Day three of the world’s first slopestyle kiteboarding contest received excellent conditions, perfect for women’s finals and the first round of men’s qualifiers.
While the water level of the Columbia River dropped over Tuesday night, leaving two of the terrain park’s features on dry land on Wednesday morning, day three of the 2012 Ro Sham Throwdown got underway anyway.
After organizers made a call to the nearby dam to get the water level raised, the Women’s Finals proceeded as the liquid canvas slowly filled in. Colleen Carroll, Sensi Graves, Laura Maher, and Dominique Granger duked it out for placement on the podium. Due to the unsafe water level, however, only one third of the women’s heat was run and the finals will resume on Thursday.
Next up, Men’s Qualifier Round 1 kicked off with three 10-man rounds of professional and amateur competitors making their way through one half of the five-feature terrain park. Once heat 3 wrapped up, the river had swelled to a safe level and the other half of the course was completed as well.
Amidst the strong winds, the following riders placed first and second, advancing to Friday’s semi finals: Craig Cunningham and Rich Sabo (Heat 1), Jake Kelsick and Tom Court (Heat 2), and Alex Fox and Sam Medysky (Heat 3). Court bagged the highest score of the day off the Slingshot Kicker with a crow mobe, while Fox stomped a switch KGB for the highest flatwater trick of the day and greased the entire rail on the 69-foot-long Airush Boombox with a backside boardslide to frontside boardslide for the highest-scoring rail hit of the day.
For more information, please visit www.SliderProject.com.
REMAINING SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (subject to change due to wind conditions)
Thurs. July 19: 10 a.m. Men’s Qualifiers Round 2, then Women’s Finals (resumed)
Fri. July 20: 10 a.m. Men’s Semi Finals, then Men’s Finals
Sat. July 21: 11 a.m. Wakeskate, then Freeriding
Presented by The Slider Project, the 2012 Ro Sham Throwdown is sponsored by Liquid Force / Second Wind Sports, North Kiteboarding, Slingshot, Best Kiteboarding, Smith Optics, and additional support from Andrew’s Pizza.