Thought this would give you a taste of what the future MAY hold...course, I've never heard of Doug Bouton but I have heard of Jake Burton...man, when will newspapers ever learn???
You've come a long way, dudes
Published: Friday, March 16, 2007
By Matt Crawford
Free Press Staff Writer
It took Tom Sims about 10 seconds and Doug Bouton less than 16 seconds to set the course of snowboarding history.
In 1982, Sims, the Californian snowboarding pioneer, won the downhill and Bouton, a Vermonter, won the slalom at the National Snow Surfing Championships held at Suicide Six in Woodstock. Probably as close as anyone can figure, the two are the first to win any type of Vermont-based snowboarding competition.
The 25th annual version of the National Snow Surfing Championships is being held this week at Stratton Mountain Resort with variations from the early days so stark it's sometimes difficult to remember this is even the same sport.
Today the event is called the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships. Gone are the downhill and slalom runs, replaced by high-flying halfpipe and rail jam competitions. The 1982 event warranted only a cutesy mention on the "Today" show. This year, NBC is at Stratton to record a 90-minute show that will air Sunday.
In 1982, snowboards were outlawed at virtually every ski resort in North America. Today, snowboarding is an Olympic sport with stars like Shaun White gracing the cover of Rolling Stone. Some 6 million Americans snowboard each year -- almost the same number of alpine skiers.
Sims, Bouton and the others at the inaugural race began in a starting gate that was nothing more than an old kitchen table turned upside down and half-buried in the snow. The riders used the table's legs to launch onto the course. Today's U.S. Open riders are pampered in an athletes-only base area tent complete with a buffet, lounge, video games and massage therapists.
"They treat the athletes like rock stars," said Burlington snowboarder Andy Coghlan, 43, who made his first U.S. Open appearance at the 1983 event and competed in Opens for about 10 years. He won a modest $1,000 for his downhill victory in 1988.
The total prize purse this year is $250,000 with a couple of new Volvos being awarded, too.
"I'm jealous of that money," Coghlan said with a laugh, "but I don't know if the prize money is really what the athletes are gunning for. I think they're more after a piece of history. Thousands of riders have come through the Open and just a handful have won it. The money is nice, but winning it is definitely a prize for the riders in their hearts."
Next generation
Coghlan's 11-year-old daughter, Kelsey, is competing in the junior jam this year -- her third U.S. Open. His other daughters will be there, too, and Coghlan figures his is the first clan of riders to have two generations compete in the U.S. Open.
"You see kids coming up now, and this is the event everyone grew up hearing about, wanting to go to, wanting to compete in," Coghlan said.
Behind the growth of the event is Vermont-based Burton Snowboards. Founder Jake Burton Carpenter attended the 1982 race at Suicide Six and has been to almost every one since (Burton officials say he might have missed one). Now his multimillion-dollar company is the primary sponsor and organizer of the U.S. Open, his name omnipresent on banners, boards and boarders.
"It's a big deal," said Burton employee John Gerndt, 43, who competed in the second annual event in 1983 at Snow Valley, a hill just east of Manchester. "It's hard to comprehend the magnitude of it now -- the coaches and the parents and the press and the sponsors and the money the riders are winning."
Stratton spokesman Jeremiah Greco said the U.S Open is the biggest event of the year for the southern Vermont resort.
"We estimate we'll have 24,000 people over the course of the week here for the competition," Greco said. "We'll have people from all over the world riding our mountain."
It wasn't always this grand, this glitzy, this mainstream. Stratton didn't even build a halfpipe until 1988. This year, the operations crew of the mountain spent an estimated 470 hours creating the 550-foot-long halfpipe for the competitors to perform twisting, turning aerial tricks like "a frontside air" a "McTwist" or a "backside 900."
"When it started, it was all racing," Gerndt said. "We had the slalom and the downhill and a little bit later we had a mogul event for a year or two. It wasn't until later the halfpipe came around."
It was later still -- 2002 to be exact -- before the top men and women started competing in slopestyle, the skateboarding-like competition where riders carve through a series of jumps, hits and obstacles performing tricks along the way.
Liam Griffin, event director for Burton, says the Open requires months of planning with hundreds of employees of Burton and Stratton involved.
"The logistics of producing an event of this size are beyond what I think anybody ever thought we'd need," Griffin said. "It really is mind-blowing."
Which is something Sims and Bouton likely never thought about in the 26 seconds it took them to set in all in motion.
course, I've never heard of Doug Bouton but I have heard of Jake Burton...man, when will newspapers ever learn???
Doug Bouton was one of the first members of the Burton Team, if not THE first. I have some cool footage of him and Jake slashing some backcountry pow on a VHS tape, somewhere. He was also featured in some of the firsts Burton catalogs riding the Burton Backhill, if I remember correctly.
I caught some TV ad of the US OPEN last weekend featuring Andy Coghlan and his kids. It was pretty cool!
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I remember seeing some awesome footage of him, it's definitely doug.
snowboarding is progressing at an unbelievable rate right now. I remember seeing the first rail on the slopes of my local mountain, and the 2 foot high jumps that everyone was so stoked about. Just this year I hit a 60 foot table, then thought about the tiny jumps I used to be scared of. There isn't 2 foot jumps anymore. The kids starting out snowboarding now need to hit 15+ foot tables, to start. It's creating a crazy group of kids, damn how I wish I was born 10 years later.
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^ 35' 180. The picture is deceiving, it's a damn long table.
My wish is that the kids around here would actually learn to turn their boards (real carves) before learning to jump them... Then mixing the two together would produce awesome riders with tons of style.
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My wish is that the kids around here would actually learn to turn their boards (real carves) before learning to jump them... Then mixing the two together would produce awesome riders with tons of style.
some of my hardboot buddies call them turning challenged, I prefer to say "straight lining with a speed check does not equal fast" usually I say this after slaloming a grom or two. I have seen some guys on twin tips who can carve, it's actually pretty cool to watch because I know it's not the easiest thing to do in soft boots. A good pipe rider can usually carve, the same can't be said for park rats though. Sadly they have the same mentality as the point to point skaters who session one feature of a skatepark ignoring all the lines the park has to offer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by livefortoday2007
It is almost like racism to seperate street skating and longboards.
I have seen some guys on twin tips who can carve, it's actually pretty cool to watch because I know it's not the easiest thing to do in soft boots.
That's what I mostly do (when i'm not looking for powder). Although not to the extend I used to do when I was racing on alpine equipment. But i certainly don't consider my quiver of boards as twin tips. They're all directional freeride boards, some of my own design and one-offs, in the 170-185 cm range (except for a Burton Fish 160). Most of them with taper and A LOT of setback.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xgecko
the same can't be said for park rats though. Sadly they have the same mentality as the point to point skaters who session one feature of a skatepark ignoring all the lines the park has to offer
That's what inspired my comment about learning to carve first...
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That's what I mostly do (when i'm not looking for powder). Although not to the extend I used to do when I was racing on alpine equipment. But i certainly don't consider my quiver of boards as twin tips. They're all directional freeride boards, some of my own design and one-offs, in the 170-185 cm range (except for a Burton Fish 160). Most of them with taper and A LOT of setback.
That's what inspired my comment about learning to carve first...
sorry I'm a bit of an hardboot snob (Coiler RC175), how about the term "softboot rider"? I guess my biggest problem with softies is that my ankles won't let me use them any more and I don't like the way most "freeride" boards feel, too soft and won't hold an edge at speed. I find I like watching snowboarders with a directional (read not duck) stance ride regardless of the type of board since they often look like they are exploiting the mountain and it's terrain instead of running a prefab course...I really like to find a line down a slope and then work the line to perfection trying to make it without sliding a turn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by livefortoday2007
It is almost like racism to seperate street skating and longboards.
sorry I'm a bit of an hardboot snob (Coiler RC175)
I can understand, I used to be one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xgecko
how about the term "softboot rider"?
I prefer snowboarder!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xgecko
I guess my biggest problem with softies is that my ankles won't let me use them any more and I don't like the way most "freeride" boards feel, too soft and won't hold an edge at speed.
Have you tried the latest softboots and bindings? They offer A LOT more support than they used to. I ride the Driver X from Burton and it's pretty much amazing for my style of riding and really tunable. It even offers more support than the hardboots I used in the late 80's and early 90's!
And as far as freeride boards go, well, that's why I designed my own board. Go custom, I think hardbooters are used to that. I wanted a board that would hold my weight (which probably is record-breaking! ) under good carving at speed and do pretty much everything. Carve on the groomers at speed, than come out of a turn and hit that powder lip on the side come back in, carve the hardback, leave the run to hit the trees, come back in and carve hard to the chairlift. Next run go to the secret powder stash, and slash 2' of fresh from top to bottom. Get back up, hit the perfect groomer while knuckledragging top to bottom. Pretty much my style of riding.
I've been thinking about getting a hardboot setup again for the last couple of seasons for those really cold hardpack/ice night sessions. I'll probably do it next season.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xgecko
I find I like watching snowboarders with a directional (read not duck) stance ride regardless of the type of board since they often look like they are exploiting the mountain and it's terrain instead of running a prefab course...I really like to find a line down a slope and then work the line to perfection trying to make it without sliding a turn
Exactly!
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My wish is that the kids around here would actually learn to turn their boards (real carves) before learning to jump them... Then mixing the two together would produce awesome riders with tons of style.
Warning: Daddy brag!!!
Jared (age 8 ) ran his first boardercross race last Saturday. He came first in the 8-10 category by over a minute (combined time best 2 out of 3 runs) and would have just missed 3rd in the 13-14 category by a few hundredths of a second, which is pretty neat considering the other kids in the category are double the weight.
No medals in the slopestyle later the same day although he had a couple of solid runs on the rails.
I agree with the carving thing, but freestyle snowboarding is a much different animal then downhill boarding. I've mastered more of the downhill and carving then I have the freestyle, even though I wish it were the other way around, but I'm working on that, 22 isn't too old right?
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^ 35' 180. The picture is deceiving, it's a damn long table.
25 years later...snowboarding is...
