2004 Summer Blows Carnival and Snowboard Rail Jam Results

Fat, fluffy white clouds float across a sea-blue sky. The sun beats down brightly on a throng of several hundred kids, parents, riders, and Reef girls gathered tightly around a half oval to witness the top ten riders, whittled down from approx 60 challengers, compete in an intense jam session. It is the final 15 minutes; one rider has yet to drop. He sits atop a 20-foot-high ramp that stretches down to a 20-foot flat-to-down rail. The rest of the riders snake up a ladder waiting for their turn. The landing is cleared. Rider Mike Casanova straps into his snowboard and focuses on the rails sitting high up in a pile of snow. He drops with a sharp push! He throws ...

"Hold up, hold up. Dude, it is summer. What the hell are you talking about?" "Umm... Who are you?" "I'm the guy reading over your shoulder as you type. You said snowboard and snow? It's freakin' July in Minnesota, what the hell?"

"Well, let me take a step back and explain." As I was saying, the standout in the early part is Mike Casanova with consistent spin tricks. He cements the deal in the jam session by throwing an extremely tight 180 to 50-50 to 180 fs on the down part of the rail. You look confused, let me jump back and kiss myself. The kids who work at Pinewski Ski and Board shop decided to have a rail comp. They got a ton of sponsors. They convinced the owner. They piled up a huge amount of ice shavings from local ice rinks and sent out a note to the world. They had a tent fair, dunk tank, and a hot tub with sexy Reef girl-wannabes (although the girls snowboarding were just as sexy). The riders came from far and wide, such as Chicago, Tahoe, Salt Lake City, and Nebraska to compete. The comp started at 4 p.m., ran in heats of 10-11 boarders taking two runs each! The top ten advanced to compete in the jam session. Here was the cool part: the riders judged themselves. And as I alluded to earlier, Mike walks away with $250.

The next big standout in both the audience and riders' minds is a girl by the name of Tori Carrigan Koski. She has the dudes at the top of the rail slingshot her down the giant snow tongue. She attempts to gap the flat to bs the down part of the rail. She gets close. She also gets second, and a Pinewski local Jesse Gizek pulls a third with consistent spins and slides. The show finishes with girls on parade and the boys lay (puny) judgment to crown the first Minnesota Reef girl. And that was a simple sweet rail comp in the middle of July up in the Anoka Twin Cities area!