(February 26, 1997)
by Shanti Sosienski
What's up with American pros not doing contest these days? I mean this isn't
a new phenomenon, but really it's an embarrassing statement when the turn
out for a World Cup Championship ISF Comp in the U.S. is made up primarily
of Europeans.
This was my impression anyway after attending the opening night party for the Vans Worldcup Championship Contest in South Lake Tahoe tonight. Now I'm not saying that there weren't any Americans at the party, which began at Planet Hollywood in Caeser's and ended up in the PSA lounge at the Horizon hotel, but the predominant language of the evening wasn't English. There was Satu, Sebu, Nicole, Jennie, and Daniel, as well as oodles of nameless FIS and ISF competitors from Germany, Sweeden, France, and who knows where else.
On the American front, a majority of the U.S. Snowboard Team qualified for the ISF event, and pros like Todd Richards, Carabeth Burnside, Mike Basich, B.J. Leines, Barrett Christy, Dave Sypniewski, Jake Blattner, and Frank Wells were in attendance. Apparently there are plenty more showing up tomorrow, but for tonight the paparazzi pickings were slim.
I spent the first hour of the party sipping slowly on a blended margarita watching the roomful of Europeans get drunk on free beer (the ISF kicked down for the beers, but not for mixed drinks. I'm surprised the Euros even felt the drinks considering our piss water excuse for beer is not very impressive compared to a good German stein full). When I finally saw a familiar face in the crowd it was Mikey Basich with German Hooger team member Oliver Holzmann. I sidled over to the two and inquired on the who's who of the party. Being a Euro, Oliver seemed to have a pretty good handle on it all, but Mikey seemed to be a little displaced as he sipped on an icy glass of orange Crush.
By ten-thirty the festivities at Planet Hollywood were shut down and the shrinking crew moved over to the PSA lounge area (this was the room where people would be picking up badges, race bibs, and things like that in the morning). The lounge had a pool table, a pin ball machine, a bar, big screen TV, and blaring techno music. Without sounding too biased here I have to admit that I have never been to an American snowboard party with techno. And then the smoking started. Clouds of smoke billowed out of the Euro athletes lungs, and I was pretty much over it at that point.
Taking one last scan of the room I realized that the few American pros had taken leave of the scene. My guess is that they were working on sleep seeing as this might be one of the few things that could give them an edge on the ruling Scandinavians competing over the next few days. No sign of Terje yet, but word has it that he'll be here. Stay tuned for more from the battle field.