Quebec City Snow Jamboree big air to close out park & pipe season
Mar 14, 2019·Snowboard Park & Pipe
Quebec City (CAN) - The final park and pipe competition of the 2018/19 FIS Snowboard World Cup season is set to take to the skies above Canada’s historic Quebec City this weekend, with the Snow Jamboree big air World Cup slated for qualifiers on Thursday and finals on Saturday evening.
Qualifications were originally scheduled for Friday, but with some adverse weather forecast for the Quebec City area on Friday organizers and officials elected to move the first phase of competition to Thursday, with ladies on course at 12:45 EST, and the men after at 15:00. Finals are scheduled to take place on Saturday evening beginning at 20:00.
One of the most striking venues in snowboarding, the Snow Jamboree World Cup set-up features a 40m tall, 90m long scaffold ramp constructed between two converging highway overpasses just a few minutes walk from Quebec City’s picturesque old town. When one of the overpasses is shut down to car traffic on competition night on Saturday, thousands of fans will line the highway to watch some of the world’s best riders throw down in the season’s final competition.
This will be the third-straight season the FIS Snowboard World Cup has visited Quebec City, with both the previous iterations of the Snow Jamboree big air competitions providing hugely entertaining evenings of riding.
Last season’s winner on the ladies’ side was Julio Marino, and the 21-year-old US rider will be on hand once again this week and looking to defend her title from a year ago (and to make it three wins in a row in Quebec when you consider her Stoneham slopestyle win from two seasons ago). With five big air podium results to her name over the past few seasons and her signature silky smooth style, Marino could once again be the one to beat this season in Quebec.
Last season’s runner-up was Quebec’s own Laurie Blouin, and you can bet the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic slopestyle silver medallist will be keen to step up another notch on the podium this season in front of her friends and family at home. With a third place already this season at the Beijing Air + Style big air World Cup, expect Blouin to add to her season total this weekend.
Others to watch out for on the ladies’ side include Lia-Mara Boesch (SUI), Klaudia Medlova (SVK), and Carla Somaini (SUI).
Men’s competition will see a handful of top-level veterans duking it out with a strong list of young up-and-comers this weekend in Quebec, as the winding-down of the contest season provides an opportunity for some less-heralded riders to shine. Unfortunately, however, last season’s winner and one of Canada’s true snowboarding heroes Max Parrot will not be on hand to defend his title this season, as he undergoes what everyone hopes will be a successful treatment for cancer.
However, the top level of talent will be represented by the likes of La Molina 2011 and Sierra Nevada 2017 slopestyle world champion Seppe Smits (BEL), Kreischberg 2015 slopestyle world champion Ryan Stassel (USA), last year’s Quebec City big air runner up Jonas Boesinger (SUI), Sierra Nevada 2017 world champs silver medallist Nicolas Huber, and two-time World Cup podium winner Kalle Jarvilehto (FIN), each of whom have have a deep well of World Cup experience to draw on and will be looking to assert that fact on Saturday.
Coming up in the rearview, though, are the likes of Niek van der Velden (NED), who scored his best World Cup result last weekend with a fifth-place at the Mammoth Mountain (USA) slopestyle, Cardrona 2018 junior world champs big air bronze medallist William Buffey of the host Canadian squad, and Italian ripper Nicola Liviero, who qualified in sixth for last week’s Mammoth slopestyle before faltering in the finals.
Add it all up and the Quebec City Snow Jamboree big air World Cup is looking to be an entertaining and exciting end to the 2018/19 FIS Snowboard big air World Cup season.
WATCH LIVE:
ORF Sport + (Austria), stream on www.cbc.ca (Canada), CCTV 5+ (China), Eurosport player (Europe), Eurosport 1 (Asia/Pacific), Yle Areena (Finland), NRK 2 (Norway), Polsat Sport News (Poland).
QUICK LINKS
Quebec City data page (start lists, live scoring, results)
