NEWS: Sun Comes Out for the Freeride by Phil Joseph Here I am, final event of the tour's Killington stop and day after the storm. What a nasty weekend it's been. Rain, sleet, freezing cameras, and down telephone lines. This is a weekend that I should have stayed home and watch a snowboard video. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like Armageddon or anything, but some of the areas near the mountain are in a State of Emergency. The region's newspaper 'The Burlington Free Press' says that it was "the state's worse ice storm of the 20th Century". Basically, if you weren't part of the competition you had no place being up on the mountain. I'm sure many of the northern resorts closed for the weekend. Good thing they picked this mountain for the east coast events, it always seems to have good snow. Photo: Phil Joseph. Fortunately, the sun has come out and the forecast is for clear skies all day long. It's even going to snow tonight! Today's event was pretty cool, in which the riders just had fun doing whatever they pleased as they cruised down the event course. As the Men's FreeRide event first place winner, Jason Borgstede, put it: "This day of the four is the most casual. It was fun, we got to freeride with our friends, just pick our line, relax and do whatever we wanted to do." Today the event turned back to the roots of snowboarding:'Riding to have Fun'.The awards today ranged from cool stuff like 'First Rider down the Mountain', 'Best Personal Innovation in the Sport', 'Best Rodeo Flip', and "Most Runs of the Day' . One of the riders Sorin Ear even got a prize check because his buddies were cheering him on to win something. So who actually won this event? Everyone. OTHER NEWS Aussie Claims Boarder X Competition; Vermont's Ross Powers Takes His First-Ever Boarder X Title Sat. (Jan. 10 @ 9:04:PM est) Sayers Wins the Halfpipe; Anderson Takes the Men's Triple Big Air Sat. (Jan. 10 @ 1:07:PM est) FREERIDE COVERAGE: Aspen | Killington | Sierra-at-Tahoe SOL NAVIGATION: SOL | Scoop | Hardware | Industry | Circleplus | Push | Travel | Interact | School | Weather | Terrain | Compete | Mediator SPONSORED BY: 1-800 Collect | ESPN | Airwalk | USASA © 1997, InterZine Productions. All rights reserved.