Autumn and I got to Taos on Wednesday evening around 5.15pm…we thought we were late for the riders’ meeting but turns out it was at 6pm so we were actually early J We were stoked to find out that they had a pasta dinner ready for all of us when we got there! Everybody that we met seemed really nice and we could not wait for the competition the next day. A lot of my friends (and even my parents) seemed confused about the logistics of this event…this event was NOT a race, but it was a freeride competition (part of the FWT -- Freeride World Tour) and this was the first time that either Autumn or I have competed in a freeride competition. Freeride competitions aren’t brand new but they are new to letting boarders ride and this is only the 2nd year that this particular freeride event had any women snowboarders. Grassroots, baby!
That being said, this is what the FWT has to say about the nature of a freeride comp:
“By definition, the term freeride is contradictory to the word competition. Some riders refuse to enter contests because of this definitional clash or simply would prefer to not be judged. Though for some riders, freeride and competition fit together. They wish to compare themselves to other riders from time to time and have someone decide who produces the best show.
Therefore, we need judges. When it comes to freeriding, we all know that there is different terrain and different ways to express oneself within this terrain. The goal of this judging system is to allow any style of riding to win on any given day. Whether a rider’s strength is steep terrain, big airs, technical tricks or speed, each style should be able to win if on that day, the rider simply showed the most impressive run utilizing his own strengths. Riders shouldn’t have to adapt their riding to a system; the system should be adaptable to the riding.
So how can we create a judging system that is both fair and not restrictive? Freeriding encounters the same dilemma as other disciplines such as surfing, skateboarding or freestyle skiing/snowboarding have. These respective sports have all gone through their own distinct experiences and it is interesting to see that they all ended up with similar judging systems. Systems with overall impression scores, given mostly by former riders respected by the new active generation, based essentially on emotions rather than mechanical descriptions. This handbook is a work in progress; it will evolve and change to better accommodate the sport and the riders.”
The FWT has a very long handbook in which they explain the judging criteria, but here is the overall summary (for more info on judging please refer to the website and download the judging method packet):
“There are 5 main categories for which the judges have to pay special attention to and for which they will have to answer many questions:
1. Line: Is the line original, easy, steep, has big jumps, well thought out or with much criss-crossing around?
2. Fluidity: Is the rider going fast compared to where he is in the face? Is the rider following his line without hesitations? Does he slow down too much or takes unnecessary stops before jumps? Is he lost and searching for his way?
3. Control: Is the rider in control at all times? Is he in control in the air? Did he control his landings? Did he manage to link turns in steep narrow places or did he slide down?
4. Jumps: How big was the jump? How did the rider enter the jump? What happened in the air? How good did he stick his landing?
5. Crashes: Crashes have to be looked at in an overall impression as well.”
After a great spaghetti dinner, we met up with our Couchsurfing host, Kind, and his son and friend north of town. After a long 6+ hour drive and stress from credit card issues (that were not my fault!) I was exhausted and passed out almost instantly.
Thursday morning rolled around quickly and I headed to the mountain with Autumn. Got breakie from the cafeteria…hash brown plate made by the awesome grill man, Tommy J After eating we headed to get on the lift and realized that our credentials card was not an actual ticket and we had to pretty much run to get tickets on time! The stress of the getting to the site on time really made me miss having Stephen there with us more than I was already missing having him with us!! Didn’t realize that we still had to buy tickets for each day, more credit card issues (that still weren’t my fault…), took the wrong lift, etc. I really don’t get very nervous during competitions (maybe a tad, but nothing major) but I get super nervous and stressed in the morning before getting to the comp sites, even when nothing goes wrong!!
When we got to the top of the correct lift, we heard that we had only 10 minutes to get our inspection run in! We hiked up the short hike to the top of the West Basin Ridge and checked out the mountain…really weird snow. I’ve ridden at many mountains in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Austria, North Carolina, Vermont, etc. and I still had never felt snow this strange…the snow was kind of like Colorado’s spring snow but more dry than spring snow and also smaller icy crystals than our spring snow. Hard to explain, but it was weird to us for sure.
We decided that we didn’t like the run that we’d inspected and borrowed some binoculars to scout our line. We chose to ride St. Bernard (the run furthest lookers’ right that was in bounds for day one) because it reminded us of Palli chair at A Basin.
The event was run much more smoothly than USASA events are with a short time in-between riders/skiers. Thus buy the time Autumn and I made it back up to the starting area it was time for her to go already! We hadn’t yet made it to St. Bernard and Autumn hurriedly decided to take the run we were at when she heard the announcer calling her name from the bottom. I debated taking that run but decided that since I was the last woman rider that I should try to make it over to St. Bernard. When I got a good distance hike down the ridge I freaked out because I wasn’t sure if I’d gone too far over and I didn’t want to DQ on my first freeride run ever so I hiked back up to where the starter was. Extremely out of breath, I found out that I was not next but that I was on-deck. The starter asked if I was taking the run we were at the top of (the run Autumn took) and I said that it wasn’t my original plan but that I guessed so because of the aforementioned reasons. The starter told me I had time to make it to the other run if I strapped in and he sent me with a radio-equipped guy over to St. Bernard.
By the time I made it to the top of the run I was already so out of breath!! I took a minute to strap in and then jumped over the cornice. I had some good carves on the steep but I unfortunately had a hand plant on one of my turns. I felt good about my run but not amazing. Getting to the bottom of the run it felt wrong not seeing Stephen there after his awesome coaching last weekend!
I watched for a bit at the site and then I took a run with new friends Smiley, Jake, Pete, & George. I then met Autumn at the bottom for a bloody and we decided to just stay at the Martini Tree bar and socialize instead of tiring ourselves out by riding hard the rest of the day. Met Carlos (the bartender), who became a good friend over the weekend, and some other cool dudes who were also in the competition J
Went to Crossroads pizza joint for dinner because they have PBR there (I love the Martini Tree but they didn’t serve my beer!) and enjoyed some slices with some fellow competitors before seeing the results from day one (they take an annoyingly long time to post them). There was one girl with a bye (which means she was pre-qualified for the competition) and there were five other girls competing. Autumn took 3rd on day one and I took 4th. Headed back to Kind’s spot and passed out early (7pm-ish) on the couch while watching Semi-Pro. Woke up rejuvenated around midnight to everybody passed out cold and started playing Angry Birds. Decided I needed to do something instead of playing that silly (but fun and addicting!) game for hours so I went to hang out with my new friend Carlos for a while.
The next morning we headed to the mountain, got our ticket (still credit card issues…), got another hash brown plate from Tommy J and then made our way to the course (and took the right lift!) in much better time than the day before. For day two, they opened up more runs on the West Basin Ridge (in addition to the runs that were already open for day one). Did inspection run with Autumn on a run called Waterfall. Had the snow conditions been better this would have been a sweet run but we seriously felt like we were going down a frozen waterfall at the top and couldn’t even make a safe turn until we were about a third of the way down! Took some jump turns and got to the lower third of the run that was more open but the snow at the bottom was super sun-baked and thus had a crispy layer on top…not fun to maneuver through…
Part 2 to come (including pictures) as well as Part 2 of Winter Park!! Just too tired to do it right now...
xoxox Summer
