Robbie Walker Wins 4th Annual Cattleman’s Rail Jam (13-Jul-09)

Mt Buller, Victoria - 16 of Australia’s best snowboarders braved the cold temperatures and wild weather

Mt Buller, Victoria (July 12, 2009) – 16 of Australia’s best snowboarders braved the cold temperatures and wild weather last night to battle it out on the 18-stair village rail for the $5,000 prize pool.

 
Robbie Walker of Melbourne took out first place and $3000 for the second year running after consistently throwing down technical tricks on all 3 rail features during the hour long session. It was nearly like Robbie couldn’t fall, continually stomping tricks that included gap cab inward 270, frontside 270, backside 270 and a backside 180 switch 50-50 on the outside rail.
 
“I love the atmosphere at Cattleman’s. The crowd really pushes the riders to pull out their best tricks so it ends up being a real battle”, said Robbie after the win.
 
In close second, with a hefty bag of tricks that included a front blunt switch up to noseslide to 270 out and a gap cab 270 on the centre rail was 16 year-old Jye Kearney from Jindaybne, NSW. Local Mikey Williams walked away with Best Trick for a 50-50 through the awkward double-kink side rail that no other rider stepped to, edging out a mass of super technical tricks from the new breed of young riders who were going mad on the centre rail with hammers like Darragh Walsh’s Switch Backside 270 to boardslide to 270 out and Marty Nova’s Nollie backside 270 to board slide… And we can’t forget the smooth style of Alex “The Russian” Kutaisov, Mitch Willams or young Chris DeCampo who stomped a front blunt switch up to noseslide on the side rail. The only female competitor Jess Rich took some heavy beatings throughout the night but kept on charging, eventually stomping an amazing blind frontside board slide 270 out.
 
To finish off the night the two riders battling hard for the win (Jye & Robbie) joined up for a syncronized backflip down the stair set that sent the crowd into a frenzy and got them ready for the after party at the Kooroora Hotel, hosted by Transfer Snowboard Magazine.
 
Burton’s Cattleman’s Rail Jam is Australia’s premiere snowboarding event, and again attracted Australia’s most progressive rail snowboarders for the one chance to ride the rails in the centre of Mt Buller’s village.
 
“Cattleman’s Rail is one of Australia’s most infamous snowboard spots and it’s only opened up once a year for this event so the riders love it”, said Burton Team Manager Chris Boadle, who was stoked in the aftermath of the night’s shredding.

 
Results
1st – Robbie Walker (K2, Billabong, Von Zipper) $3,000
2nd – Jye Kearney (Burton, Oakley) $1500
Best Trick – Mikey Williams (DC, Electric) $500

Check out the video here