Missed out on the World Heli Challenge 2011? Well, they’ve just released a full highlight video for those of you that did and it’s over 12 minutes of pure happiness, so prepare yourself for something good. If you’d like to know the results before you watch the video then read this next bit, if not, close your eyes and wildly click until you manage to hit play and full screen! There’s also some comments from the judges.

Overall winners:
Men’s Ski Champion – Sam Smoothy (NZL)
Women’s Ski Champion – Janina Kuzma (NZL)

Individual events:
Freestyle Day:
Women Ski – Janina Kuzma
Men Ski – Markus Eder

“Markus Eder was an absolute standout,” said Draxl. “This young Italian showed exactly what the freestyle day is all about, bringing big tricks to the backcountry.

“Abby put down an incredible run,” said Hygiemann. “She started with two good airs straight up, followed by a backside 360 spin, straight air with a method grab finishing with a stalefish air. She pulled some good tricks while staying in control throughout.“

“Benny went fast from the word go taking a nice air off the top and then stringing multiple airs throughout his entire run including two 360’s, an inverted 360 and a cork seven. He chose a different line too, which made the run stand out even more,” said Hygiemann.

Extreme Day
Women Ski – Victoria Beattie
Men Ski – Sam Smoothy

“It was tough up there,” said Draxl. “The athletes had only one run to show their stuff and Tori and Sam put down awesome runs, sticking their landings.”

In another first for the World Heli Challenge, the general public was invited to watch each athlete’s run and vote for his or her favourite.
Following are the winners of this year’s People’s Choice Awards:

Men Ski – Young Gun, Hank Bilous
Women Ski – Natalie Segal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uTLmOY6l8