Jamil Kahn Rocks the Summer Boardfest '96

Halfpipe winner Jamil Kuhn ruled the 1996 APSS Tour pipes, but couldn't hook up th win. At Mt. Hood, luck finally went his way.

It was a strange sight to behold. Envision a big competition with $10,000 prize money, a perfect and freshly shaped halfpipe, the sky wall to wall blue; and absolutely no riders in practice the day before the competition. Zip, nada, a faultless pipe, and no one riding the thing.

After spending considerable time and effort, the FIS organizers were getting a tad bit nervous wondering what kind of contest (if any) would transpire the next day. The start of Summer Boardfest 96 seemed sketchy, but like the movie "Field of Dreams," the axiom "build it and they will come" fits nothing better than halfpipes and riders.

On June 29, competitors descended on Mt. Hood Meadows like manna from heaven in numbers great enough that the FIS got their contest. It was to be a showcase event of the summer featuring World Cup judges from ISF and FIS and a brand new format that featured (old stuff) two runs of qualification with eight men and four women coming out of each qualification round to form a 16 man final and an eight woman final. The new was going to happen in the finals where a head to head, knockout, elimination's would take place...reminiscent of the old OP Pro contests.

Field strength was strong in the men's competition with 47 riders including Jimi Scott (1996 U.S. Open winner), Jamil Kahn (a ripping Burton team rider), John Sommers (USSA National Halfpipe Champion), and Jeff Anderson (USSA National 2nd place finisher in the halfpipe). Other men included the Jimmy Halopoff, Blaise Rosenthal, Eric Rosenwald and Takashi Nishida from Japan.

After the qualifications, the finals were set with Shane Charlebois in first and Blair Rushin in second followed by John Sommers (3), Kazu Sone (4), Jimi Scott (5), Andy Wolf (6), Travis Mclain (7), Kyle Phillips (8), Jeff Anderson (9) and Jamil Kahn (10). These competitors along with six more made up the field for the finals. In the finals the 1st place finisher would face the 16th, the 2nd would face the 15th, etc., going from a round of 16 down to eight to four and finally to the last two riders in a head to head final. The judges score would determine who advanced and those that lost in each round would be placed by their score to determine the places 9 through 16, and 5 through 8.

The finals had fast action as Jimi Scott and Jamil Kahn started to make their moves through the knockout system. Jimi was extremely fluid, throwing different trick sequences every run and consistently showing great variation. He opened with a Mctwist on the first hit in one run and a 720 on another coupled with a big Stiffy (trademark), super clean handplants (Andrecht and frontside), Alley Oop Mctwists, 720's with grabs' Elguerials and a Fresh Fish, and a Haakonflip. Every run was different as he dispatched Takashi Nishida in the first round of the finals, Eric Rosenwald in the second round, and Jeff Anderson in the third round.

Jamil made his way into the finals through huge airs and powerful rotations. A monster Method (eight feet out) followed by double pumped tricks, Alley Oops, 720's both frontside and backside, Stale Nosebones, and 540's with various grabs and Mctwists. Jamil had the best amplitude scores of the day coupled with high rotations' scores that got him past Travis Mclain in the first round, Jason Ware in the second round and Blaise Rosenthal in the third round setting up the final with Jimi Scott.

The final showdown came down to Jimi Scott's balance, precision, and standard of difficulty against Jamil's power, amplitude and big rotations. Jamil threw gigantic airs averaging six feet out of the pipe all the way down to the last hit with 720's that were huge and clean. Jimi started the final run strong with a Mctwist on the first hit but crashed and burned in the middle of the pipe attempting a 720 stale, assuring Jamil a first place finish and $2000 in cash. Jeff Anderson and Blaise Rosenthal battled for third and fourth with Jeff edging Blaise in a close finish in the consolation round.

In the women's halfpipe competition, sixteen riders battled hard to get into the final round of eight and after the qualification rounds the top riders were Carabeth Burnside, followed by Jamie Macleod, Tara Zwink, and Jodi Adcock. There was good riding done by all the women but it really was the Carabeth Burnside show as she busted out both FS and BS 540's, a big Mctwist, huge Methods, Slobs and Mutes, Half-Cabs, going switch and easily outscored everyone to finish in first place over Tara Zwink who captured second. Jamie Macleod with steady run finished in third over Christine Sperber who fell in the consolation round.

The BoarderCross was the second feature at the Summer Boardfest and Jeff Grell devised a devious course that started with three rollers, followed by a double banked turn into table, more opposite banked turns to a triple staircase (scene of mucho crashes), more banked turns, a spine, even more banked turns, a mogul field and a big box near the finish.

The course was fairly steep at around 13-16 degrees and the riders found that speed was too much of a friend on some of the banked turns. The staircase was extremely problematic as riders were forced to either ride down the stairs or air over the whole thing. This was the ultimate separation point as riders fell in droves attempting to air over the staircase and gain valuable time.

The men's competition featured the legend Dave Dowd on an old Aggression with clicker bindings...he dominated, easily holding off all challengers in every round and being pushed only by Chris Engelsmen who finished fourth and Josh King who finished second. Dowd consistently shot through the rollers and aired over the 30 foot space of staircases to create enough distance to insure a smooth bottom section of the course and win the race. The women's comp was a little tighter as few dared to air the rollers but the ones who did and still stood upright were the ones who won. Jamie Macleod knew how to air it out and finished in 1st place followed by Mia Pringle in second and Sydney Nelson in third.

RESULTS
Summer Board Fest at Mt. Hood Meadows
HALFPIPE
MEN 
1.  Jamil Kahn
2.  Jimi Scott
3.  Jeff Anderson
4.  Blaise Rosenthal
5.  Eric Rosewald
6.  Jimmy Halopoff
7.  Shane Charlebois
8.  Jason Ware
9.  Takashi Nishida
10.  John Sommers
11.  Blair Rusin
12.  Mark Schultz
13.  Kyle Phillips
14.  Andy Wolf
15.  Kazu Sone
16.  Travis Mclain
WOMEN
1. Cara-Beth Burnside
2. Tara Zwink
3. Jamie Macleod
4. Christine Sperber
5. Jodi Adcock
6. Rachel Turiel
7. Jessica Spears
8.  Meg Pugh
BOARDERCROSS
MEN
1.  Dave Dowd
2.  Josh King
3.  Mark Schulz
4.  Chris Engelsman
5.  Josh Baker
6.  Chris Jorgensen
7.  Keir Dillon
8.  Luke Wynen
9.  Joe Rosinski
10.  Joe Albano
11.  Chuck Davis
12.  Austin Smith
WOMEN 
1.  Jaime McCloud
2.  Mia Pringle
3.  Sydney Nelson
4.  Jessica Hall
5.  Arnie Comeaux
6.  Wendy Holt
7.  Jessica Spears
8.  Tomo Yamakoshi
9.  Amy Rose
10.  Cory Saxon
11.  Teresa Rokos