Iannick B Defends his WSSF Title

SCOTT Wintersport team skier, Iannick B., successfully defended his crown at the 2005 World Ski and Snowboard Festival (WSSF). Before a crowd of thousands and in a steady rain, Iannick kept his composure, delivered a succession of clean tricks, and won his second consecutive WSSF Urban Rail Session.

The Whistler Village venue was identical to last year, with a challenging down-flat-down rail. The first kink was a little steep, making it hard to stay balanced and do tricks on the second kink. For some reason, the take off was also flat instead of having a little lip, making it hard to disaster to the second kink like most riders did last year. With all that in mind, riders still managed to pull off some sick tricks.

Iannick delivered a pretty clean blind-side switch-up, guaranteeing him a spot in the head-to-head finals against a local Whistler rail slayer named Dave. Dave fell on his final two hits and Iannick threw down another clean blind-side switch-up, making him $3,200 richer…………..sort of. In a funny side note, Iannick and Scott team rider Tim Russell (Gravity Games rail jam winner) thought the purse was $10,000. Knowing that they both had a good chance to win such a large purse, they agreed to split the winnings should one of them win the rail session. Iannick won and ended up with $1,600 in his pocket instead of $5,000. Since Iannick is a man of his word, Tim walked with $1,600 too. Not bad for a night's work!

Photo: Iannick B. and Tim Russel show off their winnings
Credit: Jonny A