Vans Tripple Crown at Sierra-at-Tahoe

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Vans Tripple Crown at Sierra-at-Tahoe - February 2000

It can be tough enough to run 2 big snowboard events with 2 contests each in a week, but when it snows 3 feet 2 times during the week it is almost impossible. Some how they managed to pull it off. There was supposed to be one of these events at Mount Seymore earlier in the season, but it had to be canceled due to snow conditions. So they had to have 2 events during this week at Sierra-at-Tahoe. The Seymore event held at Sierra-at-Tahoe during the 1st part of the week was a big air and boardercross. The regularly scheduled event at Sierra-at-Tahoe was a halfpipe and boardercross.

Jimmy Halopoff at the Vans Tripple Crown Big Air

Jimmy Halopoff - Cab 900

Marc-Andre Tarte at the Vans Tripple Crown Big Air

Marc-Andre Tarte - 1080

This article will mainly focus on the big air contest because boardercross pictures are boring and the biggest boardercross dramas were the 2 tragic mishaps that occured during the second boardercross race. One rider broke his neck and another broke his back. The local media went on about how this proves how dangerous snowboarding is; it is more the case that some boardercross courses (skiercross courses too) can be hazardous. The first race of the week went off with out any major accidents. The course for the second race was obviously more dangerous. Our best hopes go out to the injured riders for full recoveries.

The jump for the big air proved to be a bit hazardous also as a couple riders required some medical attention and a few others managed to ride off on their own with less urgent wounds. There was so much new snow (3 feet) on Wednesday that they were only able to run one run of the best one out of two; so the second run had to be squezed into the Thursday schedule.

I asked Jason Borgsted (one of the top big air athletes in the world) what he thought and he relied - The snow is slow, the deck is to long and the jump does not have enough kick. Everyone is more concerned about clearing the 60 feet to the transition than doing their best tricks. Big airs with less clearance and more kick on the jump allows us to do better stuff. The new snow yesterday was so slow that barely anybody made it to the tranny. - The snow was a bit faster Thursday, but about a quarter of the huckers still were coming up painfully short.

The top 3 scores and most of the top 10 happened on Thursday's faster snow. The first run leader Josh Chapman fell on his second run and slipped to 4th when the day was done. Chris Wimbles (7th), Charlie Morace(2nd), and the event winner Jimmy Halopoff pulled the trick of the day - Cab 900s. Marc-Andre Tarte pulled a 1080 with grab to take home 2nd place. Some spectators thought Marc-Andre should have won, but after checking the video it was clear that he finished the last 20 degrees of his spin on the landing transition. Jimmy Halopoff's cab 900 had a grab for most all of his 2 1/2 spins and he stomped his landing (even though he did just barely make the transition).
Story and photos by Will Church

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