While those of us in the Northern Hemisphere count down the last days of summer, the Freeskiing competition season kicked off down in New Zealand. The Kombi team started off the seaon with some podium pictures.

Megan Gunning put everyone on alert, grabbing 1st in the half-pipe and 3rd in slopestyle. In her halfpipe run Megan threw out a HUGE cork 180 as well as carrying lots of amplitude through her whole run. Megan wrapped up the weekend winning the Bolle Young Gun award for women.

On the men’s side, newcomer Noah Bowman nailed down 3rd in the Men’s halfpipe.

They have just posted a bunch of videos from the JOSS event on their website. Be sure to check out Justin Dorey and the rest of the crew in the winning video from Team Canada.

http://usa.josupersessions.com/

The Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) has awarded Roz G the AFP Overall Women’s Title for 2010. Roz has now won the title two years in a row. The Overall Title is based on Roz’s performance in both Superpipe and Slopestyle contests this past season. Roz finished the season ranked 2nd by the AFP in Superpipe and 8th in Slopestyle. Winning the award in consecutive years really highlights the overall talent of Roz G.

A big part of the Telus Ski and Snowboard Festival is the World Skiing Invitational. Coming at the end of the season, the events find skiers in top form and pushing the progression higher. Megan Gunning did just that and landed in 2nd Place at the WSI Ski Superpipe Finals. Megan’s winning run included a massive cork right 1080 along with a right 9 and a switsh alley-oop right 5. Megan had a blowout first season on the Kombi Team and we’re sure she’ll be finding more podiums next year.

The JOSS event wrapped up over the weekend. Team Canada which included Justin Dorey finished first overall. Team America which included Tom Wallisch finished 4th but won the People’s Choice Award. Check out newschoolers.com or http://usa.josupersessions.com/ for more highlights, photos, and videos.

The Freeride World Tour made it’s last stop at the Nissan Extreme by Swatch at Verbier. Although Matt did not land on the podium at this event, he did well enough to finish 3rd overall on the Freeride World Tour for 2009/2010.

Roz added a silver to the bronze she collected earlier in the year at the Winter X Games in Aspen. Roz boosted the highest airs of the afternoon. Her winning run served up a 900, a 540, an alley oop, an alley oop 540, huge straight airs and a 720. Winter X Euro is done.

Tom Wallisch and Bobby Brown waged a 2 man battle through the elimination round and into the finals with Tom coming out on top. Tom pulled it all together today for the final and his first X-Games medal. Tom’s winning run included a dub 1080, a switch dub 1080, and enough spins to tilt the planet’s axis of rotation.

Justin Dorey finished 3rd in the Ski Superpipe at the first Winter X-Games Europe. J-Bone went for it all on his first run throwing back-to-back doubles followed by a his super smooth alley-oop 3, to switch 9, to switch 7, and finishing the run with a flat 5. Unfortunately, he had some trouble on his next 2 runs but this solid first run put him in 3rd place for the event. Congrats Justin!

The third stage of the Freeride World Tour took place at Squaw Valley last weekend. Matt Annetts finished 2nd. He finished his run with a stunning double-cliff jump at the Silverado venue at Squaw. Matt will now head to Verbier for the finals.