Boarding For Breast Cancer 1998
Another good excuse to go snowboarding, listen to music, and maybe even learn something.

I've never considered myself a conscientious person. Sometimes I throw away recyclables, eat hamburgers, smoke cigarettes, and don't always use sunscreen, or (hell, I'll admit it) condoms. So essentially, most efforts to raise my awareness to get me to do these things (or not do them) has been lost--although I've enjoyed a concert or too in my time at the expense of long-haired promoters with clipboards and radios attempting to do so.

But today at Sierra-at-Tahoe, California, a mellow down-to-earth resort on the south side of the lake, goose bumps rose the fine hairs on my arms and I even felt a lump in the back of my throat a few times at Boarding for Breast Cancer.

It could be the fact that this cause actually hits home for me more than the thought of cows grazing on Brazilian rain forests or rock stars ranting about clean needles and overcoming heroin addiction. After all, Monica Steward, the woman whose death from breast cancer inspired this whole event in the first place was only 28 when she died only a month before the first annual BBC event in 1996. And after a long season of contests and Olympic hype, there is something to be said for a snowboarding event with meaning attached to it.

Unlike the miserable weather at last year's BBC event, the sun shone and it was one of those warm spring summer teasers where people try to see how little they can get away with wearing in the mountains. The smell of sunscreen, girls in spaghetti-strap tank tops and red-faced guys in sunglasses all drunk on cheap beer made it feel more like a day at the beach than a snowboarding event. With the stage set up close to the halfpipe and the big air jump, the party atmosphere of a live concert drifted up the mountain like the smell of something good just coming out of a hot oven.

Pro riders like Shannon Dunn, Tina Basich, Tricia Byrnes, Michele Taggart, Nicole Angelrath, Leslee Olson, Wendy Powell, Circe Wallace, Tim Manning, Colin Lenz, Arlie Carstens, and others showed up to throw down for the crowd. There was a pipe jam and big air kicker, both of which were in prime condition with soft but not too soft snow, on account of the warm temps and generous snowpack. With nothing competitive about the event, riders were comfortable going off to their liking without worries about cash prizes or the five categories of judging criteria. This made for some good, carefree snowboarding, maybe how it used to be before corporate sponsors and obscenely large prize purses. Most notably, Tina Basich's 720 stomper and 540 rodeo flip off the big-air jump proved to everyone what ten-plus years of riding will do for ya and earned her the right to wear her new "toughtitties" tank top she bought at one of the exhibition booths.

Down in the exhibition area, an education tent was set up by W.I.G. magazine's publisher Kathleen Gasperini, a close friend of Monica's who helped start the event when an article Monica wrote about fighting breast cancer for W.I.G. inspired her in January '95. "The response we got to that article was overwhelming," Kathleen said. "The letters, the faxes, the emails just kept pouring in. So we decided to take it to another level." In addition to a staff of nurses available to teach people how to do exams and answer questions, they had a bunch of rubber breasts set up to demonstrate what a lump might feel like.

Of course the guys enjoyed the rubber-breast tent, too, which is important because a good portion of lumps are detected first by those who handle them--boyfriends, husbands, lovers. With early detection the key to survival, men need to be just as aware--especially because they suffer loss when their girlfriends, mothers, sisters and wives become victims of this disease. This was reinforced by Nate Mendal of the Foo Fighters, a snowboarder whose personal involvement with BBC was inspired by his own mother's fight with the disease.

"Twenty-eight is just too young to die," insisted guest speaker Geralyn Lucas from ABC's 20/20, comparing her own experience with breast cancer to Monica's. "I found a lump at 27 with no family history. None of the literature about breast cancer spoke to me--but you're never too young to have this disease. I had my surgery the day after my twenty-eight birthday and was cured because of early detection. I am honored and grateful to be a part of this event to raise awareness and help save lives like Monica's."

>>Alison Berkley
Alison Berkley is the online managing editor for TransWorld SNOWboarding magazine