PHOTO
GALLERY
To carve or not to carve - is that really a question? If the question
stands, then the Summit Expression Session would have answered with
a definite– TO CARVE! That is the only answer for the fifty some
odd people (yes, some people were odd – myself included) that
attended the 2001 Summit Expression Session ("SES") in Summit
County, Colorado from February 13 – 16.
Click HERE to see the webs site for the current event.
I
can only speak for the first day at Keystone, because the man that keeps
me down would only let me take off one day from work to slice, dice,
and trench up the snow with carvers from all of North America, but one
day is all I needed to form memories that will last a long while.
I met people that day that knew people from my hometown in New England, and people from places farther west than I've visited so far: from Lake Placid to Sun Valley, from Cleveland to California riders traveled out for the SES - cool. Tuesday day was sunny and the snow was perfect - carve-alicious. Kodak courage oozed, everyone's edges dug in like a Slim Fast junky digs into a forbidden cheesecake. Fin had the excellent foresight to have a videographer film the festivities, and I can say that everyone offered themselves to the lens like sacrificial lambs to the Snow Gods.
It
was amazing to be able to ride and watch, or sit and watch so many carvers
on the hill at one time. There were trenches galore to trip up any snowplowers
and side-slippers. The sight to behold was so impressive that skiers
(yes skiers) were stopping and verbally offering their support and jaw
dropped approval to anyone they could catch. Ski patrol was even giving
us two thumbs up.
I could go on forever about that day, and people I know can vouch for the fact that I can't shut up about it (or anything else for that matter), but let me just state that if the first day was an indication of how the rest of the week was going to be, it was going to be a great week for all involved. It turns out that the rest of the week was a knockout – Copper, A-Basin, and Beaver Creak showcased what it really means to carve.
At
the after hour parties, I was able to vicariously experience the days
I missed and get an endorphin rush from all the carving talk and tales.
The first night of apres-carve stuffed all in attendance with a bunch
of beer and food at the Dillon Dam Brewery – nice. You could witness
arms slicing the air as people described the turns they made throughout
the day, and turns that people saw new friends rip. Compliments were
not of short supply.
Valentine's Day brought the crowd to the Bomber shop for an open house (I brought my valentine Jen, who was a big hit in leather). Fin had the mill running and brought a lot of his other entrepreneurial ideas out on the floor. The Jet-Mobile (a hybrid between a jet ski and a snowmobile) was a great hit – though no one dared to take it for a tear around the parking lot. Really – it was very cool to see how the Bomber Bindings are made, all the while hearing more war stories from the trenches. After the previous evening's ice breaker, everyone was getting to know each other a bit better and several conversations momentarily lapsed away from the topic of carving. Fin invited several of his local female friends, ensuring that Valentine's Evening wouldn't be spent with a bunch of men talking about carving amongst themselves.
The
Barkley's West finale offered more beer, food, a massive raffle, more
carving footage than I thought could exist and the video of the event.
Congrats to all who received Bomber bindings; Donek, Prior, Nidecker,
and Sims alpine snowboards; board bags; Donek shirts; wax; stickers;
and hats. The film was a huge hit – delicious carving, tremendous
crashes, and some near misses. With great footage of almost everyone,
the video was an ego boost for the masses – thanks to Greg Wall
Jasper for his great work. Following the Bomber gathering, the "Frisco
Disco" kicked in and we all got to see how smooth the hard-boot
crowd really is. We may be able to get low, but to get down is another
story all together. A lot of us (myself included) made Elaine from Seinfield
look like the Dancing Queen.
I really need to tip a hat to Fin and Jean, and everyone else involved
with putting together the SES and the parties that were thrown for all
the Trench Diggers (little plug for Bomber). So if your ever wondering
if you want to get into carving, if you're a newbie to the hard shell
crowd, or if you've been laying out trenches for years among the minority
who look at fresh groomed like the masses look at powder days in the
morning, the SES would be the place to answer the question – To
carve or not to carve?
To carve is the answer.
'Till next year's SES…ride on.
– Chris Scherer
The Carve Limbo Contest:
You all knew some one had to do it, a carve limbo contest. You'd be lying to yourself if you said you have never thought about actually finding out how low a carver can really go. Well, this contest found out the answer.
The event was held on Day 2 of the Summit Expression Session at Copper Mountain under the American Eagle chair.
The rules where as follows: a 12 foot long limbo stick was setup on
the hill with two gates place just below and to each side of the stick.
Each competitor was expected to carve under the stick (heel or toe side,
their choice) with out knocking it off, and, here's the trick, make
it over and above one of the side gates in a controlled and "carve
like" manner. Obviously there is some gray area here so crowd participation
was encouraged to help decide if the pass was legitimate. Each rider
had one chance to make the set height on the stick, basically an elimination
process.
My guess is we started out with 20 riders for the first pass at the bar. It was set high to give every one a chance to get under. Then we started to get mean. The stick was dropped in 6 inch increments and slowly riders where eliminated. At the final round it came down to 3 guys:
Norman Bemel - from Antioch, California 
Brent Alderman - from Madison, Wisconsin 
Ken Tower - from Boise, Idaho
The bar was set to an amazing 11" in height! Originally the bar was designed to only go down to around 1 and a half feet as I thought this would be as low as it needed to go, however, we where forced to cut the end of the posts to get it down to the 11". At this point the riders where riding up to the bar at medium speed, flop over onto a toe side carve with their entire body laid flat on the snow for a fraction of a second, just long enough to clear the bar, then pop back up and clear the side gate. When each of the finalist had made their pass the winner was Ken Tower. Ken won a Sims Premium 167 for his imitation of the human envelope.
Thank You to the Sponsors and Participants
Bomber would like to thank all those companies that sponsored the Summit Expression Session:
