Ross Powers sending it at the 1999 US Open at Stratton. Photo: Jeff Curtes/Burton Snowboards.
It may seem like today’s snowboarding competitions are all about how many back-to-back flips or 1080s a rider can throw, but style points haven’t completely gone away. Used to be that just straight airing it with a hearty, tweeked grab could land the top qualifier spot or even a medal. (Unlikely we’ll see that at the 30th Anniversary Burton US Open finals this weekend, but you never know.)
In 2002 at the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, Vermont’s own Ross Powers threw a method on the first wall of the halfpipe that secured a position in snowboarding lore. Three years before that, however, he was showing his home crowd what was to come with this method en route to his first US Open Halfpipe Championship in 1999.
If we’re lucky, maybe Ross will make his way down south for the Washed Up Cup and duke it out for the biggest method with his fellow Open veterans.
Each Thursday we present a photo from the annals of snowboarding history in Vermont.
