Craig Murray Wins Freeride World Tour Stop #2 in Canada

Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, Canada (5 February 2019) – New Zealand skier Craig Murray (Wanaka) has claimed a win on the second stop of the 2019 Freeride World Tour in British Columbia, Canada. 20-year-old Craig is one of the youngest riders on the tour and this is his first victory. 

Craig had a strong start to the tour when he finished in fifth place at the first competition of the season held in Hakuba, Japan on 19 January wowing judges and spectators with the biggest trick of the day, a huge 720 thrown at the top of the course. 

Craig took a similar approach to today’s competition in Canada. Making his way to a big drop near the top of the course in order to line up a stylish 360 before flat spinning across the transfer and then heading for a third air. The judges rewarded his creative use of the course with high marks for air and style, scoring him 93 points from a possible 100. 

Craig describes how his day played out:

“It was a super cold day here, close to negative thirty in the morning but the sun came out and luckily most of the day we were in the sun. We’ve had a lot of snow over the past week, so conditions were good and at the top I was excited for my run.

“I changed my decision on the line at the last minute and ended up going to the skier’s right. It was a super fun line, I did a couple of tricks that I really enjoy doing and was really happy to land clean.

“I was really nervous at the bottom sitting in the hot seat waiting for lots of incredible riders to come down after me, much more nervous than I was at the top of the run. So I really couldn’t believe I walked away with the top spot today, it was incredible for me to have my first win on the Freeride World Tour and it was amazing to do it with a good bunch of Kiwi friends out here. I really enjoyed my line, and I was happy with how I skied. I’m still processing it, it’s quite overwhelming.”

Italy’s Markus Eder was second on 92 points and Logan Pehota (CAN) third on 91 points. 

NZ rider Maria Kuzma finished fourth in women's snowboard.

-Ends-

 Watch Craig's run