18-22 October 2006

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UK Freeski Awards from Thursday 2006

Thursday 19 October saw the first UK Freeski Awards ceremony take place at the Metro Ski & Snowboard Show in London. A large crowd swarmed around the stage, eager to hear who the winners of the highly anticipated awards would be.

Ed Leigh on hand to run proceedings
Ed Leigh oversaw the proceedings and introduced each guest presenter who, in turn, announced the nominees for each award and the eventual the winner. The field of nominees boasted the cream of home-grown talent and showcased the great improvements that have been made in UK Freeskiing.

Naomi Edmondson & Paddy Graham voted Best Freeskiers
Rapturous applause greeted each winner as they took to the stage for their acceptance speech. Arguably the two most coveted awards – the Salomon Award for the Best UK Female Freeskier and the Ski Club of Great Britain Award for the Best UK Male Freeskier – held the crowd in suspense before the winners, Naomi Edmondson and Paddy Graham, were announced.

3 awards for Paddy Graham
The undisputed star of the ceremony was Paddy Graham who picked up no less than 3 awards: the Ski Club of Great Britain Award for the Best UK Male Freeskier, the Disciple Gloves Award for Best Rider Segment in a Film and the Freeski Britain Award for Best UK Freeski Team as part of the Line team.

Natives.co.uk Rich Taylor Award went to Warren Smith
The final award of the night was a special one: The Natives.co.uk Rich Taylor Memorial Award. The award itself acts as a ‘services to UK Freeskiing’, but also stands as a tribute to the memory of Richard Taylor, the British Big Air champion who tragically died in a training accident two years ago, aged just 23 years.

Richard’s Mother, Gaynor Taylor, was on hand to present the award and gave a heart-felt speech that left no dry eye in the room. Warren Smith was announced the winner and upon accepting the award was quick to pull fellow nominee Pat Sharples up on the stage to jointly share the award and highlight the hard work they have both put into skiing. The gesture was met with huge applause and reaffirmed the spirit and camaraderie of the UK Freeski Awards.

Dark Summer After-party at Shepherds Bar
With the first UK Freeski Awards ceremony over, the action moved to the Shepherd’s Bar for the Dark Summer Ski Show Party and the premiere of the Ellis Brigham movie, Aggressive Alpine Skiing.

Over 5,000 votes were cast on the UK Freeski Awards website (www.ukfreeskiawards.co.uk) to decide the winners, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank every person who took the time to vote.

The UK Freeski Awards would not be possible without the help of our sponsors: K2 Skis, Salomon, Adidas Eyewear, Ski Club of Great Britain, Oakley, Natives.co.uk, Da Kine, Zag Skis, Freeski Britain, and Disciple Gloves.

Winners of the UK Freeski Awards 2006

• Freeski Britain Award for the Best UK Freeski Team: Line Skis
• Adidas Eyewear Award for the Best UK Freeski Event: Verbier Ride 2005
• Da Kine Award for the Best UK Ski Film: try.fail.try (Regime Change Productions)
• Disciple Gloves Award for the Best UK Rider Segment in a Film: Paddy Graham in try.fail.try
• Zag Skis Awards for the Best UK Freeski Photographer: Melody Sky
• Oakley Award for the Best UK Under 16 Freeskier: Murray Buchan
• K2 Skis Award for the Best UK Unsponsored Freeskier: Rob Taylor
• Salomon Award for the Best UK Female Freeskier: Naomi Edmondson
• Ski Club of Great Britain Award for the Best UK Male Freeskier: Paddy Graham
• Natives.co.uk Rich Taylor Memorial Award: Warren Smith

Here's some pictures of the action:

UK Freeski Awards for best event went to the Verbier Ride 2006	Best film to Try Fail Try	Paddy Graham takes best rider segment
Line won best team	No suprises as best U16 went to Murray Buchan	Best unsponsired rider award went to Rob Taylor
Melody Sky watches proceedings while holding her UK Freeski Best Photographer award	Naomi Edmondson was the clear winner in the Best Female Rider category	Paddy Graham was a popular winner of the Best Male Rider award
Warren Smith got Pat Sharples on stage to share the Natives.co.uk Richard Taylor Memorial Award

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