CALGARY, Canada — At age 16, he may have been the youngest competitor at the NorAm Tour Halfpipe Finals last Saturday at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary but age was not a factor when Evan Walls clinched the halfpipe title.

In qualifying runs, Walls' consistent amplitude out of the halfpipe and the technical merit to his tricks earned him a commanding first place position going into finals. Under the lights, the final round saw Walls aptitude in the halfpipe again matched by his quest for amplitude and flare.

"Evan's back-to-back 900s followed by a back flip to fakey quickly caught the attention of the judges in qualifiers. Their attention was uninterrupted in finals when they awarded Evan an unapproachable margin over the other US and Canadian skiers," his CVA coach, Noah Labow said. Winning the NorAm Tour Halfpipe Finals was Evan's first podium at a major event.

Walls, a junior at Carrabassett Valley Academy, traveled to Olympic Park with Labow and fellow CVA teammates. A veteran competitor, Walls' competition repertoire includes the US Freeskiing Open, Junior Olympics, The Dew Tour and other high level, international skiing competitions.

"Winning the NorAm felt really good. It was a great experience competing under the lights with a lot of high level athletes. We trained hard and I managed to get a run that was consistent and that I could take big and land well. It felt really good to be in the top spot all night and come out with the win," Walls said about his NorAm results.

"The NorAm win was a bit of a confidence boost in the sense that I felt I was skiing well and my run was starting to come together with the tricks I had been working on for a while. I gained a sense of where my run was compared to the competition's."