It may not be called BoarderCross or BoarderX anymore, but the Snow Summit Snowboard Cross on West Ridge rocked the house with Paul Henderson of Temecula, California finishing ahead of Norway’s Tor Bruserud and Jake Blattner from Portland, Oregon.

Paul Henderson established his lead early and was relentless the rest of the way to take the win at Snow Summit.

Of the 76 riders in the competition only 46 qualified for bracket racing on a course that was the best the AST has seen. Snow Summit did an excellent job of grooming the entire run. They closed West Ridge the day before and sent their crew of 13 terrain park employees out to buff the site. It featured double whoops into a berm then through a tight set of s-turns, a monster table one more s-turn with an off camber jump in the middle and then one more table to the finish. The only complaint was that some of the landings were too close and several riders over shot them and landed in the flats.

Riders were grouped into eight heats of 6 with the top three advancing into the next round. Paul Henderson battled his way throug the pack to take the win. In the first round he advanced from the third position behind Shannen Haymes and Kenyon Robinson and from there on he was in first down to the finals.

After posting the third fastest qualifying time and winning every single heat Bjorn Leines got into some trouble in the finals and wasn’t happy. Bjorn says he was intentionally fouled. "I’m not really happy with some of the sportsmanship here," he said. "There was some serious shoving going on."

Riders where happy to see pro Damian Sanders, star of the classic snowboard movies "The Western Front," and "Critical Condition," back on board and competing. "This is the best," he said. "I’m just bummed that it’s not going to be in the Olympics. I don’t know how long it’s going to take people to realize that the halfpipe is over."

Damian, who placed fifth in the ISF BoarderCross last weekend at Bear Mountain, was knocked out in the first round of competition.

In the women’s event, Marguerite Cossettini of Australia edged Sweden’s Jennie Waara and top American finisher Jennifer Sherowski to take the top podium spot. Cossettini’s win is her second snowboarder cross title this season.

Snowboard Cross Final Results (2-23-97)

Brushie Scrubs Back in Halfpipe Number 2 (2-22-97)
Halfpipe # 2 Final Results (2-22-97)

Snow Summit Halfpipe Numero Uno (2-21-97)
Halfpipe # 1 Final Results (2-21-97)

Photos

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