Ok, so I promised this report a week ago, but with a busted shoulder, and travelling from Tahoe to Reno, Reno to San Francisco, 'Frisco to London, England, then London to my temporary abode in Chichester (until I get fixed and can snowboard again), I'm over the jet lag and finally able to sit down and reflect on the Vans Cup, also sponsored by Boost Mobile, Rockstar and Snowboarder Magazine, one of my highlights so far this season in Northstar-at-Tahoe, Truckee, California.
One of the most prestigious, but fun, contests on the West Coast of the US, after practice sessions all day, the main event kicked off at twilight on Friday February 29th with a rail jam in the centre of Northstar Village.
Built by Northstar's Snowpark Technologies park crew, the five feature set up was bigger than previous years: with a down-flat-down rail parrallel to down-flat-down ledge on rider's left, a telephone box in the centre, plus a down rail parallel to a down ledge on rider's right, plus stairs replaced by slanting wooden planks. 2007's set was built including stairs, while 2006 and previous year's had seen the jam take place on one of the permanent rails actually built into town.
But, with the rails less scary, riders were able to show off some progressive tricks - with an open qualifying jam allowing new names to enter the frenzied few hours of competition, with the girls especially killing it. The girls were up first for the night, with a mix of established and new names throwing down stylish and ballsy tricks in an elimination session in order to reach the cash giving final.
Last year's champ - Roxy's Erin Comstock - showed off some perfect backside lipslides on the down rail, cab 180 to 5-0s on the down box, and was the first lady to launch off the phone booth, with a nice tail bonk, but, despite personifying style, she failed to podium. Vans Cup veterans Alexis Waite, and Leanne Pelosi also failed to stand out, while last year's Slopestyle winner Hana Beaman is out after an injured knee at the X Games. Instead a new generation of ladies had the crowds in awe.
20 year old local lady Iris Lazzareschi threw a nice 50-50 to front board on the down-flat-down ledge, while third place winner Cheryl Maas, flown in especially from Europe, showed off a clean boardslide on the down-flat-down rail nabbing $1K.
Self-dubbed the 'bad-girl of snowboarding' new comer Desiree Melancon stood out by far, with big backside 180 on, backside 180 off the down ledge and some gnarly falls on the down-flat-down rail. She took second and a cheque for $1500.
After some equally scary bails, Minnesota-born but now a Mammoth Lakes local, Molly Aguirre landed some smooth switch 50-50 to front boards to 50-50s on the kink ledge - gaining her a massive cheer from the crowd, first place, $3000 and a special edition X GamesGibson Les Paul guitar.
The men's was equally as jaw dropping. With a big wad of cash to give out some big names had rolled into town to do their best - but with Tahoe locals famed for being jib monkeys they were in for a fight.
As the standard kept getting pushed higher, 270 spins on and off, half cabs, lipslides and frontboards became standard tricks: Aaron Bittner threw a perfect 180 on and 180 off on the down flat down rail; Scotty Arnold did some nice backside 270s on to the down rail, local lad Danny Toumarine did a nice phone booth tap into front flip, while pretty boy Vans rider Darrel Mathes (and our fave rider rider of the day) threw some perfectly clean backside lipslides and more; but none of them podiumed.
Instead Kade Madsen nabbed third place (and $3000), with Brendan Reis in second after a 180 on to 360 off on the down rail (plus $7000), but local boy Chas Guldemond - famed for being a jumper - swapped style for size to take first and a whopping $10 000, by gapping the down-flat-down rail to land some frontside and backside boardslides and spinning over the phone box. Yep, some rail kids were bitter, but no one risked death, and pleased the crowd, as much as Chas.
The level of riding was crazy good - and one of the most impressive I've ever seen, with the women's comp stepping up just as much, if not more than, the mens.
I can't imagine how next year's trick list will look... and will so be back to watch - fingers crossed injury free.
Images: Vanssnow.com, except for Erin - TWSnow.com
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