsen won the U18 Men's Ski category with a tidily executed run beginning with a switch 180, into a big 360 off a side hit out of the main bowl, finishing with a double off the cliffs near the end of the judging area.
Jacobsen edged out an impressive Leonardo Grollo and Cameron Stokoe who claimed the other podium positions.
The U18 Women's winner was Australian Youth Olympics representative Lulu Laird ahead of Jasmine Leally and Sara Butko.
In U16 Men's Ski, Eli Gregory edged out Mack Hull and Joshua Caldwell, with a strong performance by Clancy James who had a control issue near the bottom of his run, resulting in deductions which knocked him out of podium contention.
On the snowboarding side of the event, Neve White looked glued to the snow on her way to victory in the U18 Women's category ahead of Clementine Wall and Valli Smith, with Willow Latimer finished ahead of Nico Daugherty and Scarlett Ellinghausen in the U14 category.
James Garth won the U18 Men's with Pantxo Wall finishing second and Ethan White rounding out the podium places.
Gus Murray was too strong for Jack Young and Billy Munro in the U14 event.