Darcy Sharpe, who has come up through the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club and is now making his mark on the national team, has started his season with a bang, winning the Burton Rail Days in Tokyo.
It's billed as the world's largest street snowboarding contest.
Sharpe took the top spot out of a field of 17 this past weekend, winning $15,000 of the $27,000 prize purse.
His final runs included a frontside boardslide 450 drop off, ally-oop wallride to lipslide 270 on the rainbow rail, as well as a half Cab 50-50 transfer to lipslide 270.
"I thought it was great," said his Whistler Valley Snowboard Club head coach Joe Mcadoo, who has worked with Sharpe since he moved to Whistler from Comox at 14.
"I knew it would be tough but I was not surprised that he won."
It's also good for the local club, the longest running of its kind in Canada.
"It definitely brings us recognition, and draws people to us to look us up and see what we're about... and gives us some credibility too," said Mcadoo.
The competition took place in front of a crowd almost 6,000 strong at Roppongi Hills Arena in the heart of Tokyo.
Second spot went to Alex Andrews of the USA, and Canadian Zach Aller came in third.
Said Sharpe: "I was just snowboarding pretty much, doing the best I could... that's about all that was going through my mind."
Sharpe was also among the Canadians to sweep the three best trick categories, taking the Best Rail with a backside tailslide indy. Sebastien Toutant took Best Air for his boardslide rodeo off the cannon rail and Zach Aller took Best Wallride with a massive frontside invert.
This is the fifth annual Burton Rail Days, presented by MINI.
Sharpe took the silver medal at the FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2015 in Kreischberg, Austria in January.
