The Twentieth Annual U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships

   2002

Stratton Vermont

      I LOVE SNOWBOARDING, 

there, I said it.  Snowboarding has to be one of the most exciting sports 

I participate in.  Round about the same time I got into Rollerblading,

I learned how to snowboard.  Living on the East Coast, I grew up skiing with my family in the Catskills and Vermont.  Sadly, I can’t remember the first time I saw a snowboarder, but I do remember when I did, I knew I’d be doing it shortly.

By 1991 I was putting together nice carves and some of my first experiences were in Tahoe.  I just have to say thank you to Donna Vano for introducing me to very steep terrain, and I fell in love with snowboarding.  She also made me realize how few women where riding in 91.  

Now, it’s all changed.  The numbers of women have tripled out on the pro-circuit and they are riding in such a bad-ass way that you just can’t help notice them.  

At the 20^th annual US Open, such riders as

Doriane Vidal, Olympic Silver Medalist from France, was busting out of the Quarter Pipe and Supper Pipe competitions pretty close to where the guys are getting, about 12 feet out. 

Kelly Clarke, our Olympic Gold Medalist and Vermont local, cleanly and clearly won the Super Pipe AND the Quarter Pipe finals.  With three of the major titles under her belt in 2002, Winter X Games VI, Olympics, and now the US Open, she can sit back and relax a little.  She can now chose who she wants to be sponsored by.  Go Kelly!  And she’s only 19.

  The US Open has a reputation for it’s grass roots feel and an extremely relaxed atmosphere.  I’m not sure if the poor conditions the East Coast saw this year were the result of the smaller than usual US Open crowd and even though the Super Pipe contest almost took place in the rain, I had allot of fun!

Luckily, the sun was boosting when I met the man, the legend Jake Burton himself.  Jake’s a great guy and he’s doing some great things in the industry for kids.  The Burton “Chill” program, now seven years old, teaches underprivileged kids across the country to snowboard.  Chill has 100% success rate, which is the key point in the program.  Jake believes success is important to a kid who might have been in and out of group homes his whole life.

Chill Host Mountains include: The Summit at Snoqualmie in Seattle, Snow Valley in L.A., Wachusett Mountain in Boston, Sterling Forest in New York, Bolton Valley in Burlington, VT, and Raging Buffalo in Chicago. 

a different kinda "Civilization".....

              In the Super Pipe, my favorite Norwegian rider, Stine Brun Kjeldaas, was working her beautiful style and stole third place by less than a third of a point, from fellow countryman, Kjersti Buaas.  Veteran rider 

Tricia Byrnes, with her solid technical style, came in second…..while our Olympic darling, Kelly Clarke Mctwisted her way to the top.

  The newest US Open discipline- Slopestyle- brought out only nine girls. It looked as though many were holding back.  Perhaps it was nerve racking competing in the very first US Open Slopestyle event. Annie Boulanger from Canada, 

had all the solid elements in Slopestyle.  Nice little nose presses, board slides and nice

floaty 360s.

Hannah Teter, 

Abe Teter little sister, was getting lots of attention, and she deserved it with clean boardslides on the rails, taking home second place by only one tenth of a point from Vermont star Jaime MaCleod. Jaime is one of the strongest riders around.  She trains by

riding horses and her motorcycle. Right on!

    The Open affords some fun in the evenings for sure with all the sponsor parties.   One night I decided to explore something different- the 5^th Annual  Pro Snowboarder Benefit Basketball Game.   A few Pros went head to head in an effort to raise money for the Manchester Skate Park Fund.  (Boy, if I had the opportunity to do that for one of my local NYC skate parks, I’d be a much happier camper)

FYI- Boardercross, got Xed because there weren’t any Boardercross competitions this year.  Why you Ask????? Well the economy caused many sponsors to pull out for the 2001/2002 Boardercross season, forcing the event organizers to cancel.  No worries thought, they are going to make sure that in 2003, Boardercross will be strong once again. Big Air also got the boot the year before.  Some say it was because it was an element of Slopestyle and Quarter Pipe, so they down sized …or up sized, whichever way you want to look at it.

I have to admit, I was a virgin to Quarter Pipe contests.  It was an evening event at Sunbowl with the typical Vermont weather- Fog Fog, Fog.  I was amazed how the riders could even see the pipe.  At times, you couldn’t see the riders dropping and the fog gave them this eerie approach as they would pop through the fog and charge up the Wall, which was about 30 feet high. Oh my God…….Kelly busted a Mctwist about six feet out.  That would put her about 35 feet from flat bottom.  Although Doriane, was getting the biggest air, it was clear that the judges favored the spins and inversions. Hannah Teter and Jaime MaCleod laded solid 540 about four feet out.

    I wanted to find out about a few of the local kids riding.  Randomly I chose 11 yr old B13 rider Luke Matrini.  What a star this kid was at the US Open.  He was everywhere I looked.  Shaun White look out.

  I was in luck when I shot this very pretty goldie lox, halfpipe rider only to find out it was Lindsey Jacobellis from Stratton, VT.

   It was easy to talk to 14 year old Monique Hyman from New Canaan, CT with her big eyes and braces.  It was her first year  competing and  her first US Open.

It was cool that 

Olympic Halfpipe 

Medalists

Ross Powers and 

Dan Kass,

where signing autographs. 

Mr. Kasstle was 

trying to be discrete

by sitting high up in the bleachers in the corner, 

but the kids found 

him out and hounded 

him for his autograph. 

 This 

  Ross Powers, had a silent auction of some special product, to raise money for his own Ross Powers Foundation.  His foundation helps underprivileged kids in Vermont to improve their skills and start competing. I was a little board at first until I started bidding on the silent auction.  I won a Lamar Tricia Byrnes modal 152. 

 Yippee!