This weekend saw the Freeze Festival return for the very last time to the iconic location of Battersea Power Station. The festival kicked off on Friday morning with the cream of the British freeski scene battling it out for a spot in the main event later in the day.
With three spots in the evenings international event up for grabs and a couple of big names missing from the start list due to injury it was a big chance for some of the rookies to really make a name for themselves.
As the qualifications kicked off and the judges tried to pick their top eight to advance through to the finals the comp once again descended quickly into a cork seven fest. In the finals the top eight went head to head with two runs to determine the top four going through for the super finals.
Special mention should go out to Andy Collin who was keepin it clean and steezy with his 3′s and still just about managed to make the cut but after qualifying in first Andy Matthew sailed through the first heat with another of his super stylie bio 7′s.
George Walton’s continued his recent run of good form and prover that he is definitely one to watch but his cork 7 nose was not quite enough to see off James Woods. Woodsy, who had already qualified for the evenings event was still determined to win and started to throw his double cork 12 to ensure the win.
In the third heat James Machon was up against Peter Speight with both throwing very similar 7′s and after a close call it was James Machon stomping his landings cleaner to go through to the final 4.
The final heat, Andy Bennett went for the crowd pleaser and layed down a zero spin but the youngest member of the finals, Nathan Connolly just took it with his super inverted cork 7 japan.
When it came down to the final four riders, Nathan kicked things off with super smooth cork 7 truck showing that style is just as important as technicality.
James Machon was next up and stomped a super clean cork 7 leading mute executed with textbook precision to put him in the lead.
Andy Matthew was keeping it clean all day throwing another misty 7 with a mute tweaked so much it left the crowd wondering how his skis were staying on! The extra amplitude and invert put Andy into the lead with only James Woodsy Woods to go.
Woodsy was getting the capacity crowd pumped by going massive all day. He dropped in and put down another massive double cork 12 mute and after that there was no denying who the Battle of Britain winner was.
Final Results
1st – James Woods
2nd – Andy Matthew
3rd – James Machon
4th – Nathan Connolly
5th – Andy Collin, George Walton, Pete Speight, Andy Bennett
