JIB ACADEMY SKI WENTWORTH, NS, BY VINCENT GAGNIER

The second stop on the Canadian Jib Academy tour went off this past weekend at Wentworth, Nova Scotia. Salomon athletes Alexi Godbout, Iannick B, JD Zicat, Sebastien Eaves, Jen Crichton and myself made the trip to Halifax. The weather wasn't on our side for this stop, it rained so much, but the rain didn’t stop the Salomon Crew and all the competitors to compete for a trip to sunny Mammoth in May. The park consisted of 2 rail features on top followed by 4 jumps in a row, every skier seemed stocked on what the park crew had done for the event. 

The day started with a warm up session led by JD Zicat, the future Fireman! After early laps through the park, we could already tell that this event wasn't going to be a bust. There is a lot of talent in Nova Scotia. From there we had jam sessions on the rails for about half an hour, and then went we switched the jam to the kickers. In the morning every lap counted for the competitors because only 5 skiers would find themselves in the finals to battle for the grand prize. 

While waiting for lunch to be ready (and drying off a bit!) we had the idea of having an arm wrestling tournament, divided into two categories 13 and younger, and 13 and older. Some of the matchups were really tight and awesome to watch. The two winners were awarded with two Limited Edition Salomon New Era caps. After the hot dogs were all gone it was time to announce today’s 5 finalists. Alexi got on the mic and named the names of Devan Arsenault, Chris Slaunwhite, Andre Aikens, Jeremie Boutout and Ryker Brennan.

The finals were a two run format. The man's were killing it, some of the highlights were a frontflip off the first flat box, a steezy Flatspin 360 from Jeremie Boutot, a one-handed trucker driver slide, followed by controlled airs on the jumps and finishing with a Cork 900 from Andre Aikens. It was a tight race for first place between Jeremie and Andre, but at the end of the day, Andre was the smoothest and had the cleanest run of the day.

Top 5:

1 : Andre Aikens,

2 : Jeremie Boutot

3 : Chris Slaunwhite

4 : Ryker Brennan

5 : Devan Arsenault

  All in all it was an awesome day that showed how fun the Jib Academy can be even with horrible weather.  Thank you to Salomon for putting on another amazing and super fun event!  A huge thank you goes out to all of the sponsors: Skullcandy, Smith Optics, SBC Skier, Newschoolers, and Ski Wentworth.

Vince Gagnier

Newschoolers: http://www.newschoolers.com/ns/content/readnews/id/3782/

SBC Skier: http://www.sbcskier.com/news_article?news_id=871

Photos credits: Virginie Tisseau