The Main Event. Bretton Woods 2012

Never before have I seen 8 riders so completely dominate a contest of 50 or so other worthy competitors. A mutant crew of SMS Snowboarding, half Elite-half AM Team and one Dev Rider loaded-up on friday afternoon, travelled four hrs north to shack up in North Conway NH and UNLOAD all day long upon Bretton Woods New Hampshire's final stop of the 2012 Main Event Contest Series.
The Main Event is a different kind of contest. It has been an east coast staple for independent minded and progressive slopestyle pros, groms and ams for ten years. It is a simple idea. A short slopestyle. One Rail(or "jib") and one big Jump. Short is easy to judge and while not easy to build, there is a much better chance of the features being GOOD. So for those in need of an explanation here it is... 

Who dares to Enter The Octogon?!

the Main Event Series is a contest on features you want to ride with prizes you can really use... now here is what went down...
It would be disrespectful and rude not to acknowledge the riding level of the field. Everyone killed it or took a beating trying. This is a knockout format as they like to call it and the judges take into consideration "punches landed" during the two "rounds" of Jams. Is it Sun Tzu's The Art of War that so famously recommends respecting one's opponent? This crew was full of respect and was in turn rewarded. The announcers at the start and judges vantage soon knew them by name from far and near when dropping their bombs. Here comes Ezra...your going to want to pay attention...boom! Racine!

Ezra Front five to the body!

 Here comes Dan Landy and he is tucking and bombing in. He is no stranger to the Main Event his whole family was raised competing on the east coast!

Danbo grabs the back of the head and winds up...

PD demos tiger style boxing tech.

                   ... Here comes lightweight Peter Dimitriou. Check the style that won the Nike Boots last Weekend...

and again from underneath!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JP back seven over the top!

                                                                              






A flurry of Damage From the Nantucket Raith Bros. Don't blink...or you'll get the wrath of Jack G and his Giant back three! These guys are swinging Kettlebells and they mean business. Just wrecking the place.

Bam! Xander

Off the Top rope!

Bonk! Benjo

  

HIIIYAH! Peter C

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back 3 Jack Griffin. 60 plus feet.

 And Peter Cerulo with the Clean style all day...I dunno it may just be that the simpler moves with the crisp

EXECUTION might win out over the big spinny flails today...And we've seem some technical maneuvres out of Ezra. Lets see what he's left, OHHH MYYY!

So the boys won the overall title. Ezra gets the Belt and some $ and a trip to Argentina courtesy of SGT. JP and Xander won Jumper titles: a pair of Binders each. Peter Cerulo won 2nd place Lightwieght Contender Overall: Binders and more Headphones. Xander took away the Lightweight title with a wildcard for the US OPEN. The week before Ezra and Peter D both took away Nike Boots for railriing and best trick on the hip. Jack and D and Benjo all won Headphones for throwing punches all day and the Crew made SMS look great on the road with a constant flurry of stoke and huge tricks over the 55 foot table and the assortment of jib features. The best course all year and a great ride home. Thanks boys. Well done.

Probably the first round knockout. YES he's heading left, backwards, folded. Nasty fellow.

Definitely the final Blow. Front 3 on sbs 5 off! Rope a dope!

Lets give em a hand!

Front Boarding and Fighting  Irish John Patrick McArdle

Canyons Utah SBX Grand Prix Feb 2012.

Karen Kobayashi getting ready for her time trial.

Josh Cohen stepping up onto the butter box at the start of the course.

Mike Perle hitting the big hip.

Josh Cohen also airing the hip during practice.

Karen doubling down to generate speed for the step up butter box.

Mike Perle in his 1st heat in which he was top two and advanced to the round of 16.

Friday Feb 10th were the Grand Prix time trials. Karen qualified 11th which put her into the heats. As 16 women qualified for Sunday Feb 12th finals. Mike Perle time trialed 22nd which put him into the 32 men's final. Josh Cohen stepped up his riding this trip hitting huge features like the 70ft hip. With a few mistakes in his time trial runs he was unable to make the 32 men's cut. This was Josh's first Grand Prix and he went for it which was great to see.

Many of us have been wishing for it to snow all season and the one day when we don't want it to snow it was dumping. The course still ran pretty well with the snow but the visibility was tricky.

Karen had a hard first heat with Dominique Maltais, SMS alumni Jacqueline Hernandez and another USA racer. Karen placed 3rd in the heat. Dominique who is this years X-Games Champion went on to win the Grand Prix. Karen placed 10th for the day earning herself 130 FIS points. She was the 3rd Junior as well.

Mike Perle was also racing an SMS alumni first heat. Mike and Alex Deibold went one two in the first round to advance to the round of 16. In the round of 16 Mike was in 3rd behind US Team athletes Graham Wantanbe and Alex Deibold. Mike went for the inside pass on the turn after the big hip. He unfortunately went off balance and fell on the step down. Mike was going for it, riding fast and holding his own with top ranked riders. Mike placed 16th and was the top ranked Junior which really helps him towards earning his Junior World spot.

Markus Schairer from Austria won the men's. Nate Holland placed 4th earning himself the USA National Title as he was the top American. Graham Wantanbe placed 5th and claims retirement after the event. He's still one of the top racers in the world and will be missed on tour.

Utah has been a good trip. Now the team is excited to travel back to SMS to join up with everyone. We'll see you soon.

I received some good news on SMS results last night and today. Spencer Shaw placed 3rd at the Dew Tour halfpipe finals and Louie Vito Won. Noelle Edwards placed 3rd in the Gatorade Free Flow halfpipe finals. Which was also taking place in Snow Basin Utah at the Dew Tour Finals.

Hinterglemm in Photos

Biba has been at work touching up our photos. I will let them speak for themselves. The shot of Biba below was posted on the Roxy page!

Speed & Style at Park City Mountain Resort and the Canyons Utah.

Mike Perle with a front board in the Park City Park.

Another angle of Mike on the flat down box with a stair set.

Karen Kobayashi airing one of the PC jumps getting ready for the Canyons Grandprix.

Josh Cohen with a mellon over jump 3 at PC.

Josh kicking out a method.

It hurts to put this up being a Patriots fan, but Josh's Giants are the 2012 Superbowl Champs.

This is the start section of the Canyons Grandprix SBX. It's pretty tech.

This is the big hip jump at Canyons in the SBX course. 60-75 feet to the knuckle depending on the line riders take. There is an alternate route to the left but it will be much slower.

It has been cool to be in Park City. It brings back great memories and it is even the ten year anniversary of the 2002 Olympics. The Speed & Style team that is out here spent a few days at Park City getting their boardercross boards ready and playing in Park City's awesome park. Today was our first day at the Canyons for the SBX Grandprix. Josh, Mike and Karen tested out the course which has some technical features and some big jumps. Canyons and USSA did a great job building the course. Qualifiers are Friday and Finals on Sunday.

Three Peaks Challenge

With powder turns fresh in our minds we awoke a bit sleepy today and dragged ourselves to breakfast. I kept thinking about how I would like to sleep a bit more and wondered where I would get the energy for the day. I am still unsure of where I got said energy, but I'm sure glad I did.






Phoebe and Biba's eyes are opened to the joys of powder turns and the folly of spending your entire young lives lapping park runs, never turning your head to the mountaintop. We must have hiked for 3 hours combined today and covered miles. As we reached our final peak it was impressive to look miles across the sunny valley and see our morning cornice-drop tracks.








I neglected to say that Phoebe was a bit miffed yesterday because she didn't stomp her cornice drop. Today she had made up for it well before noon. She also beefed up her "backcountry" (we never left the resort boundary) knowledge as we chatted up and down the Austrian peaks. We bagged at least 3 today, which brought PETE DAVIS' name to our lips. Aside from the 3 Peak thing, we knew he would be stoked to be with us, and probably had some local knowledge.









Last night we hit the comp park again where Biba ran the 3 jump line in two runs. The girls will be up against the stiffest competition in their lives this week, but I already know they will make me proud. They are sponges for experience, knowledge and progression, so fun to work with. As we stumbled home around 3pm with jellied legs, we ran into Danger Dave and Ty Walker in the streets. The airlines lost their bags and they have been here for 3 days without the ability to shred. This made us realize our amazing fortune so far on the trip.

Gettin' Pow. Sorry!

I hate to do this to all the peeps back at SMS, but I gotta blog and this is what I have to post. Our jet-lagged behinds got to sleep in a bit today (8:30am), which was nice. We then hit the best breakfast spread ever at Hotel Edelweiss before headed out into the snowy village. This resort is huge. Last night I compared it to 3 Strattons. It's more like 8!
I always dislike leading a crew around a new resort. Local knowledge rules and it is tough to not know where to go, especially at a massive resort with tons of fresh snow.
Well we didn't quite know where to go, but we soon figured it out. We headed to the outer confines of the resort where we saw a nice, mostly untouched bowl with a mellow cornice leading into it. I checked in with a Mt employee to ascertain safety. The lack of tracks made me a bit nervous, but the dude told me it was good to go. I guess with all the terrain available most people avoid hiking.
A scenic half-hour hike got us to our drop zone. The girls were a touch nervous as I broke down some basic cornice/slide concepts. I dropped first (not just being selfish, but safe), and enjoyed exactly what I had been missing this winter-powder turns! The girls got a bit ragdolly on their first cornice drop, but ate up the pow turns and demanded another go. Second time around the hike went a bit quicker, Phoebe pretty much ran up. The attached video sums up how run two went. Nice line Biba!
What I had not realized was that this was a new take on snowboarding for Phoebe. I take for granted that anyone on a snowboard is on it for pow turns and has had some real ones. Now that Phoebe has she is hungry for more. We will track out this zone again tomorrow then head for another hike that we spotted.
It is 3pm now and we just finished some slamming shnitzel and are resting up. At 6pm we will hit the night park and get our comp practice on again. We are loving our new routine (grub-pow-grub-park-grub) and, once again, no one wants to leave.

Austria Round 2

NIGHT RIDER PHOEBE NOVELLO

It was a nice feeling to hit the ground in Austria and not feel like a complete tourist. This is my 4th trip in 3 years and I am starting to feel comfortable with the Frankfurt Airport and Highway A10 out of Salzburg. The girls have spent enough time here to be casual, and they have both become great travelers. We chat with the locals and get our drops in the park without hesitation or uncertainty.
Aside from our evolution, the day of travel just seemed to work out perfect. Shannon McGee helped us get to Boston and things went smooth from there (the girls even got their own rows of seats on the long flight). We arrived to plentiful snow and a private shuttle that whisked us right to our hotel. Austrian hotels have become my favorites and this one is better than most. We unpacked and headed out to the slopes at 4pm for some night riding. After ripping some powder turns on the mountain, Phoebe and I then made our way to the competition park just as the lights were coming on (Biba had double the travel and opted for some down time).
The park looked great, and after I knuckled jump one and overshot jump 3, Phoebe stepped in to show me the speed (the student has become the teacher). By 6:30 she was comfortable with the course and we had enjoyed some of the best night riding I have experienced. Back to the hotel for a 4 course meal and now its time to shut 'er down.
Tomorrow is a free day for us and we have a snow-filled resort 3 times the size of Stratton to explore (9am-9pm).
The Elite Team males have been on our minds and in our conversations. Keep in mind guys that this trip was proposed by Phoebe and Biba, and approved quickly. Let's hear the next proposal guys!

OUR DIGS



THIS IS THE ONE I OVERSHOT IN THE DARK. PHOEBE NAILS IT.





PARK FROM ABOVE