| |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
San Francisco has long been famous for its steep hilly terrain, but no one has
ever skied or snowboarded down a San Francisco street until recently.
Thanks to the likes of organizer Jonny Moseley and sponsor Icer Air,
200 tons of snow was brought in for a special snowboarding and skiing
competition on Fillmore Street. A competition like no other, with
top athletes putting on a clinic of amazing performances, with huge
aerials and bone rattling crashes all set to a backdrop of San Francisco’s
Marina district and distant views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The only thing more impressive than the incredible performances of the professional skiers and snowboarders was the engineering and logistics to make the event happen at all. The first pass at approval for city permits, two weeks earlier, ended unsuccessfully with concerns about traffic, crowd safety and even the disruption of a wedding at a near by mansion. Once city officials had their concerns addressed, permits were issued and the event was on.
Arriving on site before daybreak volunteers, event organizers and snow engineers (ICE-FX) were busy at work prepping the site. Between 7am and 11am the two blocks of Fillmore Street between Broadway and Union, which has one of the steeper grades in the city at approximately 18%, was transformed into an urban snow jump. (A cool bit of trivia about this section of street is that it is so steep stairs have been built into the sidewalk.) The course was lined, fenced, boarded, and covered with snow. Hundreds of large blocks of ice were ground into snow and blown over the course. Dump trucks moved in even larger quantities of snow used to build the ramp on Vallejo Street and the landing area farther down Fillmore. After the snow was laid down as planned organizers secured cement barriers and filled the space between the jump and landing area with giant foam blocks to ensure skiers and snowboarders would only hit snow and not pavement.
|
|
|
| Your Donations
Make Articles Like This Possible:
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Wipe-outs,
craters & Bails
Good thing too as the early rounds of the practice session had participants
landing short a majority of the time. For the lighter participants
it was tough to build up enough momentum to successfully jump Vallejo
Street. The end result was some tense moments with participants landing
hard into the nuckle where foam met the snowy edge of the landing
area. With out a cloud in the sky and no sign of any fog temperatures
soared into the 80s on an unusually warm day. As the morning passed
skiers and snowboarders got a better feel for the course and as the
day grew warmer the course grew slicker helping skiers and snowboarders
pick up faster speeds to make the jump.
With conditions improving and riders growing more confident with their
ability to make the jump, tricks became more epic and wipe-outs all
the more gruesome. The crowd swelling to 10,000 and by some accounts
20,000 people roared with each successful jump and groaned in unison
with each crater and bail. Even those covering the event, television
crews, news reporters, color commentators and photographers, got caught
up in the enthusiasm of the crowd.
The event was incredibly surreal. Skiers and snowboarders dropped
in the jump from a cable car tour bus. Picking up speed through a
crowd of on lookers, who either were ditching work this Thursday to
see the event or happened to be lucky enough to be in the right spot
at the right time, Launching off the jump spectators caught the unique
site of airborne skiers and snowboarders with the classic architecture
of San Francisco’s Marina district, blue waters of the bay and golden
hills of Marin as their backdrop. The narrow course and street for
that matter made for some dicey situations. Those attempting huge
air and tricks particularly those going backside would drift dangerously
close to the edge of the course. In the finals one snowboarder drifted
a little too wide hitting two people on his landing.
At the end of the day Jonny Moseley’s show stopping final jump wowed
the crowd, but it was the huge Corked Backside 720 Japan Air completed
by, 2002 Olympic Bronze medalist, JJ Thomas that impressed the judges.
CR Johnson was the top skier of the day getting big air and pulling
off an incredible switch bio nine. Placing 1st in the field of 10
for each JJ and CR each walked away with a cool $6000 in prize money
and a new Jeep Grand Cherokee.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Snowboard
Results |
Skiers Results |
| 1 |
JJ Thomas |
|
6 |
Greg Boeddeker |
1 |
C.R. Johnson |
|
6 |
Andy Mahre |
| 2 |
Travis Parker |
|
7 |
Yale Cousino |
2 |
Simon Dumont |
|
7 |
Chris Benchetler |
| 3 |
Chris Rotax |
|
8 |
Silas Standard |
3 |
TJ Schiller |
|
8 |
Kye Petersen |
| 4 |
John Jackson |
|
9 |
Shane Reed |
4 |
Tanner Rainville |
|
9 |
Cory Vanular |
| 5 |
Brent Meyer |
|
10 |
Jaime Anderson |
5 |
Sean Field |
|
10 |
Rory Silva |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
