David Pujol

Held on a remote and seldom ridden mountain face, deep in the heart of New Zealand's mighty Southern Alps and accessible only via helicopter, the world class field of ex-Olympians, current world champions and local heroes consistently brought onlookers to their feet as they performed amazing aerial tricks, flying up to 25 meters in distance, at heights of up to 5 meters above the ground. All this while charging at high speed down 3,000 vertical feet of steep, rolling and undulating terrain.

Tony Harrington, event director, described the day as another step forward for mountain freeriding.

"This event is at the leading edge of the freeriding movement, a move away from over-structured competition to a looser, free-er form of self expression on big mountains," he said. "Competitors get to snowboard and ski as they would if they were hanging out with their buddies, but at an elite standard. There are no gates to race around, and they're free to choose their own path down the mountain. Today they showed just how far the freeriding movement has progressed skiing and snowboarding. It was totally inspiring."

"I went for it on my first run. I felt like I had nothing to lose..."— Andrea Binning, Women's Freeskiing Winner

Competitors were given two runs and were judged on difficulty of jumps and moves, how well they were completed and the number of moves executed in each run. Points were also awarded for overall impression, taking into account fluidity, control and the 'x-factor' — the amount of style and flair displayed. Two international panels consisting of five judges each ruled over the skiing and snowboarding. The judges were split into two groups in order to cover the length of the long, steep and twisting course.

The French dominance of the new generation of freeskiing power and aerial tricks shone through in the men's skiing division with current World Extreme Skiing Champion Guerlin Chicherit (FRA) emerging victorious from the strongest field ever assembled for the event. Showcasing the sort of inverted, spinning acrobatics that have put freeskiing at the cutting edge of snow sports, he triumphed over last year's event champion, fellow Frenchman, Sebastien Michaud, with 24-year-old Australian Dave "Gravy" Keam putting in an inspiring performance to finish third.

Gravy, whose credibility in international competition is rapidly growing, performed a string of daring clean and strong back flips on each of his two runs, as well as nearly completing a new school jump where he spun 540 degrees and landed fakey (backwards on his skis).

"I guess I had a couple of good runs, and I pretty much stuck all my tricks. I'm super happy to have performed so well at something I love so much, against this elite level of international competitors. It's pretty cool as an Aussie to do so well," said Keam.

Another young Australian skier, Andrea Binning, from Mount Hotham, flew the Aussie flag in the women's skiing event with a solid display of sweeping turns and smoothly executed airs. She later said, "I went for it on my first run. I felt like I had nothing to lose, and I had a lot of fun. This event is all that I hoped for, great competition and great people."

	Sam Hazeldine

American skier Jennifer Berg took second, with last year's Rip Curl World Heli Challenge champion, Australian Samala Singer, close behind in third place.

Spaniard David Pujol, in his first international event, won the men's snowboarding section against stiff competition from world leading riders including Temple Cummins (USA), Matt Goodwill (USA), Jeremy Jones (USA) and Axel Pauporte (BEL). Treating those lucky enough to witness his runs first hand to one of the most outstanding displays seen in the competitions history, Pujol landed a clean inverted 540 degree spin on his first jump and followed-up with another 540 spin off a 5 meter cornice during his second run.

"It's my first time in international competition. I feel really honored to be riding against these people I've seen in videos," he said, elated with his win.

	Andre Spinelli

Alaskan riders Andre Spinelli and Chuck Clasby finished tied for equal second, with both displaying a repertoire of massive jumps launching them over 50 feet through the freezing air. Belgium's Axel Pauporte finished in third place with Australian Tim Vlandis just behind in fourth.

Local New Zealand girl Julianne Bray took out the women's snowboarding event, impressing with a gutsy display of technical air moves and speed. She later said that being familiar with the Southern Alps of New Zealand was a huge help to picking the correct line. 1998 Rip Curl victor Karleen Jeffery (CAN) landed second place, drawing raucous applause with a massive air on her first run. Former world boardercross champion, Australian Marguerite Cossetini finished in third place with her calm and mature style resulting in two faultless runs including a massive clean jump on her first.

One of the day's many highlights was provided by former USA freestyle skiing champion Brad Holmes, arguably one of the world's best new school freeskiers, who put in a short but amazing performance. Holmes almost landed one of the most technical and advanced aerial maneuvers ever seen in big mountain skiing competition, spinning a 720 degree Misty Flip. However he slightly miss-judged his landing and crashed heavily, cracking his helmet.

"I kind of saw stars for awhile after that one and just couldn't pull it together to take another run," said Holmes, who later confirmed he would be fit to compete in day two of the Rip Curl World Heli Challenge.

Due to cloudy weather conditions early today, day two of the three-day Rip Curl event, the Backcountry Heli Extreme Day, has been postponed for safety reasons. In line with the philosophy of the event, organizers will wait for perfect weather conditions to complete the final two days.

It's expected that conditions will be fine to fly on Friday for the Backcountry Heli Chinese Down Hill Day.

— Reports supplied by Tony Harrington