Some riders
will have a better chance of qualifying for the US Open than others, those who ride Forum
or Burton snowboards, and those who participated in the finals of the WAAF Stimilon Air
and Style Challenge. The latter competiton was held at Stratton, on the very jump that
will be used to qualify people for the US Open big air.Dave Olcott obviously has a lot of good karma, because the weather was nice for yet another of his events. The sun shone for almost the entire finals, and the snow stayed just the right speed. The jump was not huge, but big enough to be intimidating. Lauren "Nugget" Naudascher commented, "It's so weird, first your going over this deck, and then you still have the gap to clear." She was in pretty high spirits though, as only two female pro competitors showed up, and she was guaranteed to go home with a check.
With basically no
pressure on the females, their runs were as to be expected, pretty simple. It was a day of
methods and indy's, although one amatuer female hit the jump switch (and landed). Lauren
overcame the weirdness of the hit to take first place, and Anna, who suffered an injury
during practice, took second.Although several of the less hardcore competitors skipped off to the Boarder Battle, only 30 minutes away, in search of the almighty dollar, most of the regulars were there. The heckling section was especially big on this day, with the new tech in snowboard viewing including megaphones, so competitors didn't get a moment's peace. This didn't shake Scotti Arnold, who's fakie to fakie seven was exactly what he needed to win the $500 dollars for first. Drew Heifetz had a little trouble on his second run and ended up in the infirmary, his first run was strong enough to take second, and Daniel Sappa, a new comer to the series from somewhere that Rad Air snowboards are popular, got third.