Sam Smoothy's Winning Line at the Swatch Freeride World Tour Chamonix Mont-Blanc 2012

Winning a men's ski contest on the Swatch Freeride World Tour deserves a place on the list of "hardest things to do in sport". Sam Smoothy from New Zealand who has battled through qualifiers and injuries over the last few seasons proved that persistence always pays off and hit the top rung of the podium for the first time. In second place was one of the tour's most consistent performers Reine Barkered from Sweden and in third, tour newcomer Oakley White Allen from the USA who following his second place finish in Revelstoke will go to the top of men's ski rankings. Smoothy chose the lookers left line taken by a number of riders and looked to be fighting for a place on the podium with his control and fluidity in the upper face. Then he took a slightly different angle into the final section and dropped an absolute beauty of a cliff - longer, cleaner, sweeter than his rivals. Smoothy was almost speechless afterwards: "Winning here in the home of Freeriding, it doesn't get better, it's amazing".