30 Years of Snowboard Competition
Remember when snowboarding was the cool new snow sport set to overtake skiing in terms of participant numbers by the mid 1990s?
That was before skiing re-invented itself with shaped skis that got skiers in to the terrain parks and running their own version of boarder cross races, the imaginatively titled – skier cross.
Well the oldest American snowboarding competition turns 30 next winter. The 30th Anniversary staging of the US Open will be happening at Stratton in Vermont where Jake Burton started it all (assuming you don't believe the tales that others had the same idea before him, just less successfully). It's the longest running snowboarding competition in the world.
To celebrate, Stratton, which itself turns 50 this year – it was only just out of teenage when boarding arrived – has announced the launch of Burton's pilot Experience Snowboarding program, described slightly vaguely as an, "all new 360 degree approach to learning snowboarding - the sport and the lifestyle at the resort."
To celebrate its 50th season Stratton will be cutting four new blue-square (intermediate) trails in its Sun Bowl and adding an additional terrain park to Big Ben.