FIS Snowboarding
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WAAF
Stimilon Air and Style at Waterville Valley
February 6th was full of surprises. Here's the biggest surprise of the second Stimilon Air and Style Challenge at Waterville Valley, NH: Myles Hallen didn't win with his signature switch 900 and he actually grabbed his snowboard. Several other competitors took advantage of his inability to land to throw the trick themselves and steal a little of the glory. Unfortunately, with all this rotating action, grabs seemed to take a back seat to how many times you spun around. Another surprise: it snowed in New Hampshire.
Patrick Bridges, who was obviously devastated by not making the finals, decided to torture everyone who did qualify by taunting them from the microphone. After about 30 minutes of this, the generator blew out, leaving no sound system and Bridges mikeless. With no music, the crowd had to turn to actually making their own noise, and a heckling contest broke out. The winner of this was decidedly Nick Scoffield, who teased Myles Hallen after losing his hat a goggles on a rough landing with, "Don't worry, your mommy will buy you a new one." Back with the actual snowboard contest came another shocker; a girl did a trick other than a method. Of course that girl was Jaime Macleod, who stomped her backside 360 to win by over 50 points. Even though her victory was pretty much secure, Jaime tried to up the ante by throwing a five for her next run, but couldn't get her feet down. Behind her was the girl who's known entirely for her methods, (she's the unknown who walked away with $5,000 for one at a Grand Prix last year), Ali Berntsen. Ali tried to match Jaime's spin, but didn't stomp her three and had to fall back on the score from her method. In third place was Hannah Grant, last year's over all pro winner.
The men's competition was all about switch 900's. On top of Myles's attempts, Brian Barb and Zach Diamond also threw them, the later two stomping theirs. Another popular maneuver was the backside 720, preferred by Adam "M'gurk" Moran, Scott Arnold and Jason Ortiz. There was strong riding from all competitors, and judging must have been extremely difficult. Although from watching it seemed like the contest was too close to call, the scores proved otherwise, with an 18 point gap between first and second. The high score of 248 belonged to Brain Barb, a New Hampshire local who was right at home at Waterville. Behind him was Jason Ortiz and M'gurk in third. After the contest it was down to the lodge to regale in Dave Olcott's incredible wit on the mike, and a raffle, which is a great thing invented specifically for people who do bad in contests and have a better chance of winning stuff if picked at random.
Men 1. Barb, Brian 248 2. Ortiz, Jason 230 3. Moran, Adam 223 4. Arnold, Scott 215 4. Diamond, Zach 215 5. Mathison, Luke 209 6. Rutz, Justin 203 7. Brassard, Steve 201 8. Garrity, Danny 169 9. Susienka, Kevin 139 10. Morey, Nathan 137 11. Hallen, Myles 133 12. Flood, Shane 130 13. Kovall, Eric 100 DNS Johnson, Matty
1. Macleod, Jaime 220 2. Berntsen, Ali 162 3. Grant, Hannah 152 4. Bock, Anna 144 5. Prentis, Jessica 133
Stimilon took on the small area of Sunapee, NH, building a huge kicker just feet from the base lodge, and attracting talent from all over New England. Weather rarely agrees with competition days here in the East, but the sun seemed to like us today, and stayed out for a good part of the afternoon. When the sun wasn't out, it still remained relatively nice and warm, that is, if you compare it to the previous week of sub zero temperatures. Dave Olcott and his devoted crew did not dissapoint on this day. A lthough many complained the jump was small by Stimilon standards, everyone was quick to point out it was the biggest jump of the season so far. There was a lot of tension circulating throughout the competitors because of this. As soon as the contest started, most people got their kicker legs back pretty quickly. The day began with practice, and then went straight into qualifiers. The format was best of two, although each catagory had a certain number of bye's. This meant the riders with the highest scores on thier first qualifying run automatically advanced to the finals. Twenty pros and ten amatuers moved on to the finals. Qualifiers ran through fairly smoothly, and having the bye system saved quite a bit of time. The event stayed remarkably on schedule. It seemed though, that a lot of people were having trouble putting their feet down. The cut basically came down to who landed their tricks, even if they weren't the most technical. The finals took place under the afternoon sun. The women's pro division was especially exciting, with all five competitiors doing exactly the same trick, the stock method. The only real variation came with Anna Bock's runs, as she tweaked one method too far and pulled it into a late 180. She wasn't able to stick though, and ended up with second place. In first was Michelle Cote, who did by far the cleanest female air of the day, and stomped her method with out so much as a hand down. Rounding out the top three was Karen Plourde, who also did a method. The men's competiton was a little more exciting. Many of the men also had trouble with landings, but the technical level of tricks was very high. There was quite a bit of switch spinning going on, along with plenty of mulitple grabs. Shawn Durst's half cab double grabs were certainly a crowd pleaser, but they weren't enough to earn him a check, afterall, Preston Strout's fakie 7's only earned him third. Adam Moran started off his runs with a super clean spin, and secured second place on his first run. In the grand tradition of the Air and Style Challenge, it was last year's over all champ Myles Hallen who walked away victorious, with his backside 900. For the first event of the series, the Sunapee ASC ran extremely well, and everyone involved seemed to be having a good time, only to have a better once when Myles chipped in 10 percent of his winnings for beer. Final Results Women 1 Michelle Cote
Men 1 Myles Hallen
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