BoardAID Five
(February 18, 1998)
Kathleen Gasperini

Condom balloons caught air drafts from the heat of the growing mosh pit as The Offspring took to the stage at the fifth annual BoardAID for LIFEbeat event March 15, at Bear Mountain, California. If not for snowboard clothing and goggles worn backwards, the crowd could have been mistaken for your average punk fans rather than supporters of BoardAID and its campaign to raise money and awareness for AIDS research.

The Royal Crown Horn Section blowing it.

Picture some 8,000 snowboarders tightly packed at the base of a mountain: Sunscreen, sweat, the occasional draft of cannabis... yes, it did smell like teen spirit. Except for a dozen or so hardcores still in the pipe and vert ramp, by 2:50, the mountain had become a regular sing-along: ""We're-just-suckers-with NO-self-esteem, Oh-Yea!" For 30 bucks a pop, to say BoardAID 5 was successful is a gross understatement. It was more like a day-rave with snowboarding and AIDS education sprinkled through-out, resulting in yet another definition of "new school."

"We didn't expect this many people, really," said Transworld Media President, Brian Sellstrom, on his way to his car to unload a huge plaque given to him from LIFEbeat in commemoration for his organization's efforts. "It's been a great day."

The rasta sounds of Steele Pulse rocking Bear Mountain.

Transworld Media, producers of BoardAID, with Airwalk and Warp Magazine, had delivered the biggest board-sport event to date. If even a third of the attendees (2,666.66) went home with some knowledge of AIDS awareness, then they've done their job.

A cruise through the circus of tents produced a bunch of free stuff. Booths from various music and snowboard-related industries passed out free CD's, condoms, raffle tickets for everything from T-shirts to boards. The best booth was the LIFEbeat booth. To get a stamp in your BoardAID "passport," making you eligible for the big prizes, all participants had to take the banana condom test. Using two huge plastic bananas, booth organizers demonstrated how to put a condom on, take it off, "and tie the end in a knot so that no messy semen gets out." Competing with the guy or girl next to you, first person to wrap their banana properly, take it off, and tie it in a knot, won a stamp in their passport. Interestingly, the girls excelled at this little game.

It was a perfect day for halfpipe and no one knew it more than Michele Taggart.

Gotta Keep It Separated
Up at the Big Air contest, Jeremy Jones was throwing rodeos like a cowboy, Bobby Meeks was working on his 1080's and if you weren't there to see it, you wouldn't believe the double front-flips Shane Smart was stomping. The Big Air was a perfectly built kicker with a sweet gap and steep, soft landing making 40- 50-foot airs way feasible. When it came to the finals, the anticipation was as stacked as the competition. Jeremy Jones' huge rodeos that landed him consistently at the bottom of the landing zone, were enough for the win. Collin Lentz's backside spins earned him a second place finish, and Shane Smart "got all psycho," as he put it, and tried for a triple front flip. The first two flips were a breeze and it looked like he had room for a third. But just as he started his tuck for the final rotation, the ground was there and he landed in a tuck on his back, spun out of it, and stood up, hands in the air, pumping the sky like he meant it. The crowd went nuts. Unfortunately, Liz Doman was the only girl who bothered to come over to the big air jump. Tina Basich, Michele Taggart, and Nicola Thost were having the full-on epic session in the pipe next door, and as Tina put it, "Why stop?" Plus, she said, "it's really my day off. I'm having fun." Michele and Nicola agreed. For the massive amounts of media, videographers, and photographers present at BoardAID Five, the pipe session was far more productive as a jam than a contest anyway.

Andy MacDonald on the vert ramp.

The doubles skateboarding contest had a similar fate. Despite World Champ Andy MacDonald's sequential indie kick flips, and Bob Brunquist, from Brazil (and the only guy to ever pull a backflip on a vert) and his kick backside tail grabs, there weren't enough pros to actually make up doubles teams. Announcer Bill Keller made the most of it, anyway, renaming the skateboarding seggie, an "expression session" and bro-ing out the spectators with announcing like, "Andy's gettin' tweaked with THAT crazy slab air! Let's give-it-up!"

Eleven year-old Sean White, also known as the little kid who got knocked out in the vert ramp at the MTV Sports Festival, was dropping in and pulling sweet little 540's. Rick Thorn, the token freestyle vert biker, was had some quiet moves in-between the skateboarders, turning it into a truly expressive session of vert-sports.

Back at the stage, there were speakers such as Bill Barnes, from the non- profit organization, Health Initiative for Youths in New York City, reminding us why we were all here. "I'm HIV positive," he said. "I was only 15 and had unprotected sex. I prefer not to get up on stage to talk about it, but if that's what it takes to get you to know the dangers of unprotected sex, I will. It sucks for me that I have to think about my mortality every day-I'm only 20."

Good thing for speakers like Barnes, and announcer Sal Masakala who reminded the crowd of what the day represented. Although One Hit Wonder, Royal Crown Revue, The Specials, and Steel Pulse, in particular, were all hot, a couple of words about AIDS awareness would have been nice. Like sex, the bands were moments of pure ecstasy-and there were a lot of them that day. But the sharper moments of life, like the fact that one in two new HIV infections occurring among Americans are under the age of 25, seemed stark in comparison.

By the time Wyclef Jean came on, the sun was sinking behind the mountains, and sun-burned bodies were turning chilly. Still, we stayed. We threw snowballs to kill time. We bundled up and sang along. Wyclef brought the event full circle. He played hard and talked directly about AIDS. "How many of you people gonna go find yourselves a BoardAID friend tonight? You thinking of the consequences? You gonna use a condom?"

Hopefully. That's what BoardAID is about, mostly. As the crowd dispersed and the clean-up crew picked up plastic beer cups, on our way to the car, we overheard Wyclef talking to BoardAID organizers backstage. "You guys ever need me, to talk about AIDS, perform, you let me know. I'll do anything I can."

Stuff like this, from people who care, made BoardAID Five, the full package.

Big Air Results
1-Jeremey Jones
2-Collin Lentz
3-Shane Smart
4-Neil Goss
5-Wille Yli-Ivoma
6-Bobby Meeks
7-J.P. Walker
8-Travis Parker
9-Aaaron Bishop

Girl winner and only competitor: Liz Doman