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It was a busy weekend at Mount Sima as the Freestyle Ski Yukon Champs took over the mountain. The weekend featured two events slopestyle and big air and ranged in age from U8 all the way to a Masters class.

On Saturday the skiers competed in the slopestyle competition. The young competitors from U8 to U12 were the first to compete at Pokey Park.

One-by-one the skiers took their turn going through the terrain park. The park featured a pipe and two rail features as well as three jumps at the end.

Freestyle Yukon coach Haydn Griffis said the competition for the young kids was to help them develop a positive attitude.

鈥淲e were mainly looking for a positive attitude,鈥� said Griffis. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want them dwelling on one bad experience. We want the kids to hype each other, have fun and show off some of their tricks.鈥�

Before dropping into the terrain park Griffis said it was great to see the kids conceptualize their run.

鈥淪eeing them able to think of two different runs is an awesome and great experience,鈥� said Griffis. 鈥淎ll the coaches know what tricks they can do and we bounce ideas off of them. For the young kids, they do six features and we see what they are comfortable with.鈥�

For some of the athletes, it was their first taste of competition.

鈥淲e try and do competition simulation,鈥� said Griffis. 鈥淚 am really happy for all of them. We wanted to see how they would perform under pressure. A lot of the time they will get performance anxiety if nervous, you just have to treat it as a training run with friends.鈥�

Griffis said confidence is a key for freestyle skiing.

鈥淐onfidence and believing in yourself is huge in this sport,鈥� said Griffis. 鈥淲e keep encouraging them to stay positive and keeping them engaged by giving them new tricks.鈥�

Griffis believes some of the skiers did not show off all of their moves.

鈥淎 few of them are hiding some tricks,鈥� said Griffis. 鈥淚鈥檓 excited to see where they go.鈥�

The winners of the three youth categories were Will Sutton, Mavik MacKinnon, and Jacob Robertson.

The U18 and Masters categories were held at Coyote Park at Mount Sima. Neil Mikkelsen won the U18 slopestyle and Miguel Rodden took the masters.

鈥淚t is a good feeling,鈥� said Mikkelsen. 鈥淚 put all my effort into the competition. It was about getting better.鈥�

On Sunday the skiers competed in the big air competition. Tammo Waldron won the U8 competition and MacKinnon, Alex Wilson, and Seth Sheardown-Waugh won the U10, U12 and U14 competitions.

Mikkelsen won the big air competition as well with a flat 9 trick.

鈥淚鈥檓 happy with how I skied,鈥� said Mikkelsen. 鈥淚 want to improve my flat 9, I did not land it too well.鈥�

The winner of the masters competition was Rodden.