By Leah Jones and Jamie Briggs

The Boardblast segments were all taped the day before the wrestling and celebs showed up. The competition between silly little girls also took place before the audience crowd showed up. The 98 girls had to don snowshoes and run a hill. The first 50 girls to make it to the top had to jump on an inflatable plastic chair, slide to the bottom, where the first ten to get there would compete in a question-and-answer session about the band. Five of these girls had to walk a runway to show off their "distinctive personalities" and fashion styles, with the two finalists from this group playing a game of tug-o-war over an icy pool of water. Winner gets the serenade. Sounds perfect. Except for the fact that inflatable plastic chairs don’t slide very well on choppy snow, in fact, they usually pop when they hit a chunk of groomed snow. What do you expect from television writers who don’t spend anytime on the snow.

Since there were only a dozen or so riders in the events, everything was pretty casual. Jamie and I were spotters for the camera guys. I’d radio down to Jamie which rider was out in front at the start gate and she would radio who was in front at mid course. She was stationed on a scaffolding camera platform next to a stepped-up gap jump that angled toward the right. The gap was pretty sketchy; if you speed checked too much you’d land into the step up. If you didn’t check enough, you’d fly over the gap and skid out into a tree.

The high-air competition was really more of a triple-air best-trick contest. Sal and Mark had been taping their talking portions all day, with a crowd of kids behind them who would yell and clap on cue. By the time the actual high air started the light was beginning to disappear and the camera men were afraid that when the show was edited together the viewers would be able to tell everything wasn’t happening live. Each rider only got three jumps, best jump counted.

The guy pros judged the girls and the girl pros judged the guys from a TV monitor situated at Mark and Sal’s podium. Tina Basich reigned supreme with a backside 720. Tara Dakides came in second and Jessica Dalpiaz third. J.P. Walker won the men’s division hands-down with a frontside corkscrew 540. Shaun White came in second, and Jason Borgstede and Gian Simmen tied for third. The tie-breaking jump-off was scrapped because of the lighting dilemna, so Shaun graciously agreed to split his winnings allowing he, Jason, and Gian to each get 1,000 bucks.

Since all the snow events were over, the thought of watching Say What Karaokee live was even more painful than watching it on TV (hey, you can at least change the channel or press mute on the TV), so Jamie and I decided to go home.

If you missed the actual show, want more Snowed In from Snow Summit, or need the celebrity breakdown check out www.solsnowboarding.com/scoop/lucas_12699 at our Web site.