Lining up on a familiar course in Calgary at the Snow Rodeo FIS World Cup stop, Jadyn Chomlack looked out, saw friends and family hoisting humungous bobble versions of his face, and with that inspiration, posted his first-ever World Cup top-10 finish.
"Having lots of friends, family and stuff watching, it was really fun," he said.
All the more impressive is that the 17-year-old Pemberton snowboarder was making just his second World Cup start as he made the finals and finished 10th overall with a score of 58.71. New Zealand's Tiarn Collins (80.50) came away with the win ahead of Japan's Ruki Tobita (79.53) and Canada's Liam Brearley (76.58).
"I had a really good flow in my run. I was happy with how it all went together," Chomlack said. "I think the judges appreciated it for what it was.
"I was working on my run all week, trying to stick to it. It was working for me and it felt good to put it together in the contest."
Other Canadian finishers were: Tyler Nicholson (eighth); Carter Jarvis (11th); Whistler resident Darcy Sharpe (12th); Michael Ciccarelli (18th); Liam Gill (23rd); Whistler's Finn Finestone (39th); Francis Jobin (40th); Michael Modesti (41st); William Izzard (43rd); and Whistler's Jacob Legault (51st).
Chomlack said that he still had some butterflies heading into the contest, but being on familiar Canadian soil was a major help. He added that the Calgary Olympic Park course is one he and his teammates train on regularly, though some of the features are made larger for the competition.
"I was still pretty nervous, but I felt pretty good. I was excited and happy to be in Canada," he said. "It was overall a great experience and I was happy with the outcome."
Since it was nearly a year since Chomlack's World Cup debut, a 28th-place showing at California's Mammoth Mountain last March, there wasn't too much he brought forward from that experience. However, a pair of top-five NorAm Cup finishes this season gave Chomlack a sense of his progression since then.
"It felt kind of similar. The last World Cup start was last year, a while ago, but I didn't really make it that far," he said. "It felt good to land a run.
"I felt like I learned a lot and maybe came into it with a little more confidence."
Chomlack said that he's been happy with his season so far as he's been able to travel a lot, see new places and meet new people. On course, he's been working on landing big air 1280s and 1440s.
Chomlack is currently in Eastern Canada for NorAm Cup competitions, and he will head to Austria later this season for the World Rookie Tour finals at Kitzsteinhorn.
Also in Calgary on the weekend, Canadian Laurie Blouin scored 79.56 to win the women's slopestyle event over Norway's Silje Norendal and Great Britain's Katie Ormerod. Fellow Canadians Sommer Gendron and Brooke Voigt finished sixth and seventh, respectively.
In the halfpipe, Derek Livingston was the top Canadian in men's action, finishing seventh, as Japan's Ruka Hirano topped Australia's Scotty James and Switzerland's Patrick Burgener for the win. The remaining Canadians finished well back, with Joshua Reeves, Jack Collins, Shawn Fair, Braeden Adams, Kiran Pershad and Liam Gill finishing 22nd through 27th, in order.
No Canadian women competed as China's Xuetong Cai topped Japan's Mitsuki Ono and China's Jiayu Liu for top spot.
On the ski side, Canada took three podium appearances. In the men's halfpipe, Brendan MacKay scored a 91.00 to finish just behind American Gus Kenworthy, who had a 93.20 while American Birk Irving took third. Meanwhile, Noah Bowman took fifth, Dylan Marineau was 11th, and Andrew Longino placed 12th.
In the women's event, Rachael Karker's 89.20 was also good enough for second behind Ailing Eileen Gu of China, who posted a 94.00. Russia's Valeriya Demidova was third. Other Canadians were Rachael Anderson in 11th, Dillan Glennie in 16th, and Amy Fraser in 17th. Whistler's Cassie Sharpe was a late scratch due to an injury suffered at last week's Dew Tour stop.
Lastly, in slopestyle, Canada's Megan Oldham scored a third-place finish with an 80.70 behind winner Gu (89.18) and Switzerland's Mathilde Gremaud (87.13). Other Canucks were Dara Howell in fifth, Olivia Asselin in seventh and Elena Gaskell in 12th.
Lastly, no Canadian men hit the slopestyle podium, with Evan McEachran taking fourth as Switzerland's Andri Ragettli held off Americans Colby Stevenson and Nicholas Goepper for the win. The Canadian contingent also included Etienne Geoffroy Gagnon in seventh, Mark Hendrickson in 13th, Max Moffatt in 19th, Alex Beaulieu-Marchand in 44th, and Whistler's Teal Harle in 45th.
