SOL | OBE Presents Extremely Board

Extremely Board Wrap-Up

"I'd like to welcome everyone here to something a little different," said Mike Muir to a crowd of approximately 3000 snow-skate kids. "We're going to take you a little farther today. Welcome to something we call the Church of Suicidal."

Suicidal Tendencies brought everyone in off the mountain and kept them there for nearly an hour.

With that Suicidal Tendencies blasted of into the best set of the day. Playing a mix of old and new songs they tied up a great day of mountain biking, skateboarding, snowboarding, and music at On Board Entertainment's Extremely Board at Sugar Bowl.

Centered at Sugar Bowl's brand new Mt. Judah entrance, the event featured a massive big air jump designed by Dave Olcott and the Stimilon crew, a vert ramp, a snow bike slalom course, and a stage All under perfectly blue-bird skies. Extremely Board is part of OBE's four stop tour called the North American Snowboard Series and featured a $10,000 big air purse each stop.

Big air started the day off. Competitors got two qualifying runs in a best of format. The top eight men and four women advanced into the afternoon finals. Standouts in the first round included Chris Hagin who busted out the biggest frontside seven of the day, as well as Kevin Jones, Mike Basich, Ali Goulet, Risto Scott, Kevin English and Ryan Williams.

The jump was solid. The only complaint some riders had was that the run in to the jump was too short. "You don't really have much time to think before you hit the take off," said Russel Winfield. "But, I had problems with the jump all day. My hips hurts so bad I can't even turn without my shoulder hurting."

Winfield wasn't the only one with problems. Gabe Crane was riding well, but his equipment couldn't keep up. First he snapped a binding, then his board. "The jump was great," Crane said. "It's just that everything broke."

Sugar Bowl Big Air Action.

While the snowboarders were hucking Less Than Jake took the stage and played a short set for a small crowd of fans. Of the 200 people pressed up to the stage, nearly half were singing along. The band seemed happy to be playing in the snow.

San Francisco's Third Eye Blind jammed for a while and then it was time for the Big Air finals. The crowd migrated over to the landing zone. In the finals each rider got two runs. They could drop the low and keep the high score. Chris Hagin went for the seven that got him into the final but spun out on the landing both times. Risto Scott hucked two rodeo flips and stuck the landings both times only to catch an edge on the run out and tumble.

Ryan Williams stuck to his program. "The judges said they were going to pay special attention to the landings today so I decided to stick with something I knew I could land," he said. "So I just went for the corkscrew sevens."

Mike Basich broke out a double back flip and stomped the landing with out even touching a hand in his final run. Kevin Jones was the last to go. He spun a large nine and left it up to the judges to decide.

While the judges added up the scores, Tony Hawk, Mike Frazier, and BMX king Dennis McCoy sessioned the vert ramp. On stage those nasty grrls from L7 shocked and tormented the family ski resort crowd with their blend of high school humor and hard rocking grooves. "I'm tired of the halfpipe, someone bring me a crackpipe," said guitarist Denita.

Right before Suicidal took the stage Dave Olcott got on the mic to announce the winners. In the men's division it went like this. Ryan Williams in first, Kevin Jones in second, and Mike Basich in third. Tina Dickson took the women's event.

The North American Snowboard Series continues April 19 at Loon Mountain, New Hampshire.

Extremely Board Results

Extremely Board Schedule

Board Stiff | Extremely Board | Totally Board | Snow Job

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