At the Junior National Freestyle Ski Championships last spring, Squamish’s Mattheus Heslop realized what he was capable of on a Canada-wide level with a third-place in his age group in the moguls event.
Returning to action on the provincial-level Timber Tour, the Freestyle Whistler member put that positivity into action, winning all three events at the first stop of the season at Panorama Mountain Resort from Jan. 24 to 26, claiming gold in slopestyle, moguls and dual moguls in the U14 male division.
Conquering the cold in Quebec, Heslop came into the season with a fresh shot of confidence.
"I think it helped a lot. I don't think I was as nervous as I usually was," he said. "I felt really good."
The weekend started with Heslop's favourite event, slopestyle, before moving onto the moguls competitions. Snagging a gold early on, especially with some sticky rails, provided a boost heading into the rest of the festival.
"I like the creativity and I like getting a lot of air [in slopestyle]," said Heslop, adding that his cork 720 that he landed on the final jump was a thrill, as it was the first time he'd thrown it in competition.
Another thrill for Heslop was to meet 2014 Paralympic gold medallist and current Freestyle BC executive director Josh Dueck again, as Dueck expressed admiration for how Heslop handled himself on the moguls course.
"He was very amazed since in my second moguls run, I saved a very bad crash," Heslop recalled. "I was going down the last set of moguls and I caught my edge and started going backwards. I caught my edge, then did a flip back to my feet and skied out.
"It was crazy and very scary."
Heslop expressed thanks to his coaches, to Panorama and to Freestyle BC for making the event happen.
Heslop's three medals were among the 17 that the Freestyle Whistler team claimed at the Timber Tour.
In the slopestyle event, Landon Owen-Mold claimed bronze in the U14 male event, as did Emerson Raffler in the U16 male contest while Trenton Schumann won silver in the U18 male showdown.
In single moguls, Owen-Mold won another bronze in U14 male, Phillip Kang and Daniel Gannon took gold and silver, respectively, in U16 male, and in the female division, Brooke Armstrong and Lynette Conn took U16 gold and silver, in order.
Lastly, in dual moguls, Owen-Mold won a third bronze in U14 male, while Gannon and Kang switched spots for gold and silver in U16. In the female contest, Linda Madi emerged with bronze in U14 while Conn and Armstrong swapped spots for gold and silver in U16.
Several other club members claimed top 10s over the weekend, including: Armaan Asrar Haghighi (U14 male); Deston Swift, Aidan Mulvihill, Owen Scarth, and Ewan Clemenson (U16 male); Liam Rivera (U18 male); and Brynn Johnston (U16 female). In the U16 female division, Itsuki Sato posted a best finish of 11th in the single moguls. Meanwhile, Whistler-based KR Academy members Thomas Dooley (U14 male) and Catherine Dooley (U14 female) also cracked the top 10.
With a smaller contingent, Freestyle Whistler also claimed four medals in Super Youth competition with U12 male skier Finn Henderson claiming silver in the single moguls and slopestyle and bronze in big air, while Poppy Clemenson nabbed third in U10 female slopestyle. Zoe Henderson and Ty Prouse also competed well on the weekend.
Freestyle Whistler moguls head coach Jeff Fairbairn was thrilled with his athletes' accomplishments at the competition.
"I feel we went prepared, and because the athletes were prepared in both moguls and slopestyle, we were able to get the results that we did," he said.
Fairbairn noted that like several of the competing clubs, Freestyle Whistler had to contend with low-snow conditions early this season. However, many athletes went to train at Apex Mountain Resort and Calabogie Peaks to prepare for the campaign.
"Having that advantage, being able to train, definitely set the stage for us," he said.
The club's focus, Fairbairn said, is to try to qualify as many of its athletes for this year's Canadian Junior Championships in Red Deer, Alta. in March, with several Freestyle Whistler athletes in good position early in the process.
Fairbairn added that three athletes, Kang, Conn and Armstrong, will make their NorAm Cup debuts in February at the event in Deer Valley, Utah from Feb. 9 to 13.
