CONGRATULATIONS JAMES STENTIFORD!

UK Quiksilver Team Manager and 39 year old British Snowboard Legend scored third place in the final and most intimidating leg of the Nissan World Freeride Tour – the Bec des Rosses – making him ranked 6th over all with 4,700 points. As a close friend, we are super stoked for him here at MINT Snowboarding.

After scoring impressive results from a wild card invitation at the 2010 World Freeride Tour, James Stentiford was invited again to compete against the World’s toughest freeride snowboarders across all legs of the Nissan World Freeride Tour 2011.

The World Freeride Tour kicked off in Stentiford’s home resort – Chamonix – where his unfortunate run scored him in at just 9th place. This didn’t phase him though as 2 events later he scored podium results coming in at 3rd in both Fiebberbrunn (AUS) and Bec des Rosses (Verbier) proving that he is amongst the World’s strongest freeride snowboarders.

His WFT results are as follows:

• 9th Chamonix
• 5th St Moritz
• 4th Russia
• 3rd Fiebberbrunn
• 3rd Verbier

As Britain’s toughest freeride snowboarder, James Stentiford has become an icon for those that have grown up with him, as well as young snowboarders coming into the scene. It has been a proud few months to see him compete in such intimidating conditions against the world’s best, and especially to see him score that podium in Verbier. At 39 years old, Stentiford was happily on the road to retirement but as we’ve all seen – there’s a hell of a lot more to come out of the old man yet. Don’t put those slippers on too soon stenti..Here’s a few words from James Stentiford after Bec des Rosses:

“The Bec Des Rosse is an intimidating mountain, and when you add to that a helicopter buzzing in front of your face and countless camera’s, it becomes an incredibly challenging experience. The emotions run higher at the start & finish gates at this event in particular as all the riders know that the consequences are that much higher. Standing at the top, I went through every emotion from fear to excitement as the adrenaline started to kick in. I tried to calm my nerves with some breathing exercises before I set off, but as soon as I was out of the gate, focus set in and I couldn’t even hear the Heli buzzing above my head.

The Bec has so much freeriding history that I think I built it up to be this big monster that wanted to kill me, but once I stood on top for the first time I realized that as much as it’s intimidating it’s also a beautiful mountain with some great lines.

The relief when I got to the finish was unbelievable. I was just glad to be down in one piece and to get on the podium is an absolute dream. As I stood in the leaders position for live TV and riders kept coming down and not knocking me off I just thought “well at least I didn’t come last… at least I made 5th place!” At the time, I wasn’t that happy with my run as I made a few mistakes, so you can imagine to come 3rd was an absolute bonus.

I was convinced I was going to retire after Verbier but now I’m not so sure, maybe one more year just to see if I can win an event!”

CONGRATULATIONS STENTI! Look forward to riding with you soon…

Check out some great coverage on James Stentiford on the Telegraph and BBC Sports site:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/default.stm