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This is a lien air by Trevor Jacob. Q. Why is it called a “Lien” Air? Lien is Neil spelled backwards as in Neil Blender. Look it up!
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Tamarack Grand Prix 2008
For the last five years Louie Vito was considered a favorite in every halfpipe contest he entered but it wasn’t until the 2008 Chevy US Snowboarding Grand Prix in Tamarack, Idaho that Ohio’s favorite freestyle son found himself atop a major halfpipe podium.
Since Tamarack, Idaho first opened in 2004, the resort and its uncrowded slopes have reached legendary status. This is the terrain and conditions that kept me from heading to the Baker Banked Slalom, Vail Session, Running Of The Bulls, Union Square Rail Jam, Playboy Mansion and anywhere else you might expect a jet setting snowboard journalist to be.
As soon as I dropped into my first turns at Tamarack I knew immediately that the gratuitous layovers, shady bribes, vaccinations and three hour drive from Boise were all worth the hassle and then some. Over the course of the past five days Tamarack has received three to four feet of new snow and from what I could tell, all of it was fresh. We’re talking about more faceshots than an LA botox clinic during awards season. Each turn was deeper than the next.
Unfortunately there are a couple chinks in Tamaracks snowy armor. The first is that the terrain that has been developed up to now is relatively flat. Steep enough for groomers mind you, but once it gets knee deep you want some high angle faces to keep things floaty and fast. So how lacking in incline is Tamarack? So flat that instead of using ropes to mark the trails they use training bras! The second issue I encountered on this trip was rather bittersweet. My reason for visiting Tamarack was to check out the US Grand Prix halfpipe event. The irony of ironies is that there are definitely times when the last thing a rider wants is fresh snow. It’s sad I know, but the truth is two of those times are during park or pipe competitions. Speed is what enables these chuckers to ply their trade and new snow can wreak havoc on a rider's freestyle agenda. Halfpipe events shouldn’t be a wax race.
As the snow got higher in the Tamarack pipe, the airs got smaller. Such was the case the first day at least. Too much accumulation caused the women’s halfpipe preliminaries to get postponed. The good news was that it enabled me to mount up my fish and go find the goods, which I did. Yes it was flat but damn it was fun.
Saturday's main event saw a break in the weather and the riding in the pipe reached a whole new level. Nines got thrown and overhead airs became the norm again. The women set the pace early. While the pipe was quirky during prelims the show put on by the ladies in the finals left little doubt as to how far the fairer sex has come in halfpipe riding. Ellery Hollingsworth and Clair Bidez found themselves in second and third respectively with back to back sevens and overhead fives.
These girls are charging hard and are proving that there is a lot of depth to the women’s field beyond the high profile names commonly found on the podium. Still it was Kelly Clark who clearly dominated. As I’ve said before, Kelly can turn it up in the amplitude department unlike her competition. She consistently goes three to four feet higher on every hit than her peers. As a matter of fact Kelly’s first hit of her second run in the finals was a stylish crail that was easily the biggest straight air of the day done by any rider guy or girl. Awesome.
The dudes stepped it up as well and kept the excitement building from the first drop. From Goldie’s cab 1080 to Ben Watts bs 900 corkscrew to Brennan Swanson’s half cab to bs 540 corkscrew (one trick, seriously, not a combo) the guys were charging. Scotty Lago made a late run for the podium with his text book style and trickery, which included a fs nine hundred corkscrew that was stuck as if it was a simple stale. Still Scotty Lago opted to skip his last wall and this is what may have kept him off the podium.
Elijah Teter finished the day in third place. Elijah started his run with a fs 900 melon (maybe stale) and followed it up with a bs 720 McTwist. Once switch Teter styled a switch method about six feet out into a cab 900. Teter's last trick was a good old fashioned switch alley-oop frontside rodeo. Nobody does those anymore so seeing it dusted off and done well was sweet.
Second place went to Greg Bretz. The Mammoth local tweaked the sh*t out of back to back off axis 900’s to settle second.
First place went to none other than Lil’ Louie Vito who upped his amplitude without sacrificing the technical trickery he is known for. His crippler stiffys are his signature trick but 900’s and other money moves were just what the judges were looking for. Like Bidez and Hollingsworth, this event may be the catalyst for other, more high profile podium appearances for Louie.
The stage is set for the last event of the Tamarack Grand Prix as the speed freaks take center stage in the boardercross. Both Jacobellis and Palmer are set to start so what is normally little more than a snowboarding sideshow may actually have some drama and merit. Check back for an exclusive video interview with Shawn “Mini-Shred” Palmer.
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