Farmers Jam 2009
Every year, as the summer draws to a close, a large of amount of freeskiers and snowboarders all look forward to one thing, the legendary Farmers Jam, a 3 day long event taking place at the Norfolk Ski Centre in Norwich. This year being its 10th anniversary it promised to be absolutely blinding weekend of freestyle shenanigans, and let’s not forget the awesome weather which always seem to bless the almighty Farmers Jam.
Most competitors had decided to head down to Norfolk on the Friday to get a bit of practice and test the new kicker before the comp the following day. As usual the organisers and club members had come up with another amazing setup which literally blanketed the whole of the dendix main slope. I remember counting up to 14 hits, including boxes, gas pipes, flat down, rainbows, c rail etc etc... Unreal!!
Saturday started with a couple of hours practice, followed by the slopestyle qualifications. Although the slope was made from dendix, riders were not afraid to show the judges what they had to offer and that they deserved to get into the final with some gnarly tricks and powerful bails. Once all the riders had thrown down all the tricks in their arsenals, it was up to the judges to calculate who had got into the final for Sunday.
Sunday morning everyone was raring to go, starting with the slopestyle final. The level of competition was certainly high with local skiers and snowboarders such as Dave McCarthy, Tom Coe, Matthew Hood, Kiki Patel and Never summers own Jordan Southgate being challenged by riders from all over the land, Lewis Sonvico from Bracknell absolutely killed it and received 1st in his age category with some technical rail trickery. As usual the stoke skier crew came down and dominated with Harry Hancock and Ollie Powell leading the charge with mad tricks like gap 270’s to rails and some crazy combos.
After that the competition turned to the snowflex kicker for the big air, it was a bit slow but after the organisers sprayed the slope with silicone and let George Walton tow people in, the speed was sorted out and the party began with tricks like cork 7’s, rodeos and some crazy inverted stuff being thrown down by skiers and snowboarders alike...and some really stylee stuff being done by the little shredders, the judges had quite a job ahead of them.
Overall the Farmers Jam is one of those competitions you really have to go to. You might have heard loads of things about it by friends and other riders who will no doubt, sing its praises and hype it up, and it’s all true .This competition really shows the true side of freestyle snowsports in the UK, serious dedication, concentration and a love for it that cannot be destroyed.