Behind the US Open, "Amps"
2005 Snowboarding Championships in Stratton, Vermont

By George Davis - Of course, I would be remiss if my exuberance for the banner crew distracted me from dishing up my perspective on the most important people at the US Open: the riders. This event is, as the announcers love to say, the "gathering of the tribes" for snowboarding. Not just East Coast, not just West Coast, not just East and West coast, but the entire world of snowboarding comes together for the US Open Snowboarding Championships.

Airborne above the mondo half pipe. (Photo by George Davis)

Armed with a full quiver of credentials, I was able to get heart-stoppingly close photos from the lip of the Halfpipe while pro riders exploded into the air directly above me. At Rail Jam I shot images from the Press-VIP Tower, and at the Slopestyle event I collected digitals from the course itself despite the repeat admonitions from course attendants who kept reminding me to distance myself.

Of course, no recap of the 2005 US Open should open without a tribute to the amplitude gods. It's tough to spend time around snowboarders without hearing constant references to "going big" and amplitude. As the world of snowboarding competition has evolved away from events borrowed from downhill skiing and motocross and toward events adapted from skateboarding, it would seem that there's no limit to big riders can and will go.

But amplitude alone is no longer good enough. If the Kelly Clarks and the Abe Teeters have been propelling us higher and higher into the stratosphere, there's a whole new generation of snowboarders who are upping the ante by refocusing the judges on style. That is to say, the sport seems to be pursuing quality in addition to quantity, attitude in addition to altitude, and technical finesse in addition to brazen chutzpah.

Finals opened on Friday with the much vaunted Rail Jam, an overtly skateboard influenced event. "The setup replicated seven different urban rail and stair features and included a gap rail… it was very similar to actual rails and stairs they [snowboarders] session in the city." (www.skipressworld.com) The extremely short course included a small start slope for riders to pick up momentum, followed by a veritable jungle of stairwells, round handrails and broader, sloping ledges or "down boxes" and was ideally suited for spectator viewing. With bleacher seating on either side and stadium lights flooding this snowy "skate park", photographers jockeyed with television camera booms for good shots while the competitors hurtled through the course again and again, executing jumps, slides and various gut-wrenching tricks for the judges

It was clear to my uninformed eye that the stunts the riders attempted were difficult and dangerous. Nevertheless, only one competitor, the famed Shaun White, sustained injuries. "Shaun fell off a down box on his first run of the Jam and did not return to the competition" (www.usopen-snowboarding.com) after hurting his back.

But danger and potential death do not seem to daunt these young competitors in the slightest. Like an infestation of mopeds caroming through a traffic-locked tunnel in Rome, rider after rider exploded through the daunting obstacles while the announcers' interpretations filled the chill night air. Reaching the end of the course mere seconds after beginning, they removed their snowboards, slouched meaningfully (an "attitude artform" perfected by all riders) back up the slope, swaddled in grossly oversized, garishly decorated costumes, their short, choppy steps determined by the sag of their snow pants.

As for judging the winners and losers, I admit that the subtleties were altogether lost on me. Even differentiating between riders was pretty challenging! Fortunately, there were in our midst, those highly trained professionals capable of filtering the Rail Jam acrobatics into tables of winners and losers.

"Eddie Wall and 2004 US Open rail jam champion Leanne Pelosi won tonight’s US Open rail jam finals in a star-studded contest that included snowboard heroes Danny Kass and Shaun White. Chris Rotax and Alexis Waite earned the SoBe Sick Trick Award and walked away $2,500 richer." (www.skipressworld.com)

Leanne Pelosi—who also won Rail Jam last year (the first time women had ever competed in this event)—and Eddie Wall each pocketed $10,000 for slam dunking this thrasher skate park style event. And second, third and fourth place riders for both men and women walked away from the stage with $5,000, $2,000 or $1,000 respectively. So despite my inability to fully fathom the maelstrom of snowboarders crashing through wood and steel obstacles, ten of them had earned over forty grand in a few exciting minutes!

Saturday's big event was my favorite: the Halfpipe.

"For the uninitiated, the Halfpipe is one of the most important trick venues in freestyle snowboarding. Think of a channel shaped like the lower half of an enormous tube and carved out of hard packed snow. The walls of the tube are of equal height and consistent distance from one another (roughly 15-18 yards apart and 6 yards high) enabling snowboarders to maximize a pendulum motion as they ride back and forth while proceeding toward the bottom of the hill. Running well over one hundred yards in length, this tube permits snowboarders to ride downhill, ramping and performing tricks off of the opposing sides." (www.e-margaux.com)

It was during the Halfpipe competition that my combination of banner crew and media credentials really paid off. I hunkered down quite literally at the edge of the riders' second or third (depending on which side they started from) "hits", a term which refers to the moment when a snowboarder reaches the top of either side of the Halfpipe and performs some sort of trick. I snapped shots of riders exploding up, out of the Halfpipe, often directly above me, silhouetted against the blue sky. It was exhilarating! The photos will speak for themselves.

I witnessed dazzling performances from "brand name snowboarders" like Aspen, Colorado native, Gretchen Bleiler, and New Jersey (turned California) native Danny Kass. Bleiler, who repeated her 2003 US Open Halfpipe victory after an already awesome year which included winning the Gravity Games  and the X Games, executed a perfect inverted 540 (that's right, one and a half times around while upside down in the air!) more popularly dubbed "the crippler" for obvious reasons. And Kass, known for amplitude of the thin air variety, performed daring aerial antics to win his fourth US Open Halfpipe title (a new and much lauded record). Bleiler and Kass each took home a tidy $20,000 purse for their efforts, and the runners-up didn't fair too poorly either.

Another fun record: "for the first time ever, three siblings—Abe, Elijah and Hannah Teter—all made it to the Halfpipe finals." (www.usopen-snowboarding.com) On a less celebratory note, Shaun White was absent from halfpipe competition due to the back injury he sustained during the Rail Jam, and native Vermonter and legendary 2002 Olympic Halfpipe gold medalist, Kelly Clark, was also unable to compete in finals due to a thigh injury she sustained during trials.