On the 26th March 2016, Jamie Barrow (Britain’s Fastest Snowboarder) reached a speed just shy of 152kph (94.4mph) in the ski resort of Vars France, breaking the British Snowboard Speed Record that Jamie previously set back in 2013.
Jamie Barrow, aged 23, is officially Britain’s fastest snowboarder. Forced to retire from the British Snowboard Cross team in 2013 with a serious back injury, Jamie has been pushing the limits of speed snowboarding ever since.
This year, Jamie achieved the Guinness World Record for the fastest speed on a snowboard towed by a vehicle, when he reached a speed of 151Km/h towed by a Mitsubishi ASK across the frozen lake of St.Moritz.
With the achieved speed, Jamie also broke the world speed record for a snowboarder in soft boots (normal snowboard boots).
Jamie commented: “I am very happy with the speed I hit, especially considering the unusually hard snow conditions for this time of the year. I was only allocated one run on the day so I knew I had to nail it 100% – I did that and broke the speed record. It was pretty scary at times but I love the adrenaline rush you get at that speed and despite knowing that a fall would surely result in broken bones, I held my nerve and kept the snowboard running straight the whole way down. Now I’m looking forward to taking this even further to see how fast I can travel on a snowboard.”
The records were broken on the world famous Chabrières slope in Vars, France which has a 98% steepness at the top and is also used for World Cup speed skiing events and is the same slope that was used for the current speed skiing world record. It is a 1400m slope with a 435m vertical decent. It is widely considered as the fastest slope in the world.
The speed is measured using professional laser timing equipment over a distance of 100m. The lasers track the time it takes to complete the 100m run to calculate the speed in order to meet the official criteria for the official Guinness World Records.
Jamie is planning to return to Vars next year to attempt to break 100mph and hopes that this has inspired others to push it even further.
