Behind the US Open, "Schwag-o-rama"
2005 Snowboarding Championships in Stratton, Vermont

By George Davis - If the US Open is the snowboard marketing event of the year, unabashedly driven by product placement and branding opportunities, then it's also the world's single greatest freebie extravaganza. There were ski hats and gloves from Volvo and Nintendo DDS; product giveaways from Tylenol, Paul Mitchell, and Sobe; and cellular telephones and services from Motorola. Not to mention Ski-Doo snowmobiles and Volvo sport wagons! And it would seem that some attendees' sole mission was to gather as much loot as possible. Even among the banner crew there were those who made it their business to frequent the advertiser promotional booths each day in search of much coveted swag. Perhaps there's an answer encoded on the human genome that explains the biological drive to collect free stuff.

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

Although I avoided the swag feeding frenzy each day, it was due to an aversion to the frenetic, body-to-body atmosphere and not an immunity to swag hysteria. Indeed I was thrilled on Sunday afternoon when, prior to exchanging goodbyes, Chris Sherman, the banner crew head honcho, rallied us in the muddy parking lot behind his vehicle for a coveted US Open ritual. Once all of the take-down and clean up were behind us, suddenly, as if on cue, anyone and everyone who had anything even remotely to do with the banner crew materialized in the ankle deep mud of the parking lot to wait for the legendary Burton "thank you" handouts.

Burton has earned a reputation over the years for generously rewarding all of the banner crew volunteers with coveted Burton accessories. Not to be outdone by the other sponsors, Burton lavished gifts upon us including a 2005 US Open snowboarding backpack, a cozy 2005 US Open hooded sweatshirt, a pair of Burton gloves and a 2005 US Open t-shirt. In addition, they had picked up the cost of our accommodations, our ski passes and most of our meals including the infamous banner crew dinner, complete with food fight, bottomless cocktails and colorful humor.

There we stood, ankle deep in the brown, soupy mud, arms laden with Burton swag, and spirits fluctuating between relief that the week was over and pangs of melancholy for the same reason. It was the inevitable denouement.

Little did I know that only a couple of hours later I would be asked to share my "inside out" perspective on the 2005 US Open Snowboarding Championships with a teenage snowboarding fanatic. Nor could I have guessed that the story I'd recount—unlike the snowboarding media's idolatry of the adolescent stars—would focus on the awkward adolescence of the media star, snowboarding.

I pulled my snazzy new hoody over my head and adjusted my new Burton pack, wondering as I trudged through the mud if my 2005 US Open snowboarder camouflage belied the "two-planker" within.