We got a lot of interesting feedback when we posted this Dual Snowboards video on Facebook the other day. Some folks balked at the mere suggestion these are “snowboards”. Others chimed in welcoming a “new challenge” (with complete disregard for the socio/physio/or psychological consequences it may incur). It’s only right that as a newly-appointed official sport of Vermont, we too weigh in on the matter.

Dual Snowboards (dualsnowboards.NET)

First off, we’re not one to hop on the bandwagon and start $#itting on a new idea from the get, ’cause you never know; Jake Burton Carpenter expanded on the snurfer and look where that got him? These guys are blurring the lines between skiing and boarding and who are we to say it’s unnecessary. They could very well be on the cutting edge of the next big thing… or not.

Here’s our breakdown of the facts as we know assume them:

1. Independent Feet = Freedom?
Dual Snowboards is basically like having one mini snowboard on each foot, allowing for “more freedom” and the convenience of not having to unstrap to ride the lift or hike. Personally, we always thought the lack of poles/risk of ejection was liberating enough.

Despite the fact that karate kicking off a cannon rail is something we’ve always dreamed of doing, the inherent “vulnerability” of this setup is one (of many) qualms we already have about that-other-official-Vermont-sport. Slow down Bruce Lee, we’d like to keep all our eggs in one basket. IYKWIM.

2. Delusions of Grandeur
What you think you’ll look like:

Courtesy of Dual Snowboards Facebook.

What you’ll actually look like:

3. Perceived Awesomeness
“I’m always down to try something new.” That’s great and all, and we’re not saying it is (though it probably is) impossible to pick up, but for riders expecting a fluid transition, think again. At face value we’d liken it to learning to ride a bike with training wheels, minus the bike.

They say it’s a great workout for the muscles groups you use in snowboarding. Honestly, if you’re looking for a way to get in better shape for snowboarding, try snowboarding more. If you’re just looking for a new activity to do for a day of frustration and endless cursing, try skiing.

4. Science
We’re not scientists, but we can’t ignore the physics involved in sliding on snow. A lot of the time snowboarders forget how much the ‘snowboard’ helps their riding. That’s right, you’re not just that awesome on your own, bro. Think of it this way… Are you ready to throw away pop, flex, balance and any hope of floating pow?

Exhibit A: Snowboard

5. Dual “Snowboards”
What’s in a name? A heck of a lot, that’s what. It’s no wonder there’s so much initial pushback. Hardcore shredders see this as a blatant attack on the thing they cherish most and the best gosh-darned way to descend a mountain (in this sport’s humble opinion).

We understand there’s not a lot of options here… snowplates, snowpads, snowsoles. At least they’ve steered clear of “blades” — really, when has that done a sport any favors? We would just hope that with a spankin’ new idea, could come a spankin’ new product name, so we’d have some spankin’ new words to use when we’re yelling from the lift.

Now if you’re thinking “Wait, what was all that stuff about not $#itting on a new idea, blah, blah, blah?” Um, don’t forget we are snowboarders, after all — hasslin’s what we do. But we won’t blacklist it without a fair on-snow trial.

So if Dual Snowboards wants to send us a pair for testing (ATTN: Ride Vermont, 139 Main St. Suite 701, Brattleboro, VT 05301) we’d be happy to take ‘em for a few laps next season. We just ask to include a pre-paid return shipping label. It’s policy. (We even make grandma do it at Christmas.)

It’s cliche, but “all good things come to a close” and today it was Kelly Clark’s unprecedented 16-straight winning streak that reached its final stop. Kelly’s riding was, as always, a thrill to watch with massive air and stylish flow throughout her runs, but it was South Lake Tahoe’s Elena Hight who managed to squeeze an extra .31 points out of the judges and come out on top with a score of 86.50. Kelly held on to the second place position and twenty-year-old Ellery Hollingsworth followed in third.

Hot on their heels was 15 year old, Arielle Gold of Steamboat Springs, who took 4th and was also awarded the Nokia Newcomer Award. While she may be young, today this girl proved she can shred, so watch out ladies.

Elena Hight unseated reigning champ Kelly Clark, the first to do so since Fall 2010.

Kelly Clark took home second place.

Ellery Hollingsworth picked up third.

By the time the men stepped up, the sun was on full alert beaming down on the pipe and softening the pipe walls and slipping out riders left and right. Despite the changing conditions, Shaun White put down a solid first run of 90.44 that secured him the first place position. Louie Vito followed in second and local boy Benji Farrow, out of Ludlow, VT brought up third.

Shaun White had no problem clearing the 20 foot mark out of the pipe.

Louie Vito landed second place.

Benji Farrow of Ludlow, VT took home the bronze medal.

In traditional Open fashion, pipe poachers kept the crowd stoked up between runs, airing out with huge methods. Gotta love it. Here’s to another 30 years.

Even the dudes poaching were going HUGE!

South Lake Tahoe’s Jamie Anderson dominated the women’s slopestyle field once again at the 2012 Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships, scoring a 90.10. US Open mainstay Kjersti Buass, of Norway, took second place while Finland’s Enni Rukajarvi, who won the 2011 slopestyle comp, took third.

Slopestyle winner Jamie Anderson on course.

Jamie Anderson.

New Zealander Shelly Gotlieb took 5th place.

Canadian Spence O'Brien took 8th.

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.

When I was a kid growing up (yep, in Vermont) we’d be lucky if we could get the fuzz on the TV clear enough to watch our Saturday morning cartoons on a “local” station out of Maine. Nowadays, thanks to the advent of the world wide web, we can watch just about anything we want instantly and in crystal-clear high definition. And for us snowboarding bums stuck at work this week, it means we can check in on the Burton US Open action LIVE from our desks, with no bunny-ear tuning necessary.

If you didn’t get to tune in today, (or make it to the mountain… where it was a sun-drenched 50 degrees) the men and women’s slopestyle semi-finals were packed with monstrous runs on this year’s beastly course, crafted by the snow wizards known as Snow Park Technologies.

This ain't your grandma's backyard park. Photo Courtesy of Stratton Mountain Resort.

The Night Jam cometh. OOOAAAHHH! Photo Courtesy of Stratton Mountain Resort.

The Mini feature is mini by no means. Photo Courtesy of Stratton Mountain Resort.

There’s a lot left of the 30th Anniversary Burton US Open at Stratton Mountain and the good folks over at Red Bull TV are streaming it live for you at www.redbull.com/snowboarding-live during the following days/times:

LIVE WEBCASTS: U.S. Time Zones (EST)
Halfpipe Semi-Finals, Thursday, March 8 — 9:15 am
Slopestyle Finals, Friday, March 9 — 9:15 am
Halfpipe Finals, Saturday, March 10 — 9:15 am
Night Jam, Saturday, March 10 — 6:45pm

So when you get to work tomorrow, open up an extra window, turn the volume down and keep an eye on Louie Vito, Shaun White, Kelly Clark while you finish up those TPS reports for Friday.

It’s hard to believe, but the Burton Snowboards US Open Snowboarding Championships turns 30 this year. Officially kicking off on Monday, March 5^th and running through Sunday, March 11, the event will once again take over the Sun Bowl area of Stratton Mountain.

So what’s on deck? The best halfpipe and slopestyle snowboarders in the world have confirmed they’ll be competing, including Shaun White (who missed last year’s US Open), Kazuhiro Kokubo (last year’s men’s pipe winner), Iouri Podladtchikov, Louie Vito, Mark McMorris, Danny Davis, Scotty Lago, Sebastian Toutant, Kelly Clark (last year’s women’s pipe winner), Hannah Teter, Enni Rukajarvi, Jamie Anderson and Gretchen Bleiler, to name a few. Check out a full schedule of all the events.

Secondly, in honor of the 30^th anniversary, the Burton US Open has stepped up its late-night entertainment to a whole new level. Headlining live acts include popular mash-up artist dream team, Super Mash Bros, performing Friday at the Burton x Mountain Dew Party. And Saturday night, hip-hop superstars Method Man (of Wu-Tang Clan) and Redman (of Def Squad) will perform at the ‘30^th Love’ party.

The best part? It’s all FREE. The competition, the live music, the free swag being tossed out by vendors — it’s all at no charge. Thanks, Burton.

Slopestyle finals go down during the day on Friday, March 9^th, followed by a retro-themed ‘slingshot’ race for legendary Open competitors called ‘The Washed Up Cup’ taking place on Friday night. On Saturday, the signature US Open halfpipe finals go down, followed by an invitational ‘Night Jam’ being held under the lights on Saturday night. All free.

Can’t make it to Stratton to experience the 30^th anniversary of the US Open in person? Tune in to the internets for live webcasting on Redbull.tv. Men’s and women’s finals will also air live on good ol’ fashioned TV on Friday and Saturday on Universal Sports. After the event is over, highlights of winning runs and full webcasts will also be available for on-demand viewing at www.redbull.com/snowboarding-live

For classic US Open photos, event highlights, quotes from the legends, and the boards beneath the riders, go ‘head and download the US Open History iPad App.

Complete event details, including schedules and spectator info are at opensnowboarding.com.

We think it goes without saying, but its about friggin’ time that southern Vermont got some serious snow love. And today, the lovin’ is good. We’re talkin’ a foot plus of freshies and it continues to dump on the smiling faces of starving powder hounds.

Luke gets stylie under the Black Lift at Magic Mountain.

The Ride Vermont crew hung the closed sign on the office door and hit the hill early to tear it up at nearby Stratton Mountain. After our fill of faceshots (okay, there’s really no such thing as enough, but you get what we’re saying) we packed up the rig and took off to the north to find epically deep stashes throughout the gnarly wooded terrain at Magic Mountain (or as we like to call it, the trail less traveled.)

Long story short, it’s fair to say winter arrived in Vermont. Sure it’s a few months late, but we’re in no place to complain. In fact, these could easily be the best conditions we’ve seen (and maybe will see) all season. So get out, shred hard and don’t forget to button your powder skirt.

Here’s a few pics from ’round south. Post your pow pics on our Facebook wall or tweet that ish to @ridevermont. Cheers.

Photo Courtesy of Okemo.

Photo Courtesy of Killington

Oh yeah. We got that fresh. Great success!

“Deep” down, skiers are good people. Photo Courtesy of Mount Snow.

]]> http://ridevermont.com/southern-vermont-gets-its-due-12-inches-of-pow/feed 0 http://ridevermont.com/featured-ride-grrrl-britt-horowitz-mascara-militia http://ridevermont.com/featured-ride-grrrl-britt-horowitz-mascara-militia#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:00:37 +0000 Pete http://ridevermont.com/?p=572 Continue reading →]]> Tweet

Britt Horowitz / Photo: Hailey Ronconi

Three songs got stuck in my head after interviewing Brittany Horowitz, a University of Vermont senior who somehow finds time to run the all-female Mascara Militia snowboarding crew: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” by Cyndi Lauper; “Jamming,” by Bob Marley; and “Come As You Are,” by Nirvana.

It makes sense. Horowitz is a young Vermonter on a mission: to have fun and snowboard as much as possible, to inspire other young females to unite and feed off of each other’s energy, and to do it all with a punk-rock attitude that says, “Be you.”

Ride Vermont caught up with Britt as she was making final preparations for the Not Your Girl Rail Jam, held recently at Bolton Valley. She also happened to be recovering from a snowboard-related elbow fracture. Badass.

Ride Vermont: Where are you from and where are you now?

Britt Horowitz: Originally from East Quoge, NY. Now I’m in Burlington and going to school at UVM.

RV: Tell us about the Not Your Girl Rail Jam you helped organize at Bolton.

BH: It’s all-girls and open to skiers and riders. We aren’t out to make money so with this jam we are basically making it the purchase of a super discounted lift ticket just to give back to the snowboard community. [Entrants received an all-day lift ticket, plus entry fee, for just $20].

Any day on a snowboard is worth smiling about. Britt Horowitz / Photo: Shannon Scarbrough.

RV: What is Mascara Militia? Why did you start it?

BH: I always felt like I had no girls to ride park with. I’d go to competitions and only see one or two other girls there, and it was hard to get taken seriously. You can go online and find tons of videos of guys riding around having fun, but you can’t find any videos of girls.

Then I met a couple girls who ride Sugarbush and Bolton and thought, “We should form an all-girl crew and promote women’s riding.” We figured we could inspire younger girls and tell them, “You can do this, too.”

RV: Since then the Militia has grown, and you have something like a dozen girls in the crew. So who are these girls?

BH: They’re girls who just live to ride and are not only promoting women’s progression in freestyle snowboarding, but positive attitudes and good vibes. Not all of our girls are the best of abilities, but I’ve chosen them based on both ability and inspiring attitudes. Most of them ooze confidence and you can tell on-hill that other people look up to them.

A third of the Mascara Militia. L to R: Sullivan Mclaughlin, Victoria Ashley, Britt Horowitz, Jessa Gilbert and Bekah Ashley at Sugarbush. Photo Courtesy of Mascara Militia.

Some notable results for Militia members this season:
Jessa Gilbert: 1st Place, Loaded Turkey rail jam at Killington.
Bekah Ashely: 2nd Place, Loaded Turkey jam. 1st Place, Pipe Dreams at Loon Mountain. 2nd Place, Transworld Trans Am at Waterville Valley.
Britt Horowitz: 1st Place, People’s Jam at Sugarbush.

Photo Courtesy of Mascara Militia.

RV: It’s not all about competitive skill, so what else does it take to be in the Mascara Militia?

BH: We are not fans of girls staring down girls in the park, complaining about the results of competition, or talking trash about other riders. We are promoting friendliness and encouragement between girl riders. We aren’t looking at other competitors as competition, just potential friends!

RV: What lies ahead for Mascara Militia?

BH: We are trying to increase numbers at competitions and put out videos of girls throwing down. We aren’t quite a brand yet but we will most likely be selling gear later on, and the scraps of cash we make will go straight back to the girls for their competition fees, traveling, lift tickets, film equipment, etc.

Keep an eye out for Britt at Sugarbush, her adopted home mountain (she should be cleared by the elbow doctors any day now). And don’t be surprised if you find yourself muttering “daaaamn” when you see here in the park.

Front board at Sugarbush's People's Jam. Britt Horowitz / Photo: Shannon Scarbrough.

Swag ain’t just for the fellas. So in honor of our very special Ride Grrrl week here on Ride Vermont, we’re hosting a very special photo contest that’s just for the ladies.

We’ve got some sweet gear from Anon Optics and Burton/R.E.D. up for grabs, so read on to learn the rules and get ready for your close-up.

Here’s how it works:

Strike a pose: Snap a picture while striking the official Ride Grrrl pose (above).

Share it: Tweet your picture to @ridevermont and include the #ridegrrrl hashtag, or post it on our Facebook wall and tag RideVermont in the image.

Win some stuff: We’ll pick our two favorite images to win some free product (one winner will be chosen from each of the categories below).

BEST LOCATION…
In the lift line, on your Subie, with a Long Trail, hiking some backcountry line, at the summit of Jay Peak… the possibilities are endless. Impress us.

BEST RE-CREATION…
Maybe you dye your hair red for a spot-on replica, maybe you put your own spin on it. Maybe you’re an instagraming hipster, maybe you prefer shooting in black and white. Maybe we have no idea what we’re looking for. Get creative.

Submit your photo(s) anytime during Ride Grrrl week, through next Sunday, Feb. 12. We’ll announce the winners online Monday morning. Good luck.

Ian Spiro stylish in spring. Photo: Gary Land

We know what you’re thinking. This looks an awful lot like some of the conditions we’re seeing outside right now. But, true as that may be, the thing to remember is regardless of the conditions beneath your board, the fact that you’re strapped in is what counts. After all, no day on a snowboard can really be a bad day.

Come early spring, sugar season has two meanings in Vermont. Trees start giving it up, and the soft snow is equally sweet. But it doesn’t last long, so anything outstanding is usually checked off the ride list—like Gary Land’s photo of Ian Spiro dropping this Killington cliff/waterfall in 1995.

Each Thursday we present a photo from the annals of snowboarding history in Vermont.