Zink wins Kokanee slopestyle

One of the world's most prestigious - if not the world's most prestigious - titles in mountain bike slopestyle is staying in the area.

Carson High graduate Cameron Zink, who now lives in Dayton, won the Kokanee Crankworx Slopestyle event on Sunday in Whistler British Columbia. The Crankworx slopestyle event is the most prestigious in North America and many consider it the most prestigious in the World.

It's the third straight year that an area competitor has won the event. Zink's traveling partner, Minden's Paul Basagoitia, was the two-time defending champion and ended up with a top 10 finish this year. Basagoitia also took third in the Kona Jump Jam at Crankworx.

Zink beat an extremely talented field of riders, raising the bar to win the event on the strength of a backflip cross-up one footer up onto a huge step-up. Mountain bike slopestyle is the equivalent of snowboarding slopestyle, except it's done on dirt.

Zink and Basagoitia are staying busy. They both scheduled to head for Hamburg, Germany for the second of two races in the Red Bull Series. The overall winner of the series will win $20,000 and a brand new Ford pickup. Basagoitia won the first event in Italy.