BURTON QUALIFIERS | BEAVER VALLEY, ONTARIO

The final qualifying event of the Burton Qualifiers amateur snowboard tour just took place across the border at Beaver Valley, Ontario. True to form, this stop brought the region’s hungriest riders together, all in the hopes of earning a piece of the tour’s $20k prize purse, and landing a spot to compete in the finals.

The course was a mix of standard and creative features, with traditional park fixings like a down rail and gap-out flat-down rail on top of a dual-level bowl arrangement. Riders could gap out of the transition of the top bowl to a rail or barrel bonk, and then cruise into the stunt ditch below where unlimited options awaited. The ingredients were there for any type of riding, and the riders cooked up every flavor imaginable over the course of the day.

It started with the 15 & Under division, and this clearly wasn’t their first rodeo. Jesse Jarret led the pack, tossing burly maneuvers down the rails and going hard on the lower section for a solid 1st place finish and $300. Coltan Eckert followed up with a barrage of consistent, stylish and technical tricks across the course, taking home 2nd and $200. Third place and a check for $100 went to Liam Brearly, who’s seasoned competitive skills proved useful in a consistent flow across the whole course.

The open division fired off in true Qualifiers fashion, with the first ten minutes involving an onslaught of chaos and impressive showings of tech rail skills. Riders were hell-bent on sending every trick in the book down the rails, but the judges decided to switch it up again and close off the top section of the course and focus on the bowl. In the end, the clear winner was Joel Dalacker, who claimed dominance on every feature with clean style and a wide variety of tricks across the map. He walked away in 1st place, $800 richer (in U.S. dollars at that, hello exchange rate!) Danny Glibota slid in for 2nd with unique style and proper execution – two high priorities for the judges – and walked away with $400. The highly contested 3rd place spot and a check for $200 went to Ian MacGregor.

As the fifth qualifying stop along the tour, this was the last chance for riders to earn a spot in the finals event at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. While the top three in each division won cash prizes, the top six all locked in spots at the finals. For full tour info and finals event details head to BurtonQualifiers.com.

PHOTO | Dan Croback