The 2007 Burton US Open at Stratton Vermont took place this weekend. This contest is one of the most prestigious (influential) contests in snowboarding. 2007 marked the 25th annual US Open of snowboarding. The best snowboarders, photographers, writers and editors showed up to this contest to feel the vibe that flows snowboarding. Snowboard Revolution attended with the full attempt of covering a snowboard event and here is our story.
I started off the trip to Vermont from Cleveland Ohio where I spent Monday morning. Tuesday at midnight Andrew Miller flew into Albany from Reno NV. Billy Cooley flew in at around noon on Tuesday. We packed up the car and drove up to the US Open of snowboarding with one thing in mind. COVER THIS EVENT. Do our best to show all of our readers exactly how cool this contest really is. We arrived in Manchester on Tuesday night and ate at the best pizza place ever before arriving at our hotel. Shortly after, we arrived at the Stratton Mountain Inn. The hotel had no internet. We could hardly believe that our online publication was going to have to be run with no internet. Our only thoughts that night were “Lets get sleep and well figure it out, no worries”. See it’s not a race to get see who gets the coverage first. It’s really all about just giving people who can’t be here the opportunity to feel the vibe that flows snowboarding.
The first day on hill we met up with Dawn De La Fuente from Burton PR to get our media badges in introduce ourselves. It was Wednesday and the slopestyle practice was taking place. We didn’t want to flood ourselves with footage and make it impossible to edit so we just checked out the course and rode some park until the afternoon. Then we filmed a little to find some different angles. The course looked good and I regret not riding it more. Ill have to add that to the 10 Things I want to do at the Open next year list.
Wednesday night we went out in search of the Looney Bean of Vermont. The Looney Bean is a coffee shop in Mammoth with free internet. We cruised up to the village and found a place with internet, but it is $4 each half hour. We paid it anyway, did some email work. While there, we met Leanne Pelosi and talked with her about the contest and other events. She is a very nice girl.
Thursday everything was cancelled due to bad weather and we shredded in the rain all day. Poncho Slides, jibbing and halfpipe riding went down by the crew.
Friday was slopestyle, qualifiers, semi finals and finals. We filmed the entire day, through the blowing snow and cold temperatures. We were out there and loving it. Could have only been better if we were riding in the event. I do have to give it up to all the competitors that rode. The course was very difficult to ride due to snow conditions and it was hard to clear the jumps. Somehow Travis Rice managed to clear all the jumps with ease, looked super calm heading at every jump and did some insane tricks. He won the contest and $20,000 and Torah Bright won for the ladies.
Saturday was Halfpipe and scheduled Big Air.
The halfpipe went off. We got so much footage but had to cut everything down to three minutes due to regulations. If anyone wants to see our view of the US Open through video click here and Enjoy, from me to you. If you want to see the contest through the lens of Andrew Miller check out these spots on our site. Again Enjoy.
Some highlights from the halfpipe were:
Travis Rice pumping the tranny in the pipe and going consistently bigger than all the other riders.
Shaun White just ate that pipe up and he is stoked on his new nickname “The Animal”. He thinks he got the name from ordering burgers “Animal Style” from In and Out burger. I think its because he rides halfpipes like a caged animal that is let loose for the first time on one. He killed it period
Kelly Clark went huge. She is really taking girls riding to another level.
Scotty Lago, Mason Aguirre, Kevin Pearce, Danny Davis and the entire crew are all FRENDS.
Mad props go out to Jake Burton for hosting an amazing contest, Dawn De La Fuente, all riders for throwing down and Billy for holding the other camera on the jumps in the cold snowy environment.
BURTON US OPEN, See you next year.
10 Things I want to do next year at The US Open:
1. Compete in all disciplines of competition, Halfpipe, Slopestyle, Big Air
2. Meet Jake Burton
3. Bring a bigger crew
4. Give out more cloud stickers
5. Do more rider interviews
6. Bring more giveaways for the spectators
7. Throw a big house party
8. Enjoy the show
9. Make another video
10. Eat at the pizza place named “Pizza and Pasta” located in Manchester
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