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A Dumb Day At Kirkwood (1-13-97) East Meets West (12-16-96) |
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| UNVAILED WRAP-UP
See Also: Billed as the "Ultimate Board and Band Event", UnVailed '97 bounced back bigger and brasher than before, succeeding in the corporate sponsors' goal of packing in the Spring Break crowds but perhaps losing a little of the "by riders, for riders" atmosphere that was so highly praised by competitors last year.
Working around the "snowboarders plus music equals great marketing opportunity" concept, the two days of riding at UnVailed were designed to complement a Sam Goody/Musicland Battle of the Bands finale. The basic idea: stage a nationwide contest of unsigned bands, bring the top four to Vail, throw in a few household names to entice the kids (Morphine, Rusted Root, L7, Dinosaur Jr.) and invite a bunch of top riders to provide daytime, on-snow entertainment. Unlike many of the numerous lollapaloozas-with-snowboards staged around the country this year, there was a surprisingly large turnout for UnVailed. Not only were the two shows packed, but the half-park at the top of the new Eagle's Nest gondola was constantly surrounded by a huge crowd of suitably impressed spectators and a stream of bemused but curious passing skiers. Unfortunately, the half-park, a pipe containing three tabletops lengthwise down the flat bottom and finishing up in a giant quarterpipe wall, did not prove to be the success it was last year, when riders were stoked to mix up pipe and park tricks and take completely different lines each run. Despite claims that local pros were once again consulted on construction, there were numerous complaints that the walls were too close together, restricting the possible number of hits. There were also problems with the steepness of the pipe transitions, which tended to throw riders back into the flat bottom. Nevertheless, though most runs consisted of a shot at each wall followed by a stab at the largest tabletop, there were a determined few (notably Frank Wells) working the length of the pipe and crossing every hit. It was fortunate that Friday, day one, was simply a warm-up, "come see the pros" jam, 'cos the half-park was icy and the riders a little disappointed with the set-up. The list of injured just kept on growing - Jason Wordal bashed his hip, Shannon Dunn hurt her knee. Neither Todd Richards nor Barrett Christy, Vail heroes for their US Open exploits, made it past Friday. There were rumors going around that perhaps filling out tax forms took precedence over an icy competition, but these of course are completely unfounded - what's certain is that conditions were far from excellent. Friday's bright spot was the Learn to Ride program staged by Vail's Snowboard Outreach Society (SOS). Led by the injured but irrepressible founder Arn Menconi, a huge team of Vail instructors and volunteers helped introduce 30 kids from the Denver Housing Authority to the joys of snow sliding. Unfortunately the program scheduling clashed with the pro jam, making it difficult for the pros to hook up with the students as they did last year. Even so, a few caring souls dashed over to help out as soon as they could, Michele Taggart and Wendy Powell rallying the troops.
It hadn't snowed in Vail for days, so Friday night's storm was an unexpected blessing. There's nothing quite like fresh powder to turn up the ampage, and to the relief of competitors the snow softened the park and improved the hits. As the prelims began it was obvious that the atmosphere had changed - riders actually wanted to get into the finals, rather than just trying to get it all over with. The judging was perhaps the most praised aspect of UnVailed, with each rider taking as many runs as possible in the time allowed and only their top two counting toward their final score. This eliminates the disastrous potential of one bad fall and encourages riders to attempt tricks beyond their usual competition safety zone. For example, Rippey was hucking 7's and 9's all day - he didn't stick many, but those he did got him through the elimination jam. The half park and big air finals were scored slightly differently. In the half park, riders got two runs and their total was a combination of both. This favored consistency and clean lines, with queen of consistency Tina Basich taking the women's crown - her huge methods over the big tabletop and quarterpipe McTwists smooth and solid every time. Tomi Toimenin, the flying Finn, had been flipping and twisting so much all day that it's surprising he could see straight to get to the awards podium for his men's halfpark title. With both riders and crowd hyped, the Big Air finalists spirited up a last burst of energy to huck themselves huge. Scored on the best of two attempts, the men mixed up giant, landing-on-the-flat 5's with crowd pleasing classics like the patented Frank Wells super stiffy double grab and the Ali Goulet P-tex slappin' method. Ali, voted Most Likely to Succeed by the hometown crowd, did just that - he took first in both the Big Air and Overall standings. Despite losing an impressively soaring Michele Taggart to her reoccurring leg injury before she had a chance to complete the finals, the women went all out for their last runs of the day. Grinning all the way, Rhonda Doyle threw yet another large, traveling 360 and managed to land on the transition instead of throwing herself off the side wall of the hit, an unfortunate practice that had occurred over and over but didn't appear to faze her one bit. Jaime MacLeod launched the most perfect, slow, huge and clean 360, followed suit by Wendy Powell; Jen Sherowski finally landed a long half-cab spot on. MacLeod, who had won the East Coast UnVailed to get her spot in Colorado, joined Mr. Goulet in taking home both the Big Air and Overall title. With the contest over, it was back to the event sponsors for TV spots and product placement. With the giant inflatable Mickey's Malt Liquor bottle bobbing gently in the background, Vail local J2 took the mike and spread the word to the couch potatoes at home. "You'll notice," he began, "That there's a lot of similarity between skateboard tricks and snowboard tricks. I'd like to remind you that skateboarders stole their tricks from snowboarders - we did them first." The misinformation of the corporate age continues...
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