January 23rd: USASA Slopestyle

Sunday, January 23rd was the first official USASA (United States of America Snowboard Association) Slopestyle competition. This meant that each competitor would have to be registered with the USASA before the competition, they would have to abide by USASA rules and regulations, they would be judged by official USASA judges, and their points and rankings from the competition would go towards their standings in the national competition. People from all over Massachusetts came to compete, ranging in age from under 10 years old to over 20 years old.

The competition took place in the Sundance Park at Nashoba, and since it was a slopestyle competition, they would be judged on their performance throughout the whole park. I mostly stood by the big jump so that I could get pictures of the really big airs, and it also had a good perspective on the rest of the park features. Every once in a while, I would take a run down to the bottom, ride up and take some pictures on the chairlift, and stop along at different features while I made my way back down to the big jump.

The Nashoba Valley Freestyle Team kids were clearing all of the jumps perfectly, obviously very used to the park setup. As usual, they were horsing around with each other before each drop, and were throwing snowballs at each other and their coaches (the park staff). The Wachusett Xtreme Team kids, however, weren't getting enough speed for the jumps most of the time, and either knuckling the jump or falling. They were having meetings with their coaches after each run to see how they could improve their score, and were dead serious before and after their runs. They were entirely focused on winning, but they weren't even getting enough speed to clear the jumps. At one point, a Wachusett team rider asked a park crew member, "people actually hit this stuff?" The park manager, Keith, brushed it off as a typical quote from a Wachusett rider.