These are today's. Below is from Yesterday.

SMS Snowboarding Has Been and Will Be Doing the Following...

• 

We trained tuesday and wednesday at Carinthia Park and the jumps were outstanding, the jibs good, the pipe needed cutting yesterday and today could have used another pass up the riders right wall. The park crew has committed to not rebuild that pipe before 2/28 contest weekend so they don't want to dig too deep in a given night lest it all get too wide...hightlights and photos to follow but first....

• The Dev crew, The Race Crew and Two pro-ams raced Boardercross at Bromley today.
• Shelby, Jin and Indrik are going with Rick to The Stoneham, Canada World Cup Event tomorrow. Congratulations.
• We are planning on going to Okemo tommorrow and friday to train and then compete there saturday the 21st and sunday the 22nd. Contest mornings the vans will depart SMS @7:10. Training day vans will depart SMS @ 8:00. Wax swix CH 7 for the next 4 days please.

But here's the thing: it has started snowing at my house and we are expecting 4-8 inches. If it snows 4 or more we will ride Stratton. Tomorrow only. There you have that. I love weather.

• Next week will be Carinthia heavy and we will be competing there at Mount Snow on saturday the 28th and sunday the 1st (of March!). That weekend is The Series Finals. There is a banquet Party at the Snowbarn that we will all attend Sunday the 1st after the contest. Parents please come on up or down if you can attend. Vans will depart SMS @ 7:30 for mount snow both days. Wax is pending. Bring some extra shoes and sock for sunday.

Hope to see a nice turnout of SMS community and cameraderie, because honestly these kids are riding great. You should see em. I'll tell you about some tricks we've been seeing and show some photos. At one point today I stood on a knuckle and filmed ten people in a row all spin grab and land one after another. Mostly fives. All our kids. I saw Alex Bayer riding slope. Out there and re-engaging his riding on the open jump lines. Chris and Eric ended the day with a back to back nollie front flip train. Chris is landing switch back five all over and front seven looks like a breakfast spin. Eric landed front ten on film. Hunter landed every bs rodeo he tried, stomping 4 out of 5. Hunter landed back 9 on film and has a switch back five that fifty five feet if its an inch. Kevins jibs are off the hook and his back is looking like its feeling better over jumps than yesterday. He is a slayer. India is spinning every other jump in the nitro line. Joe gets more pop per jump than a bullfrog when everybody else has to hop and tuck just to clear. Austin is spinning a grabbing in a cast. Tikos is spinning huge and Randall's shifty is kung foo. It's precisely orchestrated madness out there and Then there is the suprise of the season... Cesar Slays-the-Gnar Reversade all the way from les Alps learning all his fives and some sev's already. These kids are a high flying celebration of life on snow and inspiring every day.

Patience, Skills, Priveledge and Guts

It's been a weekend long highlight film running live. And still there has been breaking news coming through along the way. The news coming through from California: The SMS Alumni/SVSS veterans, our current Elite Crew and the school's team members on the US Squad crowded the finals of the US Snowboard Grand Prix at Boreal. Podiums and the bulk of the final competitors. Too many to mention. Sure every crew has its day. That crew is having ANOTHER great season. Lizzy, Ellery, Duckie, Danny, Louie, Chris Waker the girlfriend taker! Goldie, Jen Cohen, Shelby Simpson, Joe Mensch: You can be proud. You represent yourselves and where you come from as strong. I know that's not ya'lls style but its a priveledge to be on the same planet.
Back home the tradition continues. The kids want to be in California already. They want that EVERYTHING you've got. They are taking the steps in patience, showing the deepest skills of their generation at the "grass-roots" level. Yesterdays combinations of tech jibs and double-banger jump lines were pro style yet still family funded. Today's pipe runs were as aggressive as they were relaxed. Seeing that is seeing people love snowboarding. The coming together of skills and will that the pro-am and dev crew showed off over this weekend was just so deep and styled that waiting for judges scores at any time was superfluous. They put on bibs to show people what they do all week long. They put em on to show that they too deserve to go to California for some fifty degree shred. Too many good things to list off gold, silver, bronze, so fourth. Big pictures standing out in the highlight reel: the Guts to ride two days in a wrist-cast...that was M Perle running a legit pipe line today with 5 spins- one of those being alley oop rodeo. Hunter Wood crawls out of sick bay at Kate Mitchell's protestations to shiver out a switch back lip, five , five and two jibs I couldn't see in slope. Next day in Pipe a big meth, seven, seven, air, five, five followed by another B.M. to front nine, air, air bs five, fs five run. "Sick as a dog" as they say. How about SINGLEMINDED like a buddha. How about a man with a mission. Did you see Chris Tierney own that park all week? No? Well that's cool because he smoothed it out just the same in a bib saturday. Cab five and back five like people stay up at night and dream of. Randall's clean back flips are the only of their kind and Im only a little bummed not to be able to see his down bar HOT Garbage because Yes He Did It all Week Long, past ninety like he's sliding across the kitchen in socks and pj's relaxed. Tikos was feeling a little restless so he called up MSA's Will Rivera to give him a lil' scrap. He was just looking for a little contact. TTK wiped the blood from his nose and dropped in with focus and stomp-style for his second run on the nitro course. Fitty fitty, bs one off, cab to back fives. Pretty. James-as-always-Haffner rode so sick in the open class that he left Eric Beauchemin no choice but to go all jib crazy as he always does into a quick half cab-nollie heel edged back rodeo off the roller between the next jump and that first rail. Go ahead and reread that. Yup. AS COOL AS ANYTHING I'VE EVER SEEN ON SNOW(Im really old and have snowboarded for more than twenty years)... India spun on and off the down box, blew off the grab and spun the second jump twice...Too many positive things to list medals. You guys are riding like we always hope you will. The coaches on the hill have been stoked as riders, proud as coaches and lucky - just like you to get to roll with this group of snowboarders in our time. Lets all try to keep up the good times. Take care of yourselves in California. Those of you staying home, enjoy the opportunity to get ready for those trips, we have it made here to get where we want to go.

Great Rev Tour for SMS crashes to an end!

I'm going to re-rock one of the fine Rick Shimpeno photos in today's post in return for stealing his in house recap of the Pipe and Slope events. Results show top three finishers and all SMS student athletes...cleanly done.
Rick Shimpeno’s Rev Tour Breakdown

Men’s Half Pipe 1/15/09

1. Matt Ladley
2. Zach Black
3. Broc Warring
13. James Haffner
14. Micheal Pearle
18. Joe Mensch
36. Hunter Wood
40. Randall Stacy
42. Chris Tierney
70. Thomas Tikos-Kadji
84. Kevin Mattice

Men’s Halfpipe was heated. The US Rookie Team showed up and their plan was to take all the top spots. James Haffner rode strong with a frontside 900, a back side 540, back to back 720’s and an air to fakie. James missed the finals by one spot. Micheal Perle, Joe Mensch, Hunter Wood, Randall Stacy, Chris Tierney, TTK, and Kevin Mattice put together some of the best riding I have seen out of them this season and finished respectively.

Women’s Half Pipe 1/15/09

1. Elizabeth Beerman
2. Kaitlynn Farrington
3. Rebecca Sinclair
8. Jennifer Cohen
12. Shelby Simpson
36. Sadie Simpson

Womens Halfpipe again was stacked with talent. Lizzy Beerman unleashed the frontside 900 and took home the top spot. Rookie Teammate Kaitlynn Farrington dropped in switch to a cab 720 for 2nd place. Jennifer Cohen put together some large straight airs and some tech tricks lower in the pipe for a respectable 8th place finislh. Jenn missed the cut to finals by 2 places. Shelby Simpson put together some fine runs and landed in 12th. Sadie is working hard and we look forward to great things in the near future.

Men’s Slope Style 1/16/09

1. Brett Esser
2. Broc Warring
3. JD Dennis
4. James Haffner
7. Eric Beauchemin
15. Randall Stacy
30. Hunter Wood
38. Joe Mensch
46. Kevin Mattice
48. Thomas Tikos-Kadji
89. Chris Tierney

Mens Slope Style was also STACKED with talent. 114 men’s riders dropped into the Copper mountain Park looking for solid runs. James Haffner held it down for the SMS crew with a Cab 540 (underflip), frontside 720, a Backside 900, and some smooth and difficult rail tricks. Eric Beauchemin threw down a run with a frontside 720, Backside rodeo 540, and a Cab 900. Eric was as tech as you can get on the rails and landed in 7th. Randall Stacy’s first hit back flip was a favorite of the judges. His next two jumps were a frontside 360 and a backside 720. Randall’s time on the rails also helped him into 15th place. The rest of the SMS boys rode well in spots and held their own against the 114 slope riders.

Women’s Slope Style 1/16/09
1. Lizzy Beerman
2. Molly Wilson
3. Lynn Neil
15. Jennifer Cohen
25. Emily Pannkuk

Lizzy Beerman rounded out a great Revolution Tour stop at Copper with a victory in the slope style. Liz needed a smooth frontside 360, a back side 360, a huge tail grab, and smooth rail tricks to best the 42 women competitors. Jenn Cohen rode the park smooth and solid for a 15th place finish. Emily needed a bit more to crack the top 20. She threw what she knew and ended up in 25th. Emily is going to add some new tricks to the next contest and we are looking forward to it!

Nice eh? Noticably missing from those results is my man Mike Perle. Mike had a tough day and broke his wrist in the second run of slope. It was an underspun frontside three. A trick that is normally on lock-down gave him trouble all morning. And it still is. I know he is dissapointed in his results and his plight but sitting and watching will bring him back hungrier than ever if I know Mike.

The Boardercross event was equal to the high caliber standard set in the slope and pipe events. Both in event organisation and rider talent. After the 80 man field was filled by registered riders from every country another twenty eight international team quota spots were used. 108 fast boardercross riders raised the normally high caliber of the Rev Tour to a new level. It is a pre-olympic year and tomorrow begins a two day Nor-Am Cup bx stop on the same course. So riders around the world are beginning to scramble for FIS points and world cup starts to make themselves eligible for the Olympic field, that journey goes through Copper.
In the time trials Indrik Trahan missed the cut by just .88 seconds. He was 43rd and recieved 3.5 FIS points. Alexander Hernandez was just under two seconds out and Justin Mattice was just over two out. They were 55th and 61st respectively.

In the womens field the level was just as high and riders were from all over the world. For the past three years our good friend Jaqueline Hernandez has been repping SMS Snowboarding on podiums all over from southern Vermont to California. She and her brother Alexander are going to Junior Worlds for GS this year and she is putting in her bid for a BX spot as well. Qualifying fifth out of forty something into the Heats comprised of the top 16. Jackie fought hard and rode smoothley over the highly technical terrain. She cruised through the qualifying round into the semi final. In the semis she passed to go from 4th to third after a hard start. She caught up to the second place rider and was going for the pass when the other girl checked or twitched and took them both out. Jackie sprained her hand in the hard fall and was not allowed to ride in the consolation final to advance past 8th place. Disappointment and pain work together far too well and yet Jackie still tried hard to get into that consolation final. maybe 50% of the boardercrossers I've seen are so angry at elimination that they only grudgingly line up for consies at their coaches' urging. With J I had to ask her to please leave the start with me and get ready for the Nor-ams. She wanted in bad. By the bottom she is smiling and by the time we are riding to the clinic for an exray she is joking about her broken pants. Jackie is resting today. Tomorrow she will race again. I couldn't respect her more.

Hard Snow, Ice storm, Hard Loss, Snow Storm

Tuesday we saw rock hard snow and nerves up to the challenge. It was a perfect opportunity for the young pro-ams to just say yes. Every Jump has to be good. That's the exercise. Front three and back three on every available jump at stratton. The dev crew trained gates with Mike and the alpine squad. Sick, hard and fast. The smoothie jumps were subjected to four runs of spins. I think H went six for six over two runs and MP went 5 for six. Austin, Brendan and Cesar Slays-the-gnar tightened it up while M and H started into the cab and sbs series. CT took a sharp one to the elbow on the second lap and notices his head stillaches from sunday. He continued riding hurt and cold and pushed front and back three all day. Dialed we moved to Byrneside and BS is back in style and better than ever. The first jump is bigger than the main event jump and the snow is three times as dense. Clackity clack is the sound of threes now thirty plus feet. After a test run H Links five to five. Perle brings back the bs five a couple runs later. Austins 360 tail is down pat n'tweaked. Cesar went higher than anyone else on the big wall at the bottom and linked his grabbed threes. Noone is over reaching and everyone is stomping on what most would call ice and go on home. Brendans front seven is continuously as big as a jump will allow. He underotated an attempted and grabbed front nine by just a hair but that he still rode away from with style. Hunter's back seven is so corked and squatted that I don't mind he does'nt grab. It is still cool but he's going to strive to keep it flatter- a little. I was proud. Did I mention the firmness?
Weds an unnamed hse monitor told the pro-ams that school was cancelled and I figured they were sleeping in when I left them behind. That's okay though cuz Austin made it and I was planning for the dev crew anyhow. Five inches of fresh had hit the hill and turned to bouncy little snowballs instead flakes. We did a sick top to bottom barely crossing any tracks and feeling like big wave surfers ( maybe that was just me) for a warm-up off the gondie. Some folks would have done that all day but the dev crew had a mission to get their spin on. Big pipe camp, a good weekend of racing with some gate training before and after. It was soft and time to get dizzy. Tyrolean with Raschid and Meghan on pace and we have community. Yes Meghan is yet another Tierney Shred and she will give them all run. RJ slid the top of the smoothie wall and put down some nice back fives over there. I flailed upside down a few times and the dev crew plus Austin spun every jump in T park. Josh, Pheobe and Em were spinning two out of three jumps and I don't think Mak T fell once doing it. FS three all D. Same thing in smoothie. Josh and Austin were spinning two jumps both ways. Austin mixing his grabs and working for some cork action. Josh going both ways after the fs3 was held down. Lena worked on her ollies, grabs and front ones after a pretty sharp smack at the top of the Gondie run. I had a great time working with this crew. They are raw and learn new tricks almost every run. Switch fitty one run and switch board to regs the next on the smoothie box...
Then comes loss for the SMS snowboard community. Early this am I got the text from SJ and his immediate family has lost a loved one. Not the kind of topic for a snowboarding blog but this touches us all and everyone is rallying around your heart Scotty. Every parent and athlete is priveledged to help you in any way we can and are all passing the same sympathies your way. The kids wish they could be there with you and so do I but know you want everyone to hold themselves upright and carry on. You'd have been proud to see Emily, Josh and Pheobe spinning over the twenty footer. Pheobe landed her third attempt at nollie front right on her feet but slid out trying grab her helmet and goggles that were flying in the air. I just hope that puts the smile back on your face. It snowed and blew all day while we rode carinthia. Brendans twenty five foot nollie front down the last nuckle blew my mind and Hunters front seven tail was photo solid. That and Jamie Andersons mile long back one-eighty to win dew tour slope qualies were the high-lights of the day but sadly not what we will always remember about today.
It's late and Im up in a little over five hrs. Tomorrow is SoVT racing day and saturday is BX.