SKOLF | THE AIRBLASTER WORLD TOUR

On Jan 10^th, Sunshine Village, located in beautiful Banff, Alberta, was home to an elegant nine-hole, par four, SKOLF course. The course, developed by masterminds such as Airblaster, Snowboy, and Sunshine, rested at about 2750 ft above sea level and ran along the west side of the mountain, encompassing two of Sunshine Village’s most challenging terrain parks: Great Divide and Grizzly Park. For those of you who may not know, SKOLF is a lovely, tea-sipping blend of both S-K-A-T-E and golf. Developed by Airblaster in 2016/2017, this highbrow, fun-based sport is played using nine holes, also known as park features. At each hole, the competitors are given a snowboard manoeuvre that they are required to complete in as few attempts as possible. After completing the nine holes, the individual with the lowest score takes home the purse.

The competition was fierce this year. Sunshine Village hosted some of the most talented amateur SKOLFers that Alberta has to offer. But, as talented as the roster may have been, there can be only one SKOLF champion. After battling with some very difficult holes, and playing through -24 weather, Tanner Davidson boarded 15 under par, claiming 3^rd place; Josh Lebrun boarded 18 under par, sneaking into second place; and, at the top of the podium was Airblaster’s own, Max Warbington, who also boarded 18 under par, but beat Josh in a game of rock, paper, scissors to claim 1^st. What a day, what an event.

Words and photos by, William Fraser