Saturday, January 13, 2001 -- Champion, PA
Mid-Atlantic Snowboard Series Giant Slalom
Story and photos by Don Parks

[Details] [Coverage] [Overall Results] [Results by Class]
[Pic Set 1] [Pic Set 2] [Pic Set 3]

MASS Slalom at Seven Springs

The Mid-Atlantic Snowboard Series (SnowboardSeries.com) invaded Seven Springs Resort in Southwest, PA, over the weekend. It was the second stop in the four-race South Series and included slalom and giant slalom races as well as a halfpipe competition on Sunday.

A recent break in the cold weather brought plenty of sun and temperatures above freezing to the slopes. Starting with the slalom races, the course was a long series of gates with a quick drop almost right out of the start. If you survived the turns on top, where the course became a little icy, you still had another headwall in the second half of the run. Taking turns, from the Ruggie Boys (7-Under) to the Legend Women (40-49), the course was fun for everyone.

Dylan Keidrowski carves on the backside

With each rider getting two runs, the winners were decided by the fastest combined times. No suprise out of the ProAm class was New Cumberland PA's, Neil Sunday (Funtastik, Nidecker Snowboards, Ski Roundtop Race Club), who ripped through a first run of 39.74. The only one close was Masters (30-39) racer Jimmy Railey (Railey Reality) who gave up 1.08 seconds with a 40.82. However, a disappointing second run ended Railey's chances. Sunday had a strong second run of 40.41 to take the overall win with a combined 80.15.

Another Masters rider in Peter Rubincain (Burton, Scott Fate Clothing) set the second best single run time with a 40.27 on his second try. This was enough to capture second overall with a combined 82.99.

The best performance among the women was the consistent Holly Kuhn (Sims, Spy, Raichle, One Ball Jay, ZooYork). The Junior (16-17) racer had a combined time of 92.82 and finished in fifth overall.

Saturday's conditions were sweet

Much of the same seemed to be shaping up in the giant slalom. The one exception was that Railey didn't slip up on any of his GS runs. The result, the Master crushed the competition with a combined 69.49. Sunday had to settle for second with a strong showing at 74.69. The Legend Tom Davic took third (76.29) to go along with his third in the slalom.

Kuhn was again setting the pace for the women in GS. Her time of 87.51 gave her another good showing at sixth overall.

After all the racing wrapped up on the slopes, it was time for awards in the lodge. With medals for all the top class finishers, points were also scored toward the Mid-Atlantic Snowboard Series South Region championships (see (SnowboardSeries.com for more information.) Then there was a nice set of prizes, and they were awarded at random. So, the only way to win was to go out and run with the dogs. And, the only way to certainly lose was to stay on the porch.