One year after hitting the podium at The Cut Rail Jam, Luke Smart conquered a brand-new World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF) event: The Grind.
Smart saved some of his best tricks for last on Friday night, besting runner-up Mat Dufresne in a high-octane final. Two-time Olympic slopestyle athlete Evan McEachran was relegated to bronze despite his strong skiing throughout the event.
"To be honest, I did not expect to even make it to the final round, and I'm just stoked to have put down the tricks when they counted," Smart said. "Just skiing with all the boys, it's a good time."
Caoimhe Heavey rose up to secure gold among women. Zoe Greze-Kozuki followed up her recent overall win at Freestyle Nationals with silver, and Marion Balsamo's consistent performance had her round out the top three.
"I'm just stoked with all the girls and all the riding," said Heavey. "I'm a big fan of rail jams. I love seeing them being held here. I live out here, and it's so fun to have a rail jam at home. Can't complain."
Described as a street-style event, The Grind kicked off with an early February stop in Regina, Sask., where local snowboarder Keenan Demchuk prevailed.
"The Grind Series is a movement that is growing across Canada for the street-style and park rail scenes. Canada is a breeding ground for talent in one of the most mind-melting urban winter disciplines. Expect to see tricks that risk everything for glory and totally defy logic," remarked series director Rich Hegarty in a press release.
'A chance to learn in a really sick environment'
If you missed the action and are unfamiliar with what "street-style" could mean: imagine a competition focused solely on incorporating urban-style rails into your maneuvers. Unlike slopestyle, there are no big jumps and judges put technicality at a premium.
It's definitely not without risk, as Greze-Kozuki learned. During the pre-final jam session, she lost her balance coming off a feature switch and the back of her helmet bounced off the snow. The Whistlerite skied off under her own power, but elected not to contest the final against Heavey.
"I took a pretty heavy crash. It was a little scary. I had a little headache, so I just wanted to play it safe because I would rather ski for the rest of this season," Greze-Kozuki explained. "I just felt like I wouldn't perform my best if I kept skiing under these circumstances, so I'm happy I made that decision and Caoimhe definitely deserved the win. I'm super happy for everyone."
From her perspective, Heavy recalled: "It's a pretty gnarly setup, especially the bottom half with pretty steep drops, so my goal was just to come out, have fun and hit all the features. The good thing about jams is it's a nice, fun environment. You talk to all the other riders, get a feel for what the features are like, everyone can go take a look and we're not in a crazy rush.
"There's so many ways that you can do difficult tricks. Swap combinations, I would argue, are as hard as spins on. Even though Zoe took a slam and she wasn't able to compete, I wanted to try something new. I've never done a two-on disaster before and that was a gnarly rail to try it on, but…a couple of my homies told me I had time to do it. That's the goal for any jam: a chance to learn in a really sick environment where everyone's throwing down their best stuff."
Smart was likewise complementary of the venue and the overall contest atmosphere.
"WSSF is an awesome time of the year for Intersection, all the films and whatnot," he said. "I found Arena Snowparks to be amazing. They did so well and it's just a really cool, creative new setup. A bit refreshing from what we've seen before."
