Sunday, January 14, 2001 -- Champion, PA
Mid-Atlantic Snowboard Series Halfpipe Competition
Story and photos by Don Parks

[Details] [Coverage] [Overall Results] [Results by Class]
[Pic Set 1] [Pic Set 2] [Pic Set 3] [Pic Set 4]
(NOTE: Stay tuned for links to many more images that were taken by the folks at Smoke Ridge Images.)

MASS comin' at ya from 7 Springs!

At the second day of The Mid-Atlantic Snowboard Series (SnowboardSeries.com) second stop in their South Region tour, it was the boards going for style over speed. Saturday's slalom and GS events were decided by the clock, today's riders would leave it to the judges at the end of Seven Springs' impressive halfpipe.

Meeting at the top of the pipe just before race time, there had already been plenty of time for practice. The rules were simple, anything goes... inverts included. The scoring took a little more explaining, each would be graded in three categories. The highest combination of these three scores combined for two runs would decide the winners.

What are the categories? First was your tricks, second was your tricks that included aerial moves of greater than 360 degrees, and the final was amplitude (or how big can you go). What if you didn't do any 360+ aerials? Simple, you get zero for that score. Well, that does not sound fair? Sure does if you are scoring points toward the MASS South Region championships and a possible qualification for nationals!

"See, this is how big I'm gonna go!"

Racking up the most out of the judges were the Men Jam's (18-22) where Samuel Price (Larry Walbridge) scored an 18.0 on his first run to set the bar. Holding solid on his second run for a 33.6 total was enough to fend off Jonah McDevitt's strong second run score of 17.3. McDevitt finished second overall with a 32.5 total and second in the class.

The next most impressive class were the Senior Men (23-29) where the third and fourth overall best times separated the class winners by just 0.3 points. With James Evans holding on to a 0.5 point lead after his first run 15.2. Shay Bell (Lib Technologies) followed up with a second run of 16.1. Evans was consistent with a 30.5 total, bit Bell took the win with 30.8.

Hold on for the ride

The best of the ladies was Women Jam's Rashida Hussein (Burton, Smith, Select Board) who pulled in a 15.9 total. Kudos also have to go out to the three Kiedrowski brothers, Dylan, Garrett and Blake (Team "Thanks Dad"). They made up the entire Grommet Boys (8-9) and Ruggie Boys (7 & Under) classes. While they didn't always get the highest scores, they certainly drew some of the biggest cheers.

A final shout-out goes to Bill Van Gilder and his crew as they continue the M.A.S.S. mission. All the winners took home their medals, and anyone who participated had a chance at the random prizes. So, no excuses that you couldn't have won, just kick yourself if you missed all the fun!