State of Vermont hopes to make snowboarding an official sport

The state flower of Vermont is the red clover. The sugar maple is the official tree of the Green Mountain State. And within the next year, several legislators hope to make snowboarding the official sport of Vermont.

How awesome would it be if every state had its own official sport and one day out of the year was designated a state holiday just for that sport.  Hawaii could claim surfing while Californians take a day for kiteboarding. The official sport in Idaho could be cow-tipping. Florida might make swimming the official sport. Rhode Island could adopt sailing.

The bill currently sitting in the Vermont legislature cites the importance snowboarding plays in the economic and historical well-being of the state.

Colorado has skiing and snowboarding as its state sports and some Vermont legislators would like to see the dual sports designated as official sports in their state. With competing pieces of legislation sitting in committee, lawmakers do not expect to tackle the state sport issue until the 2010 session.

Both options make sense since skiing and snowboarding have a long history in Vermont:

In 1934, the country’s first ski area opened outside of Woodstock when the first rope tow ski lift was installed, leading to the nation’s first ski race on Mount Mansfield the same year.

Four years later, C. Minot Dole founded the National Ski Patrol in Vermont, using his model to convince the U.S. Army to activate a division of soldiers on skis.

The Suicide Six Resort in Pomfret was the first American resort to allow snowboarding in 1982. Vermont was also the first state to host a snowboard park.

Additionally, Vermont resident Jake Burton Carpenter founded the first snowboard company in 1977 and perfected the technology to build the boards.

A number of Vermonters have excelled in the Winter Olympic games as well, from skier Barbara Ann’s gold medal in 1972 to the first-place snowboarding victories by Hannah Teter, Ross Powers and West Dover’s Kelly Clark.

While we wait to see what happens in Vermont, what do you think should be the official sport in your state?

US Open Snowboarding Championship underway

The best snowboarders in the world have been gathering at the Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont for the 27th Annual US Open Snowboarding World Championship. The qualifying action kicked earlier this week amid balmy temps and bluebird skies and continues tonight at 6:15 p.m. with an invitational quarterpipe competition followed by a free RJD2  concert at 8:00 p.m. in the USO Sponsor Village at the Sunbowl.

Top riders including  Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark,  Hannah Teter and Ellery Hollingsworth,  X-Games Gold Medalist Torah Bright, Asian Open winner Chanelle Sladics and TTR World Champion Jamie Anderson are all participating in the event. Hardly surprising as it is one of the first snowboarding events in the world to offer male and female competitors equal winnings.

The US Open is the last stop on the Burton Global Open Series and offers riders the chance to earn points towards a male and female championship title, each worth $100,000, currently the largest single payout in competitive snowboarding. 

This year’s Open features a different competition schedule than the past few years with all events and concerts taking place at the Sunbowl area of Stratton Mountain.   On the women’s side,  50 athletes vie for five spots in the semifinals, where they meet up with 16 invited riders.

Saturday, March 21st will feature men’s and women’s semi-final and final halfpipe competitions, an autograph session in the sponsor village, topped off with a Santigold concert immediately following the halfpipe awards presentation at 4:15 p.m. in the Sunbowl.

Sunday, March 22nd, will kick off with the junior jam halfpipe competition, followed by men’s and women’s slopestyle finals, after which three major titles will be awarded: the $100,000 Burton Global Open Series men’s and women’s title, the Volvo Most Valuable Rider Award and the Men’s Swatch TTR World Tour Champion award. 

A crowd in excess of 40,000 people are expected to attend the event which will without doubt have its fair share of thrills and spills. If you cannot make it to Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont you can watch all of the semi-finals and finals live on March 21 and 22 on Go211.com, where webcasts and highlights of the competitions will also be available for on-demand viewing once the event concludes. NBC will show all the action on Sunday, March 29 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. EST.

Show up with 4 or more people in your car when you park at Stratton to be entered into the US Open carpool raffle. If your raffle number is chosen, you will be the lucky winner of Burton’s 2010 eco-friendly GMP products!

Bright Clinches SuperPipe Final; Clark Raises Dew Cup

The first annual Winter Dew Tour wrapped up this weekend at Northstar-At-Tahoe. Top athletes from the first two stops battled it out for the overall Dew Cup, while fans enjoyed huge terrain, warm days and Lake Tahoe itself.

Aussie Torah Bright proved victorious at the Superpipe Final, despite gray skies and rainy conditions. In her second attempt, Bright earned a whopping 95.5 by putting together an innovative run, consisting of a flawless backside 3 to switch backside 7.

“Torah’s switch backside spins were so technical; she was doing tricks you never see in the pipe,” said second-place winner Kelly Clark. “She clearly threw down the best run of the day.”

Vermonter Hannah Teter earned third-place with a beautiful first run.

In the end, Clark was handed the Dew Cup for her overall point-total of 280, which she earned with second-first-second place-finishings at each respective Winter Dew Tour stop  (silver at Breckenridge, gold at Mount Snow, silver at Tahoe).  She now leaves for Japan representing the U.S. at the Asian Superpipe contest which will take place this coming weekend.

Superpipe Finals Northstar at Tahoe

1. Torah Bright – 95.50
2. Kelly Clark – 90.00
3. Hannah Teter – 83.50

Winter Dew Cup Final Superpipe Standings

1.  Kelly Clark – 280 pts.
2.  Hannah Teter – 245 pts.
3.  Elena Hight – 205 pts.

Evolution of the action sports athlete

A couple of interesting articles today demonstrate just how far action sports have come. 

First, comes Forbes with its list of the highest-paid action sports stars.  Huh? A couple years ago mentioning Forbes and action sports in the same sentence would be unthinkable.

Shaun White may be the Tiger Woods of today’s action sports stars but others are starting to get noticed by a broader audience, and that means bigger paychecks, thanks to rich sponsorship deals.

Not surprisingly, the top 10 action sports earners in 2008 were all male. White may be the top earner among the current crop of action sports stars, but the highest-paid guy is still Tony Hawk, the godfather of action sports. Hawk retired from competitive skatingboarding in 1999 at the age of 31, but he has built a thriving business that earned him $12 million last year.

Top 10 Acton Sports Earners
1. Tony Hawk (skateboard) – $12 million
2. Shaun White (snowboard) - $9 million
3. Ryan Sheckler (skateboard) - $5 million
4. Travis Pastrana (tie) (moto) – $3 million
4. Kelly Slater (tie) (surf) – $3 million
6. Laird Hamilton (surf) – $2.5 million
7. Paul Rodriguez (skateboard) – $2 million
8. Danny Kass (tie) (snowboard) – $1 million
8. Dave Mirra (tie) (moto) – $1 million
8. Travis Rice (tie) (moto) – $1 million

Top female snowboarders like Torah Bright, Gretchen Bleiler and Hannah Teter make as much as $750,000 annually, but fell short Forbes’ $1 million cut off.

One thing is certain. Because these athletes stuck to what the love no matter what anybody said to deter them from their passion, some are actually making big bucks. Now if only we could create more parity between the guys and the girls.  X Games finally leveled the prize money but sponsors need to show the girls some love as well.

The other interesting article I came across today was an LA Times piece about drug testing action sports athletes.  A stepped-up effort by the global drug police runs counter to snowboarding’s long-cherished lifestyle and culture and with the Winter Olympics just a year away, the IOC’s anti-doping officials are tracking down riders for random tests. 

Says 2002 halfpipe gold medalist Kelly Clark, “We’re not at the gym, we’re on the mountain eight hours a day. It’s very challenging for us because the rules are not adapted to our culture.”

The drug-testing protocol applies to all potential Olympic athletes, not just snowboarders. But other athletes are accustomed to being tested regularly because they compete in sanctioned events such as the World Cup and world championships.

None of the top U.S. halfpipe riders compete regularly on the World Cup and only some compete on the FIS-sanctioned Grand Prix circuit. Comps like X Games and Dew Tour aren’t FIS events and aren’t subject to drug testing.

Snowboarders, with their deep-seeded anti-establishment roots, never were comfortable with authority but as the sport evolves and becomes more mainstream, it comes under more scrutiny.  Looks like there are always trade-offs. The question is, will riders adapt?

Clark & Jacobellis capture Cypress wins

You’ll be hearing a lot about Cypress Mountain over the next year. Despite the resort name, there is no actual Cypress Mountain in the area, but it is the name of the Official Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard Venue for the 2010 Winter Games offering some of the best conditions in North Vancouver BC.

The half-pipe and the venues for the moguls and aerials were completed in the summer of 2007. Since then, Cypress has been hosting a series of test events attracting all the top winter athletes.

This past weekend, Olympic gold medalists and Kelly Clark (Mt. Snow, VT) and Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA) took to what will be the 2010 Olympic pipe to win a World Cup.

Clark led the way for the women for the second weekend in a row with Jiayu Liu of China second and Teter third.

“This is probably the deepest field of athletes we have seen this year from any event. There were some incredible snowboarders here today,” Clark said.

Clark put down a backside 5, frontside 7, cab 3, frontside 5, backside air to win the event.

According to Clark, pipe conditions were such that one had to be on their A game in order to ride it perfectly.

“Today was the best day for the halfpipe. It got a little bit more vert. It’s still a bit soft in the flat bottom. You have to be really technically on top of your game because any edging will slow you down a lot,” Clark said.

Teter was happy to be able to start off her road to the Olympics with a bronze medal in the halfpipe.

“I really liked it [the pipe] my third place is a really good way to start out my experience in this Olympic pipe,” Teter said.

A day earlier, Lindsey Jacobellis’ (Stratton Mountain, VT) maintained her status as the most dominant woman in snowboardcross as she won her event to retain her position as the World Cup SBX leader.

“It’s one of the best courses I have ridden all year,” Jacobellis said. “It flowed really nicely and it’s nice that I did so well.”

Jacobellis won each of her heats, but it was a tactical line that shot her ahead in the final round.

“It feels great and I’m happy to win any race. At the entrance of the first banked turn I was in third and then dropped in low for a pass and drifted up and I felt like I got some speed out of that turn, then I just tried to maintain the lead for the rest of the way down,” Jacobellis said.

According to the winner, however, the fact that she won on what will be the Olympic course was not a factor for her victory celebration Friday.

“It will be the same course builder for the Olympics. But, it’s still a year away. There’s still more competitions to do and I’m just going to take one at a time,” Jacobellis said. “It would be nice to up my medal but I’ll just try to take it one event at a time because it’s still so far away.” 

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2009 LG SNOWBOARD FIS WORLD CUP
Cypress Mountain, BC – Feb. 14, 2009
Halfpipe

Women
1. Kelly Clark, Mt. Snow, CO, 42.6
2. Jiayu Liu, China, 39.0
3. Hannah Teter, Belmont, VT, 38.8
4. Gretchen Bleiler, Aspen, CO, 37.0
5. Sophir Rodriguez, France, 34.4

Cypress Mountain, BC – Feb. 13, 2009
Snowboardcross

Women
1. Lindsey Jacobellis, Stratton Mountain, VT
2. Olivia Nobs, Switzerland
3. Helene Olafsen, Norway
4. Maelle Ricker, Canada
5. Mellie Francon, Switzerland

SNB: U.S. women sweep pipe in Italy

The women of U.S. Snowboarding blew the competition out of the water Saturday as they swept the podium of a World Cup in Bardonecchia, Italy. In the fourth Halfpipe contest of the 2009 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup, Kelly Clark came in first followed by teammates Hannah Teter and Gretchen Blieler in second and third, respectively.  

“For me personally it’s a good feeling to win where I was defeated three years ago,” Clark said. “Hannah was riding very strong but I just did my run as I wanted it. I’m glad that I won this great event and that the U.S. took one, two and three.”

Teter had taken the lead due to a “Backside Air”, “Back-to-back 540’s”, a “Frontside 720” and a “Cab 540” Clark came back having the right answer in her ninth World Cup event throwing in a “Frontside Air”, a “Backside 540” as well as “Back-to-back 720’s” and a “Frontside 540” to conclude her run.

Clark just missed the podium at the same venue at the 2006 Torino Games when she placed fourth trying to defend her gold medal. While not the Olympics, Clark must surely feel some redemption her win this weekend. It was Clark’s third career World Cup victory and second in Bardonecchia, the first came in 2005.

Teter notched her seventh career World Cup podium, while Blieler grabbed her tenth.

The American domination didn’t stop at the podium. American women took five of the top 15 spots with Elena Hight in eighth and Ellery Hollingsworth in 12th.

“Bardonecchia has the most snow they’ve had in about 50 years and we got here and the pipe was challenging. We had just come from some great competitions and we showed up to a smaller pipe and challenging conditions,” U.S. snowboarding halfpipe head coach, Mike Jankowski said. “We knew there was only one way to go and that was up. So, we said every day it’s going to get better. We pushed our way through semi finals and got our way through to finals.”

The pipers now head to the 2010 Olympic venue at Cypress Mountain, B.C. for a World Cup competition and some valuable experience. “We just take it one pipe at a time and we’re definitely not getting ahead of ourselves,” Jankowski said. “As long as the pipe is in good shape, whether it’s a Revolution Tour, a Grand Prix or the Olympics, we go there to win and I expect our athletes to push hard for the win.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2009 LG SNOWBOARD FIS WORLD CUP
Bardonecchia, Italy – Feb. 7, 2009
Halfpipe

Women
1. Kelly Clark, Mt. Snow, VT, 45.1
2. Hannah Teter, Belmont, VT, 43.2
3. Gretchen Bleiler, Aspen, CO, 39.4
4. Holly Crawford, Australia, 36.3
5. Kjersti Buaas, Norway, 34.9

Winter Dew Tour: Second Stop Is On

January 9, 2009 – Heading into Mount Snow, Vermont — the second stop of the Winter Dew Tour after Breckenridge — it’s the East Coast riders and skiers who have a hometown advantage. The sometimes adverse conditions — slush with ice — may tax athletes more accustomed to the smoother ideal associated with mountains farther west. And once again, girls are invited to the party.

Vermonter Kelly Clark, a West Dover-native who grew up riding Mount Snow, should be able to work the pipe to her benefit as she antes up against Ohio-native Gretchen Bleiler, who leads her by four points in the tour-standings. Local Hannah Teter, trailing in fourth place behind Elena Hight by just four points, is also well poised to deliver.  

But while the New Englanders might think of Mount Snow as something like a homecoming game, they certainly weren’t expecting the legion of Wild Card entries to come and offer up a hard time.

Late-entry athletes include veteran riders Janna Meyen, Tara Dakides, and Alexis Waite anteing up in the Slopestyle competition.

In the Women’s Snowboard Superpipe, look out for competition fiend Jamie Anderson, young ripper Madeline Schaffrick, and Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy attendee Faye Gulini.

Snowboard Slopestyle Women’s Prelim Results

1st – Jamie Anderson – 76.50
2nd – Chanelle Sladics – 76.00
3rd – Megan Ginter – 74.00
4th – Jenny Jones – 66.67
5th – Marie-France Roy – 56.00
6th – Bev Vuilleumier – 54.83
7th – Christina Curry – 50.67
8th – Kimberly Fasani – 43.17
9th – Kjersti Østgaard Buaas – 39.17
10th – Hana Beaman – 34.17

Bleiler concludes Winter Dew Tour at Breck with win

December 21, 2008 – Olympic silver medalist Gretchen Bleiler topped the women’s field Sunday to conclude the first stop of the Winter Dew Tour. The Tour has been embraced by the world’s top snowboarders and free-skiers making this weekend at Breck the place to be.

The twenty-six year old Bleiler took a new approach to her run by choosing not to start it off with her signature crippler trick.

“I definitely want to switch it up this season and work on my different tricks and never really have the stock run just because it’s more satisfying to switch it up,” Bleiler said.

“This pipe is great and the setup is great,” Bleiler said. “Being live on TV is huge and it’s definitely raising the profile of the sport so I’m backing it.”

Her winning run included a frontside 900 to a backside air crippler, a backside 540 to finish with a frontside 720. She finished with a score of 90.25.

Kelly Clark of West Dover, Vermont was second at 86.75 and Elena Hight of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. was third at 82.00.

Similar to the Dew Tour’s summer competition structure, the Winter Dew Tour is based on a cumulative points system as the top snow athletes battle it out for a piece of the $1.5 million prize purse and the chance to take home the Dew Cup at the conclusion of the season in February.

The four-day competition is the first of three stops of the Winter Dew Tour which features men’s and women’s freeskiing and snowboarding disciplines. Just over 17,000 fans enjoyed the Winter Dew Tour experience at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado. The tour will visit Mount Snow Resort in Vermont in January and conclude in February at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in California.

While there are lots of women who go big on boards, there are not yet enough women freeskiers who throw down well enough to contest for the best at the Winter Dew, so while there are women freeskiing pipe and slopestyle exhibitions, they’re not part of the official contests  – yet.

Women’s Snowboard Superpipe Finals
1. Gretchen Bleiler – 90.25
2. Kelly Clark – 86.75
3. Elena Hight – 82.00

Winter Dew Tour Snowboard Slopestyle results

December 19, 2008 - First stop. Breckinridge. Canadian rider Spencer O’Brien had the run of her life and ruled women’s snowboard slopestyle, scoring seven points higher than her closest competition and winning the women’s snowboard slopestyle competition Friday in the first stop of the inaugural Winter Dew Tour.

O’Brien won the event with a gap to boardslide to fakie, into a switch backside 780, a backside 360 and a backside 540 off the jumps to finish with a 5050 to frontside boardslide on the bottom rail. She finished with a score of 85.00. Jenny Jones of Great Britain was second at 77.33 and Bev Vuilleumier, of Lake Tahoe, Calif was third at 74.17.

“I was really nervous coming in,” O’Brien said. “It was a lot bigger than I expected seeing it’s the first contest of the year. But all the girls took to it really well. The course was just amazingly built and it was so much fun so once I got over my fear it was awesome.”

Similar to the Dew Tour’s summer competition structure, the Winter Dew Tour is based on a cumulative points system as the top snow athletes battle it out for a piece of the $1.5 million prize purse and the chance to take home the Dew Cup at the conclusion of the three-event series in February.

The four-day competition in the Colorado ski resort of Breckenridge is the first of three stops of the Winter Dew Tour that features men’s and women’s freeskiing and snowboarding disciplines. Saturday’s action features men’s freeski slopestyle finals, women’s freeski slopestyle exhibition, and men’s freeski superpipe finals while the Sunday schedule includes the men’s and women’s snowboard superpipe finals.

Winter Dew Tour at Breckenridge
Friday, December 19, 2008
Breckenridge, Colo.

Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Finals
1. Spencer O’Brien, Canada, 85.00
2. Jenny Jones, Great Britain, 77.33
3. Bev Vuilleumier, South Lake Tahoe, Calif., 74.17
4. Jamie Anderson, South Lake Tahoe, Calif., 67.83
5. Megan Ginter, Redmond, Wash., 54.83
6. Kjersti Ostgaard Buaas, Norway, 28.50

Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Points
1. Spencer O’Brien, 100
2. Jenny Jones, 90
3. Bev Vuilleumier, 80
4. Jamie Anderson, 75
5. Megan Ginter, 70
6. Kjersti Ostgaard Buaas, 65
7. Kimberly Fasani, 60
8. Chanelle Sladics, 55
9. Marie-France Roy, 50
10. Torah Bright, 45

Full results

Kelly Clark rejoins U.S. Snowboarding’s Halfpipe Roster

December 17, 2008 – The U.S. Snowboarding halfpipe roster just got a little more stacked with talent with the announcement that Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark would be re-joining the team.

Clark, who won the halfpipe gold as an 18-year-old during the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, was a member of the national team from 2000-03. She has competed as an independent the last five years.

Clark won the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix halfpipe on Saturday at Copper Mountain, Colo., and is the defending champion in the series. She says she plans to use this season to get in top form in time for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She’s in Breckenridge for this weekend’s first event of the inaugural Winter Dew Tour series.

U.S. Snowboarding Halfpipe Head Coach Mike Jankowski is amped to have Clark back and thinks she will influence the halfpipe crew in a positive way.

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