Quinn Moeller didn't sleep a wink the night before he took the plunge Friday afternoon in his first-ever freestyle skiing slopestyle competition.
He worked the graveyard shift until 7 a.m. at Conifex sawmill in Fort St. James, then loaded up his skis and drove for two-and-a-half hours with his friend Andrew Weir to Tabor Mountain, site of the Timber Tour provincial series event.
If the crisp -30 C air at the top of the hill wasn't enough to sharpen his senses, the obstacles awaiting him on the Tabor slopestyle course were more than enough to trigger a surge of adrenaline through his 21-year-old body.
With only three practice runs behind him, Moeller was solid on his feet, twisting 270s off the rails and three sets of 540s off the jumps to crank out an impressive 78.0-point run to start the competition. Much to his surprise, that stood up as the third-best overall run of the day.
"It was different because we're not used to stuff like that," said Moeller, who won gold in the M1 (19-and-over) category. "When I landed the full run I felt pretty good, obviously I was stoked. I was just really happy about it. I'm shocked I managed to place third overall.
"I was really nervous standing up at the top just thinking about what I could do, getting pumped up to my music on my iPod. I've always been interested in competing. It's crazy how much the sport has evolved compared to when I was younger."
Moeller said his only medal as an athlete was for playing hockey for his Fort St. James team.
He started out snowboarding and did that for one-and-a-half years until his friends at Murray Ridge "forced" him to take up freestyle skiing when he was 16.
"A lot of kids in the Fort do what I do," he said.
Not having a club affiliation, the host Northern BC Freestyle Cub adopted Moeller for the weekend and a club official asked him if he wanted to come back to help coach the younger athletes, an offer he's considering. He would like to have stuck around for Sunday's big air event but he has to work that day.
Moeller's toughest trick Friday was the 540 switch rodeo off the jump, an off-axis flip that combines a Lincoln loop with one-and-a-half full turns of horizontal rotation.
"It's nerve-wracking going over the jumps, especially since I only had such a short time to practice," he said.
Moeller crashed off the second obstacle trying a switch-270 in his second run and the landing hurt his thigh. He was able to continue the rest of the way down the hill but wasn't able to pull the tricks he wanted.
The jumps at Tabor were quite a bit larger than what he's used at Murray Ridge Ski Resort where he trains, but Moeller said he loved the big drops which shot skiers 10 feet high off the ground for 30 or 40 feet before they hit the surface again.
So did 16-year-old Duncan Milne of North Vancouver, who tied Teale Harle of Mount Washington for the top score of the day, both nailing 84-points with their second runs. Milne felt the crush of defeat a few weeks ago at Apex near Penticton when he fell in both of his runs and finished second-last in the M3 (16-and-17-year-old) category. But he made no mistakes on Friday and was full marks for his trip to the top of the podium, scoring 83 points on his first run.
"I went a little bit big, too much speed," said Milne, whose tricks included a switch-270 off the rail that requires him to take off facing backwards and a switch-900 off his second jump. "I liked my first run the best.
"In Vancouver, where I'm from, they only have one five-foot jump, so the jumps here are way nicer. It was a bit cold standing at the top. I just had hand warmers in my boots, I dressed in lots layers and two pairs of gloves."
Milne started freestyling when he was 12 and trains at Grouse Mountain, which hasn't had much snow this season. He doesn't do moguls but will be in Sunday's big air event. Slopestyle is his favourite and he's looking forward to watching it performed for the first time in the Olympics.
"It's going to be really cool," said Milne.
The competition included 53 males and 13 females. F4 competitor Mackenzie Wilson of Whistler had the top score overall among the girls with a 60.6-point second run. Elena Gaskell of Silver Star (57.3) and Mei Xing Pond of Mount Washington (51.3) were second and third overall.
Harle won the M2 class while Tommie Polomsky of Vancouver (67.6) and Dylan Reed of the Yukon (65.3) were second and third.
In other medal results, Luke Smart of Whistler captured gold in the M4 class with a 77-point run. Sterling Peters of Silver Star (67.6) and Chase Ujejski of Whistler (66.3) were the silver and bronze medalists. Patrick Dew posted a 75 for silver in the M3 event and his Silver Star teammate Zachary Fenn won bronze with a 72.
Northern BC Freestyle Club results were as follows: Wyatt Turcotte, 17th in M3, 42.6 points; Devin Rentz, 19th in M3, 36.0; Cody Strickland, 22nd in M3, 32.6; Andre Dreyer, 19th in M4, 35.3; Loic St. Denis, 20th in M4, 34.0; Keagan Fraser, 21st in M4, 29.6; and Domink Zwiers, 22nd in M4, 29.0.
Hannah Benischek of Mount Washington topped the list F3 athletes with a run worth 48.3 points, followed by Chloe Kober of Apex (40.3) and Kassidy Todd of Apex (40.0).
Today's moguls event starts with a training session at 10:15 a.m., followed by the two-run competition at 11:15 a.m. The moguls run is on the slope overlooking the Tabor Mountain Ski Resort lodge.
Sunday's big air event will take place on the eastern slopes of Tabor using the last jump of the slopestyle course. Training starts at 10:15 a.m. and the competition (two runs) starts at 11:15.
