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Burton Am Series at Copper
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BURTON AM SERIES: First Stop Copper Mountain
Ever since they held the first National Snowboarding Championships at Suicide Six ski area two and a half decades back, Burton Snowboards has written the book on shred contests. On January 12th, 2008 the first page of a new chapter in that book was written.
Sunny skies and chilly temperatures greeted the competitors who made the trek to Copper Mountain, Colorado for the Copper Mountain series. The CMS is a regional tour sanctioned by the USASA. In addition to the glory associated with a podium appearance and the much coveted points towards a nationals invite, the hundred plus competitors on hand were also taking part in the inaugural Burton Am series showdown which was piggy backing onto this Copper Mtn. contest.
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The six stop Burton Am Series is the Big B’s foray into grassroots competition. While the Open is technically an “open” event which anyone can enter, eager coaches and tenacious team managers have all but monopolized the entry process. This means that even the most ambitious amateur isn’t guaranteed a spot in the show, until now.
How the day shook out was simple. Once the Copper Series slopestyle concluded Burton took the top ten dudes and top five dames back to the top of the course for a best of two runs super final. While the jumps in the triple line were relatively small and lacked pop, they provided an adequate gauge to judge who was worthy of a wildcard into snowboarding’s longest running event.
For the ladies thirteen year old Madeline Schaffrick showed poise beyond her years to finish second despite an untimely fall on the second jump of her second run. Winning the women’s Open slopestyle wildcard was K2 rider Jordie Karlinski who combo-ed a halfcab to backside 3 to straight air to best the competition. There were also a few jibs at the bottom of the course but as I couldn’t see that portion of the course, as they say “out of sight, out of mind.”
Winning second place for the men as well as Burton Bindings, Anon Goggles and $500 in cash was 17 year old Breckenridge local and Rome rider Dylan Alito. After a long day of slopestyle action Zion team rider Eric Willet emerged the victor. In addition to the full Burton setup and $1000 first place prize, Eric was dealt a wildcard to the US Open Slopestyle which will again be held at Stratton, VT from March 18th-23rd.
Special thanks to everyone who made the Burton AM series happen including Copper Mountain, Sobe, SNOWBOARDER Magazine and of course Burton Snowboards. Next stop for the series is Big Bear, California January 26th. Anyone not interested in competing may still want to show up to take part in a host of Burton Super Demo Tour activities and giveaways.
1. Eric Willett
2. Dylan Alito
3. Brett Esser
4. Brett Summers
5. Jake Black
6. Christian Martin
7. Parker S. Bremmer
8. Jeff Johnson
9. Masa Wakita
10. Austin Catevenis
1. Jordan Karlinski
2. Madeline Schaffrick
3. Cloe Banning
4. Eva Cameron
5. Kimberly Kent
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