Whitehorse snowboarder Max Melvin-McNutt gave his national ranking one last boost before the end of the season.
The 19-year-old rode to third place at the Dew Tour AM Series, a Mountain Dew beverage sponsored event, at Sun Peaks Resort in Kamloops, B.C., on Saturday.
His third-place finish in the highest amateur-level event put him at 14th in Canada in slopestyle to end a season in which he didn’t see many competitions.
“I feel really good about it; I’m really happy,” said Melvin-McNutt. “There were a lot of good riders, it was good exposure.”
Melvin-McNutt was one of 10 boarders to advance to the slopestyle final out of a field of 30. Those 10 qualifiers then went head-to-head with another 10 who received byes into the final based on rankings.
In his best run Melvin-McNutt threw down a backside rodeo 540, a switch frontside double cork 900 and a backside 900 on the jumps. He added on a backside boardslide pretzel 270 out and switch 270 front board, 270 out on the rails for third.
“The two guys who got first and second are both on the national team,” said Melvin-McNutt. “There were a bunch of guys from the national team, so there were a lot of good snowboarders there.”
Melvin-McNutt hopes his placement and the exposure he received from the competition could help land him a spot on Snowboard Canada’s developmental team. He’ll follow up with an application, including a video of him in action.
“It’s a very real possibility,” said Melvin-McNutt of making the team.
Melvin-McNutt’s bronze performance at the Dew tour comes on the heels of a fifth place finish in his first appearance at the Canadian Freestyle Snowboard Championships the previous weekend in Calgary.
He was the only boarder in the final doing double-corks, so “I think my scoring should have been a bit higher for that,” he said.
Three seasons ago Melvin-McNutt became the first Yukoner to make the B.C. Freestyle Snowboard Team.
In his first two seasons with the team he racked up some fantastic results before a broken collarbone took him out of action both seasons, causing him to miss the nationals both years.
Last season he took first in consecutive B.C. Snowboard Provincial Series Slopestyle competitions at Sun Peaks.
However, the B.C. team dissolved during this past off-season due to a lack of funding and Melvin-McNutt spent this season going it alone in Whistler, B.C.
He also placed third in a Canadian Shield Snowboard Tour event earlier this season.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com