Exciting Final Day At Hood Jam 2016

Fri 12th Aug, 2016 @ 12:00 am

Kitesurfing News
Exciting Final Day At Hood Jam 2016

The final day of competition at the 2016 Hood Jam was packed with excitement. The men’s and women’s final, as well as the ION best trick challenge, went off. Final results will be announced at the awards party, tonight. The Slider Project provides details about the final day of competition, below.

Christophe Tack, stale grab during the ION best trick challenge.

Sunshine and clear skies surrounded the Columbia River Gorge Wednesday morning, allowing the trusted thermal winds to funnel through the corridor, granting the Hood Jam finalists light steady winds to start the day. The wind picked up to solid 9m conditions by the day’s end.

Sandbar stoke during the final heats.

Continuing on from the day before, men’s finalists started with the cheesewedge-to-corrugated feature, followed by the left-foot kicker, then the right-foot kicker to finish their final heat of the competition. Standout tricks from today’s men’s 9-man final were Sam Light’s Moby Dick 540, Noe Font’s textbook heelside backside 720 as well as Ewan Jaspan’s stylish stale toeside backside 720.

Ewan Jaspan goes huge off the Slingshot kicker.

The women’s final heat saw tight competition from the very first feature until the last with Sensi Graves, Colleen Carroll, Karolina Winkowska, Annelous Lammerts and Lindsay McClure going trick for trick and giving it their all to do better than the last.

Annelous Lammerts was on point during the women's final.

Following the exciting final heats of the main event, competitors all headed back out to the water for one of those perfect Gorge sunset sessions and to compete for the ION best trick kicker challenge. A 45-minute jam session to throw a single best trick off the right-foot-forward kicker, with $1000 cash on the line and only one man and one woman taking home the cheddar.

Pierre Vogel sending it during the ION best trick contest.

One of the most exciting sessions of the entire week, the ION best trick kicker contest, was a rapid-fire shred fest of big tricks and never been done hits. Impressing the crowd and making kiteboarding history, Brandon Scheid landed the first mute grab blind Pete 540, going massive off the Slingshot kicker, executing the trick with his signature power and style.

Jesse Richman always knows how to put on a good show

Christophe Tack came back from a minor injury to land his first switch 900 and to become the first person in kiteboarding to do both 900’s. After an incredibly exciting finish to the competition here in Hood River, riders will freeride in the coming day and enjoy the closing party, hosted by STOKED Roasters, where the official results will be announced.