story and pictures by Brooke Geery
A competitor's view of the halfpipe, or something like that.
The only good thing I can say about the 1998 US Open is that all the conspiracy surrounding it made it interesting, well, sort of. It was definitly an experience, if that's what you were going for. In the past it has been an event that all the reformed east coasters come home from their west coast re-locations for, as well as just about everyone else who's any one in snowboarding. I think that after this year's Open most people will choose to stay home, rather than come watch the monstrosity, unless of course they ride for Burton. On the other hand, everyone could have been too drunk to notice what was going on anyway.
Left: Catherine Nieves is cool enough to rock YO BEAT stickers an her helmet, so she's cool enough to grace our pages. Right: Hey Ross, will you sign my tshirt too?
Day -2: Pre Quals 3/17/98
This years pre qualifiers for the halfpipe proved snowboarding's coolness by filling up so fast they had to be extended (most likely because a Burton rider or two hadn't registered yet.) It ended up that there were 50 girls, and over 200 guys all vying for 30 spots. Good odds, really. Any hardcore US Open fan should know that this is the day to attend. While all the biggest names might not be there, it's defiantly when the biggest show goes on, and you don't have to deal with all the pesky crowds. Personally, I think that all the real competition happens in the pre quals anyway.
The Tuesday of pre quals was by far the best weather day, with not a cloud in the sky all day long. A perfect pipe kept the competitors happy, and only after the first 8 hours of runs did people who were yet to go start to complain. The field was divided into 8 heats, to be run in numerical order through out the day. The first one started at 9am, leaving the 8th heat to go around 5:30pm. Through out the day, the sun-baked halfpipe walls softened, developed kinks, and when the sun went down they became a lovely shade of blue and the kinks became permanent. Needless to say, nobody in the 7th or 8th heats was riding it all that well.
The Burton Influence was present throughout the day, but not quite as prevalent as what was to come. While only about 50% of the people were riding Burton equipment and all of the top three were Burton riders, one could see that this was justified. Burton is a sponsor, so they undoubtedly would have the most riders in the contest, and Greg Wilson, Abram Teeter and Ryan Lang all deserved their top three spots. Although announcer Chris Copley didn't seem to think so of Ryan as he constantly downplayed his runs on the mike all day. In the end though, Lang couldn't be touched, so Copley just looked obnoxious. For the ladies Jennie Warra was the top spot, with Burton rider Aurelie Sayers in second, and Satu Jarvella in third.
Day 1: Dual Slalom Qualifiers 3/19/98
You have to go to school sometimes, and this would be the day that I chose to go. I guess that in my absence, some of the racers discovered that they were getting paid 1/5 of what the freestylers were, and thus organized a sit down protest. The event organizers hurriedly tried to run the contest with our the riders, and finally gave up, so Burton kicked down a few extra dollars to keep the whiny hardboot riding fools happy.
When not riding, riders enetrtained themselves by reading back issues of YO BEAT, and picking up girls. Left to right: Jessica Zelusky, Sabrina Sadeghi, Luke Wynen, Kim Stacy, Danny Kass.
Day 2: Halfpipe Qualifiers/Super G Qualifiers and Finals 3/20/98
The of the Open is when the party usually starts, all the Jerseys ditch work and come up Thursday, in time to be elegantly wasted on Friday morning. This year, if there was a big crowd, I couldn't see them, because the entire mountain was socked in with fog. This made for excellent visibility, and about 4 hours of extra practice while everyone waited on then weather. Then, by some miracle, the sky cleared up, and the sun came out for just long enough for the girls to take their qualifying runs. From the 40 or so girls, 20 were chosen to ride in Saturday's festivities. The event organizers then took the opportunity to close the pipe for maintenance, because it was slightly worked form the morning's activities. This was short lived, because the fog was coming back in, and the men were becoming aware that their runs probably weren't going to happen anytime soon, so they turned it in to another snake sesh. Probably the the most memorable part of this was Michel Michaelchuck and Terje facing off in a one hitter session for every photo hound at the pipe. Most impressive was Michaelchuck matching, if not out-doing Haaken on every hit.
The people in charge probably were ripping their hair out at this point, because their perfect US Open was not going according to plan. It didn't look like the fog was every going to leave, and the crowd was growing restless because they hadn't seen much of anything for a few hours now. Being the planning wizards that they are, the organizers kept avoiding coming coming to a decision, and finally though that having the qualifiers at night was a good idea. Now there are many problems with this, the athletes were all tired, and would rather be drinking anyway, the crowd was probably already drunk, and you can't see any better in the fog when it's dark out. This did not stop them from dragging everyone back up to the hill at night, just to tell them what they already knew, the qualifiers would happen Saturday morning.
On the racing side, they probably had the biggest crowd ever, because the halfpipe was right next to the course, and occasionally someone would look over their shoulders at it. They were also plagued by the fog, and didn't get to finish their even either, pushing it over to Saturday as well. Now, this could have been a problem, because it would take valuable audience away from the halfpipe, but then you realize that no one watches races anyway.
In case you were unsure, Travis Mclain really doesn't have any pride.
Day 3: Halfpipe Finals 3/21/98
The US Open is a really a big show. Everyone comes out to show the crowd of thousands that they aren't quite ready for the Snowboard Life powder trip yet. This year, however, the mood was different. Everyone seems irritated that there was to be twice as much action as originally planned, and the weather didn't seem to be cooperation either. I'm sure that a few east coast jokes can be made here.
Taking pictures of people snowboarding at the Open is about as easy as extracting water from rocks. I personally took the above two shots, and that's it. Left: Todd Richards gets his huck on. Right: Fabian Rohr works it for the camera.
The day started with a bunch of drunk people stumbling up the hill to the pipe, and the men taking their qualifying runs. Originally, the men's pack of 87 was to be cut to 40, and then to 15 for the super finals. Because time would obviously not allow for this, the final cut was to be made right away. Everyone went through pretty smoothly, with only a few technically glitches, and Chris Copley calling almost everyone by the right name. In the end, a problem became apparent. This is where the conspiracy really begins to surface. You see, Terje had qualified tied for 17th, Jimi Scott was 19th and Daniel Franke was sitting somewhere around 20th. Now everyone knows you can't have the biggest event of the year with our Terje, especially if it's sponsored by Burton. I'm sure that the people at Burton were not all that concerned about this, however, because they know one thing, and that is that Terje qualifies no matter what. The problem was simply solved by extending the qualifiers to 20th. To make sure this didn't look too suspicious, they made up a story about there being too many ties to cut at 15. Whatever, we all know that Terje could have ridden down the middle of the pipe, and they would have extended it to 87 for him. Mr. Haakonseen himself was distraught over this decision, because due to hip pain, he was less than stoked to keep riding.
The women's final runs went smoothly, with finally stepping up, and most going above the lip on ever hit, in fact I'd say most would have skyed over Jimi Scott's biggest air. Also the caliber of tricks was higher than ever, and the women's runs were as entertaining to watch as any pipe runs could be.
The men's finals were also very good. Everyone was giving their all. Todd Richards had "The best run of his life" containing the dopest 900 mctwists. Adam Petraska stomped a 900 or too himself, putting him right in there as the competition went. Michaelchuck was throwing down incredibly sick runs, although he could not pull together his double back which everyone so desperately wanted to see. With the best 2 of 3 format however, this should not have mattered. To keep the crowd happen, or maybe just to satisfy himself, as soon as the contest ended, Michaelchuck hiked up, dropped in, and perfectly executed a double backflip. Terje's runs were good, because the man is incapable of taking a shitty run, but they certainly were nothign compared to what we've seen in the past. The technical merit of his run was very low, with only one flip and one spin in the entire thing. Also, he was not going that much bigger than anyone else. The finals were a lot of flips, a lot of spins, and a lot of oohs and ahhs from the crowd. After awhile, the runs tend to become monotonous, but even after watching so many runs, most people had their picks for the win. Todd Richards was in there, but Michaelchuck was right on his tail. It was pretty much between those two in most peoples minds.
As soon as the contest ended, an insane snowball fight broke out. The Stratton Security staff (recognizable by their bright orange "SECURITY" T shirts) decided to start fights with anyone who looked drunk enough to beat. This show of aggression was nothing like years past, when it all seems to be done in fun. Most of the crowd was out to draw blood. After awhile of this, the organizers finally got their shit together, and started the awards.
I think they announced the race dogs first, but I was barely paying attention, so I don't know who won. Next came the women's pipe. This was really no surprise, it was clear who had won, with her airs higher than anyone else by feet. Olympic gold medallist Nicola Thost was the happy, and deserving recipient of the $25,000 check, Trisha Byrnes came in second, and Tara Teigen of Canada was in third.
The Men's pipe, on the other hand, wasn't quite at sensible. When third place was announced, it think the people in the crown who were still capable of thinking, were a little bit confused. It was Todd Richards. If this wasn't shocking enough for everyone, what was to come next was even more so. The announcer, trying to be cool, and keep up the suspense, rambled on about sprocking cats and what not, before finally announcing Terje as the second place victor. I think people were disgusted, at least I know I was. While just because this Open was intended to be Terje's contest, you don't give someone who's runs were not that great 2nd place. I guess that he would have gotten first, as he was supposed to, but that would have looked a little funny. so they gave him second instead. I know I was sure with Richards out of the running, that Michaelchuck had waltzed into his first year in the limelight, and taken the Open, so when first place turned out to belong to Jackson, WY resident Rob Kingwill, I was almost as bewildered as before. Rob was "stoked" on winning, and said his favorite part was throwing a board out into the crowd. Everyone knew that the judging was not quite right though, and even Terje took the mike to proclaim Micaelchuck the man of the day. You didn't see him giving his check back though.
After the awards Orange 9mm took the stage, but I can't very well review it, because even as it has not stopped me before, it was way too cold to watch, so I retired to the lodge. Thus ends day 3.
A little pre-competition fun in the halfpipe.
Day 4: Boardercross
Boardercross? What's that you say, Where the fuck is the big air? Well for those of you living a whole the big air has been replaced by the newest snowboarding sensation, Boardercross. Now the first thing to do is to wonder why they would take the second most popular event and replace it with something Boardercross, then you would go home.
Stratton had plenty of excuses for the lack of big air, the new pipe location was where jump would be, it was too much for insurance, and my favorite, "The US Open is an open event, hence the name, and the big air was invitational. There is really no way to have an open big air, so we got rid of it instead." I sure they are rethinking this decision after comparing tickets sales from last year Sunday, to this year's. Nobody really cares about Boardercross, unless they're in it, and even the the start list had almost as many DNS's as people who were there, so most of the crowd just went home. I think that snow, and the course that "wasn't that great" didn't help either, but when you are having a event that is supposed to be a show, it's important to choose something people are going to want to watch.
I'm sure that doing the US Open Boardercross would be fun, but event the athletes in this event didn't get treated like the others. For qualifying into a US Open event, you receive a backpack filled with goodies from the sponsors, and a silk bib. You know what the boardercrossers got? NOTHING! So the athletes got shafted, and no one watched it anyway. I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at here, give Dave Olcott his job back, and BRING BACK THE BIG AIR!
Either Matty Kass is laughing at the whole establishment, or just yacking it up with his homies between runs.
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