Serena Shaw and Michael Perle Win the Burton AM Halfpipe.

Serena Shaw and Michael Perle on top of the Burton AM podium.

Another rainy day in Oregon at Mt Hood Meadows for the Burton AM halfpipe event. But it was well worth it for Serena and Michael who both won earning $750 and a spot into the US Open.

After practice the event officials decided to do a one hour jam for the men and 45 min jam for the women due to the weather.

Michael Perle was doing the biggest airs of the day. He was nailing the top part of his run every time but having some problems with the weather and the soft pipe at the bottom in his first few runs. On his last run he started off with a big backside air, into a front side 900, to a backside 540, then back to back 720's, ending with a alley opp mute for the win.

Serena went right to work during her heat. She landed a run with a nice front side 540 her first run. Her winning run was front side 720, cab 360, stalefish, backside 540 stalefish and finished with a nose grab. Serena also won Best Trick for her backside 540 for an bonus $250.

Serena has the Burton Am slope style tomorrow and Michael has SBX Hole Shot Wed/Thurs. Hopefully they keep their podium train going as they are focused and hungry for more.

Phoebe Novello KOs first Main Event

Fresh off a Rev Tour poduim, Phoebe Novello raced up to snowy NH to win the first Main Event at Bretton Woods. A clutch performance indeed. The only girl to step to the large jump during finals, Phoebe laid it on the line with a massive backside 360 in her last run and tasted top spot on the now familiar poduim. All the way from Canada.....

Mt Hood Meadows OR Rev Tour SBX.

Marian Lobell , Josh Cohen and Michael Perle getting ready to battle the weather.


The rain decided to come in for the snowboardcross event at the Rev Tour. We had four SMS athletes compete. It was Josh Cohen's, Karen Kobayashi's and Marian Lobell's first Rev Tour SBX. They all rode hard, improved their speed every run and earned some FIS points. Michael Perle also competed and was ready to race on his new Oxess board that he has been training on.

In time trials Josh placed 24th. Marian 13th. Karen 4th and Michael Perle 2nd.

Due to weather and the delay they decided to take 16 men and 8 women to the heats instead of the normal 32 and 16.

In Karen's first heat she when down and wasn't able to catch up to the leaders. In the girls consolation heat Karen got out front and won the heat for her 5th place finish. Karen rode some great lines down the course and carried good speed through the banked turns. 5th at her first Rev Tour SBX is a great result.

Michael Perle was on fire all day. His board was running fast thanks to Scotty J. He rode smart and made some clean exciting passes. In the final heat he was battling for second most of the race as he was being blocked until the step down were he flew by the other rider. He did not have enough room to catch up and battle for 1st but gave it his all. Congratulations to Mike on his first Rev SBX podium.

I enjoyed working with the sbx riders and sharing the knowledge that I've learned the last few years competing in this discipline. I'm proud of them all and look forward to the next events.

Michael Perle on the podium receiving his 2nd place award.

An Honor to see Ellery Honored

I'm writing this quick update from Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Most know that I love NH and feel the vibe as soon as I cross the Connecticut River. WIth all the new snow the drive was scenic, making travel a pleasure. It will be our first taste of Wednesday's storm and we can't wait. Hunter, Phoebe, Quincy and Connor are with me for the first Main Event slope event.

We all just arrived back from Portland last night. On our way out of the city our friend Travis Moore arranged for a tour of the Nike offices in Portland. I could write a two page blog on that tour alone, but wanted just to share a quick highlight. All the buildings are named after sports icons and the walkways are lined with plaques and banners for Nike's endless list of famous athletes. My eyes were peeled for one in particular and before long we stood below it. What an honor to see Ellery Hollingsworth's image in one of the largest athlete shrines in the world. Snowboarding, much like Ellery, has come a long way.


Bonus shot of Hunter Wood at Rev Slope

Phoebe Novello, Mak Tierney and Ezra Racine Come Up in Slopestyle

Today was the day we have been waiting for which falls into the recent trend of good weather slopestyle days (Copper excluded). Clear skies allowed us to see that Mt Hood had been towering over us for the past few days. The view is majestic and is an attitude changer from the grey skies and low visibility. Crisp and clear as they say. Perfect weather for slope and the event ran smoothly and on time.
Today's big stories involve Phoebe Novello and Ezra Racine. After making finals in HP yesterday (finishing 5th instead of 6th which I blogged yesterday) Phoebe made finals again today and put herself in 2nd position on the podium at the end of the day. Switch back 180, backside 360, gap to boardslide and lipslide to fakie was the run that she put down time after time. After struggling in comps for the past year, Phoebe has arrived and many are proud of this young ripper. Turned some heads she did.
Ezra Racine showed up with his game face and stomped each and every run of the day. After a run with a cab 5 to front 7, Ezra told me he wanted to convert the 7 into a 1080. This is no small task and I had my doubts. Looking in his eyes and hearing the conviction in his voice, I had to give him the nod. He proceeded to land the next three 1080s he attempted, two being in finals. He had not even attempted one this year and this trick is no joke. He opened my eyes for sure and ended up just off the podium in 5th.

Graduate James Haffner continued his comeback streak by winning today's event. His run oozed with style while others threw their bodies into sloppy double flips. Cab 540 to backside 900 followed by smooth and tech rail tricks won the day. Let me remind you that he came in second in pipe yesterday. He won the Rev Tour for sure.
Other highlights of the day include Mak Tierney who made finals and ended up in 6th place and Dan Landy who landed a great first run which started off with a switch back 540. I have been waiting to see this kid land a run for a while now, and he came through today. Serena Shaw was off to a great second run, but fell off the last rail. This small mishap was crushing as it kept her out of finals. Good to see her riding slope with the aggression she brought to HP yesterday. Kyle Dorfman and Jamie Charron also landed clean runs in quals, but missed the competitive cut into finals.
Our hearts go out to Biba Turnbull who overshot the second jump by 30 yards. As I write this I am under the impression she broke her collarbone. She is in the hospital with Ross Powers who will fill us in later tonight.

Serena Shaw Wins Hood Rev Tour

Its been a wild start to the SMS Hood Rev Trip. We arrived for two cold, windy and crowded days at Mt Hood Meadows. When I say crowded I mean it. Traffic backed up for miles, 45 minute drives taking 2 hours, parking in the outer lots and waiting in line 15 minutes to load a bus, no seats in the cafe.......
Practice went alright yesterday and there were some great pow turns to be had. Today was the Halfpipe event and slope practice. The slope course needs some work for tomorrow, but the pipe was decent today (albeit a bit icy). The girls attacked the pipe first.
Serena Shaw was on point from the start of practice until the end of the day when she stood atop the podium. She won practice, qualified for finals 3 points ahead of the next rider and finished 4 points ahead of the second place finisher. She is nailing her frontside 720s and rode with confidence and power.




Phoebe Novello also made finals and broke out of the contest slump she has been in. Her coaches have recognized her talent for years now, and it was great to hear onlookers taking notice and other riders talking about how good she is as she dropped in. She is the only girl who spun in all four directions in her run although she fell on her switch back 3 at the end of her first run and missed the frontside 3 to cab 3 combo in her second run. She just missed landing her finals runs and placed 6th, but this is an amazing and much needed finish for this girl. The run she was going for (and landing in practice) was front 5, back 5, front 3, cab 3, ally oop, back 3, switch back 3. She is ripping slope too and should have a good showing tomorrow.
Makalya Tierney threw some of the biggest front 5s of the day in the girls division, but slipped out on both runs. Tough break, but she is boosting and riding with great style.
Hunter Wood, Mike Perle and Graduate James Haffner all rode well in practice, and James and Hunter made finals. Mike Perle's first practice run would have been a podium run if were in finals, but he too slipped out in his runs. Hunter had the eye of the tiger in finals and charged the pipe with great amplitude. By no fault of his own he slipped out on both finals runs but kept his chin up. James Haffner handled the icy walls and stomped big spins to stand on the podium in 2nd place. This has been a long time coming and James is on fire this year.
Josh Cohen landed both his qualifying runs, both runs including a frontside 720. When he adds a backside spin to the run he should be turning some heads.
Ezra Racine was crushed by the redesigned slope course as he had been killing it the day before. The change to the second jump that was made overnight threw many riders off and he was especially insulted. This did not stop him from charging his HP runs, both of which included sick backside handplants to fakie (a Kirk-pleasing trick).



Amidst all this action there was another interesting story. Quincy Korte-King snapped her board in half when she decked out on a crippler attempt. For a 90lb girl to break her board in half on the lip of the icy pipe and ride away unscathed was astounding. She was bummed, but its hard to keep a smile off this girl's face. The poor thing rode down to the base to grab her slope board for practice only to find that some dirtbag had stolen it off the rack!!! These events would dishearten me to say the least, but she took it all in stride which reinforces the respect and fondness I have developed for our Canadian shredder.

COACH POWERS SURVEYS QUINCY'S SITUATION

Southern Vermont Series Returns To Bromley for 2 Slalom Races

Sunday Jan. 2nd our winter break closed with a pair of great Slalom races at Bromley Mtn. There was a springy mud season feel in the air. I believe Saul Cohen said he could smell the ocean out there today. The snow was soft and the wax additives were straight out of my Nationals kit. SMS Racers handled the conditions well in each start. Yesterdays training ruts couldn't even be flattened overnight for fear of thin snow so the soft surface was gouged with banks and bumps.
No Problem for Josh Cohen who won each race in not only the Youth men's group but also overall for the first and second race. That will seal his slalom spot for usasa nationals in april to go along with his previously earned GS spot.  Congrats. Also sealing up a Her own series championship and another berth to Nationals was Liz Hernandez who won each of her races by extra large margins.
In the Open Class wmn's group Phoebe Novello took second in each race and notched a podium in the overall category in the second race. "It was all a matter of seconds" said Novello.
Karen Kobayashi continued her strong racing season after a difficult slam in the first run of the first race to come back to a third place after two runs. In her second race she was all smoothe and won her age group and by winning both runs and edged Novello on the podium for overall with a Second.
Mason Geils took second place in the Youth men's group in race number one and was just edged out into third in race number two. A double podium with a fractured radial growth plate and a sprained thumb all packed into a three day old cast. Hard core.
The final age category (for SMS riders) of the day saw Maverick Shaw returning to the mix with a pair of Thirds, Tanner Pentony taking an eighth and a seventh and Xander Raith dualing it out again with stratton comp team rider Dylan Udolf. Xander took the first race and finished second in the second. Just like two weeks ago these breaker boys have a very tight competition motivating them and will definitely continue to elevate each others performance in the final day of GS and Sl. to come for the Southern Vermont Series. The SVSS will return to Bromley in two weeks for two days of SBX racing.

Training in our home state and at school will begin for some and resume for others tomorrow. Good Luck to Spencer Shaw and Chris Tierney at the European Open this week. The rest of the Elite crew and half of the Ams are heading out to the Rev Tour at Mt Hood Meadows, OR. on friday or saturday...

i got a few photos from todays races in my email tonight but they are sideways and iphoto doesnt want to work on them for me...I cant blog sideways pics but I'll put em in tomorrow if I can remedy the situation...