Becoming a ski champion can be a bumpy ride, but for one Millarville skier having his knees moving up and down like pistons is part of the magic of winning a mogul championship.
“Your knees have to be together — the judges want to see your knees so they can judge you on your turns,” said 12-year-old Davis Clement. “You are also pretty much going straight downhill.”
Clement won the gold medal in moguls for his age group at a provincial competition at Castle Mountain near Pincher Creek on Jan. 22. He finished 10th overall among all the competitors, but he won a bronze medal for his age group in Big Air, in which the skier goes off a jump and performs tricks in the air.
The event at Castle Mountain featured some of the top skiers in Alberta.
The mogul competition has the skier heading straight down a ski hill covered with bumps about the width of a pair of downhill skis apart.
Making quick turns between the sometimes four-foot high bumps helps keep the skier in control.
Clement said there isn’t one specific size for the moguls, but described them as: “They aren’t small.”
Just for good measure there is a pair of jumps along the way and the skiers have to take off from the jump and complete a trick.
“Moguls is a variety of stuff that you can do, that’s why I like it,” said Clement. “You are judged on how good your turns are, your speed and your jumps.”
The competition consisted of all skiers taking one run, and then the top half of those skiers advanced to a second run. Clement was number one in his age group after the first run and he was even better on his second run.
“My turns were better and my jumps were better,” Clement said. “My first jump was a Cork 7.”
The Cork 7 – short for 720 – has Clement going off the jump and doing two revolutions while slanted to one side.
“You’re not standing straight up and down, you’re off axis,” he explained. “You are kind of on your back when you are turning.
For his second jump he did a back cross flip — a back flip with his skis crossed at the back.
The jumps are hard enough, but they are even tougher when you are lining them up through a field of moguls — not to mention you are landing in these bumps on a downhill slope.
“It’s very difficult,” Clement said. “(When you land) you concentrate on being forward and then making your turn.”
In the Big Air competition, Clement soared to a bronze medal. One of his jumps was a Cork 720 and the other a Cork 900, a jump consisting of 2-1/2 revolutions. However, because he has more of a runway and doesn’t have to land on a bunch of bumps, he’s able to get much more air.
Clement ensures he gets plenty of practice before trying to twist his body for two revolutions while being 15 feet in the air.
He attends a camp in Red Deer during the summer in which he skis down a ramp, tries his trick and splashes into a lake.
Still, he has wiped out once or twice on the ski slopes, but he can’t worry about the consequences.
“It doesn’t really scare me,” Clement said.
While a site hasn’t been selected for the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Grade 7 student at Millarville School is hoping to represent Canada at those Games.
Davis’s older brother Garrett, 15, finished 19th overall at Castle Mountain, which was a personal best for him.
Matt Westhaver from Gladys Ridge competed in his first competition.
