Carlson flies at snowboarding nationals

• Carlson

Contributed Alexandria’s Cody Carlson got some big air on one of his jumps at the USASA Snowboarding Nationals at Copper Mountain in Colorado on April 5. Carlson stacked up with the best in his division, finishing ninth out of 60 slopestyle riders in the 16-17-year-old division.

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Alexandria’s Cody Carlson proved you do not need to be from the big mountains of Colorado to turn yourself into one of the top snowboarders in the country.

Carlson, a junior at Jefferson High School, placed ninth among a field of 60 slopestyle riders at the USASA Snowboarding Nationals at Copper Mountain in Colorado on April 5. He made the national tournament by finishing first in a Minnesota qualifying event earlier this year.

Carlson started strong on the rails in his first of two runs at Copper Mountain. He washed out the landing of a backside rodeo 540 before choosing to straight air the second jump. That allowed him to build up enough speed to attempt the only backside double cork 1080 in the 16-17-year-old division.

Carlson was determined to finish strong on the second run. He went into his second jump with too much speed but still landed the event’s largest switch frontside 540. After landing so deep on the jump, he was going too slow and was too sore to do much the rest of the run.

Carlson still managed a backside 360 on his final jump and a boardslide 270 on the final rail. That was enough to impress the judges and send him home with the top-10 finish.

“I’m so proud of Cody,” his coach from the Foundation 725 Club at Andes Tower Hills Mike Jost said. “He had one of the most technically difficult runs in his division. One more speed check before jump two and he might have been on the podium.”

Carlson plans to continue molding his skills at Andes in hopes of returning to nationals next year to improve upon his top-10 finish.

Tags: alexandria sports, sports, snowboarding