Akinz Team Riders Coming Out On Top!

Akinz Team Riders Damon Butler and Erika Vikander bringing home nothing but wins.

As the winter season heats up with all sorts of jib jams blowing up, the Akinz Team riders are proving their worth! Erika Vikander and Damon Butler are making a splash in slopestyle sessions all over the US.

The Canyons hosted their 3rd annual New Years Eve rail jam on Thursday, December 31. They went all out this year. The setup was awesome! After a long jam session, with a lot of riders going down to fatigue, we found our Akinz team rider, Erika Vikander, in first place. Straight from the winner’s mouth, “I hope The Canyons continues to put on events like this. It was so nice to go to an event that was well maintained and FUN! The crowd was pumped, live music, fireworks, what more could you ask for?” With nothing stopping her now Erika has gone on to take 1st place in the Gatorade Free Flow Tour – slopestyle in CA as well! This lands her a spot in the finals taking place the first weekend of February in Vermont.

Erika is a well-rounded rider who grew up at Bridger Bowl in Montana, but now stores her stuff in Salt Lake City. Competing since 2004 has landed her a lot of experience as well as a sponsorship with Shred Betties Magazine. Just last season, she killed it at multiple Canyons jams, Nikita Chickita, Campus Rail Jam series, Supergirl comp, and the Queens Cup comp…. definitely a girl on the rise.

Damon Butler is a snowboard slopestyle competitor out of Steamboat Springs, CO, who has recently joined the Akinz team. He’s one of those riders that is super focused, super committed, but always has time to stop and help somebody out with whatever they’re working on. He’s super fun to ride with as you’ll just be chilling along a run when all of a sudden he spins a back flip off a bump you barely saw. He can throw backside double corks off kickers and doesn’t even break a sweat. If you catch him before he makes it big, you’ll find him jibbing around Steamboat Ski Resort often in his fave Akinz Slice n Dice Tee, or even book a lesson with him at the Steamboat Ski and Snowboard School.

Damon made the switch from competing in halfpipe to slopestyle this season and what a great decision it was, as he recently claimed first at the USASA Rocky Mountain series in slopestyle that was held in Copper on January 9th, 2010. We expect more medals to be thrown his way soon. Watch out for his next ‘performance’ in the next USASA stop at Winter Park. We’re super excited to add him to our team and can promise you’ll be seeing his name around quite a bit.

At Akinz boardwear we love life. We want you to love life. We want you to wear our clothes and love wearing them while you are loving life. Find your wings with Akinz!