Even though summer doesn't officially start until June 21st, I think I saw Michael Jordan walking around with a Ballpark Frank May 29th at Stratton. The 3rd annual EQX Games proved to be the hottest yet, and by that I mean, sweltering heat. As with any festival sponsored by an extreme beverage (Surge) and an alternative radio station (WEQX, Manchester, VT), the extremity of it doesn't just stop at snowboarding. However, I'm not even going to talk about the other aspects of the day, as you can skateboard, rock climb, and mountain bike pretty much anywhere on Memorial Day Weekend.

Jeremiah Beck flying above the emerald spring foliage.

Stratton was all alone in having their very own ditch of snow, something which Killington, famous for being open until July with "more walking than riding," couldn't even claim. Unlike Mt. Hood, Stratton isn't a glacier, hell, it's not even above the tree line, so it was quite amazing that they managed to maintain enough snow to build a halfpipe, especially with global warming, or El Nino or whatever it is that prevented snow from falling on the East this season. It wasn't quite amazing enough though, as many snowboards stayed in the closet this year, even though every pro snowboarder from the Stratton area was there, few bothered to don a board. Those who did, and paid a whopping $5 to do the contest, complained about the pipe, yet curiously rode nonstop all day.

Luckily, Vermont's one hit law was not broken by this pipe, and the jam format allowed the riders to not be required to link a single trick. Some of the more powerful riders (Mark Reilly) managed to quadruple the wall's height with strait airs, while others reinstated the "Huck for the Bucks" mentality and tried to spin 900's and do backside rodeos on a hit which basically collapsed under pressure.

It's hard to beleive that there was no bias in a competition that the judges yelled out ever other rider's name as they went by (Tricia!), but the day's victor seemed to deserve his win. Ted Roth was definitely the only one doing double backflips on this day, and that was more than enough for the $800. Rounding out the top three men were Will Bruno in 2nd and Christian "I appeared out of nowhere a month ago and am incapable of doing anything smaller that eight foot airs" Wilpen. Although no one even acknowledged him (not counting his personal cheering squad, (Reilly)), Brian Regis went off, as did the entire Hayes Brothers team (of which Will Bruno is a member). Even Hobie Chittenden left his trailer for this event. Ross Powers, who is the reason why most people showed up to watch the event, sat in the shade all day. Now that's extreme.

Tricia Byrnes winning another event in the Stratton Halfpipe. Of course.

The girls competition was pretty much mixed in the with the guys, and since no one could get above the lip anywhere but the one rockstar hit, it was almost hard to recognize them coming down the pipe. At closer inspection however, one could see that this was the biggest female turnout yet, although like the last two years, Tricia Byrnes won. More impressive were the burly girls down the in the skate park (but I'm not going to talk about that). Amy Johnson predictably got second and Leslie Waite rounded out the top three.

Although competitions usually get more serious with age, this one seems to be the exception, as not only has the entry fee dropped and the attendance dwindled, it seems that riders have stopped trying to win, and started having fun, which isn't really a bad thing.