COMPETITION
FRFORMER
Ken Achenbach pulled off some
red-faced maneuvers in the halfpipe
as well as the lodge during the awards
ceremony. One excitable guy.
WORLD SNOWBOARDING
CHAMPIONSHIPS-
MARCH 31-APRIL 1
SODA SPRINGS, CA
As I cascaded down towards the
earth on that morning of March 31st,
the wind blew me and other fellow
snowflakes gently about. We deli-
cately sifted down through the
clouds in the general direction of
what looked like the Sierra mountain
range in Northern California. As I got
closer I saw Lake Tahoe, and that I
would be softly landing northeast of
it somewhere near the town of Truc-
kee-maybe in the peaceful woods
or the side of a cliff or mountain
somewhere far from any of the
enemy: skiers.
I drifted down closer and suddenly
I realized, I'm going to land at Soda
Springs ski area! I was horrified. I
gazed down at my inevitable doom, I
saw the slalom run, the downhill
course and the giant halfpipe with
snowboarders from all over North
America slashing the slopes. This
was the weekend of the World
Snowboarding Championships, I
realized as my impending death
drew nearer. Just as I was about to
land, and be crushed beneath the
searing tear of a snowboards' steel
rails, I was delicately wafted up the
mountain by a gust of wind. I'm safe
I thought, and with that I caught a
glimpse of a red torpedo out of the
corner of my eye. It was a speed-
suited Burton teamrider.
I was killed instantly as he blasted
off the top comice and, releasing a
20' method air.
Well, carrying snowboarders up
the hill all day ain't fun either and
being chairlift #2 was my job all
weekend. These guys plastered
stickers all over me, complained
about how slow I was, and passed ill
winds on me, but I had the best seat
in the house for watching the event.
Saturday after sign-ups, the slalom
event preliminaries were held.
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Everyone making it to the finals (with
the exception of Ross McGowan)
was sponsored. Their boards
sported steel edges, steel fins, and a
P-tex base for the ultimate in speed
and control. These guys blazed
down through the 14 gate course.
Then the pipe prelims occurred.
This event was judged on style,
maneuvers, radicalness, speed,
and use of walls. The ½ pipe was
carved out of the snow by a snocat
snowdozer. It was massive and
looked like an overgrown skate
pipe. It was 15' deep, 50' across and
100 long. These snowboarders
were just nuts. Skaters like Terry
Kidwell, Allen Ambrister, Evan Feen,
and Ken Achenbach were getting
15-20 of backside air, frontside air
and even 540 helicopters and pul-
ling them off on the walls of this pit.
Seen doing extended handplants
and 30' laybacks were Steve Cabal-
lero, Lance Mountain, and Craig
Ramsay. All regular skateboard
maneuvers are magnified five times
when snowboarding because of the
frictionless glide and speeds ob-
tained when gyrating the pipe.
The sun was setting and as I let off
the last rider I was shut down and al-
lowed to rest until the next moming
April 1st, a Sunday.
The riders were up bright and
early and the downhill event got un-
derway with snowboarders reaching
speeds of over 50 mph. Some major
wipeouts were witnessed, but there
were no injuries, thankfully.
Easily winning the downhill event
was Andy Coghlan, Burton team's
golden boy who also took first place
in the slalom and sixth in the % pipe
to dominate the contest and win first
overall. Burton teammate Mark
Heingartner took second in the
downhill and third went to speed
skier Steve Fink.
Tom Sims, who sponsored the
event placed second in the slalom
and third went to this fellow team-
mate Allen Ambrister.
The finals in the pipe were
spectacular. Terry Kidwell, Sims
team rider and local skater, simply
dominated the event with totally
aggro and bio maneuvers like table
top method air, bone air, multiple
high speed 360s and all done at
speed. Second went to Flite rider
Jeff Grell and third to the acrobatic
and wild Canadian Ken Achenbach,
who did 540 frontside airs, 20' rock
and roll sliders, and 30 mph
frontside roll ins into full-on head-
Overall winner at the World's, Andy
Couglan, streaks past a gate during
the high-speed downhill event. Andy
took firsts in downhill and slalom.
first face-packs into the snow. This
guy was nuts. There was some local
kid who didn't enter who was bomb-
ing the pipe and flying out the end
for ABC and CBS cameras. This guy
would fly about 20' out and land 40
down the hill fully crazed!
Winning the women's slalom and
women's overall was Burton team-
rider, Austrain Marianna Fruhmann.
She really had a great style and
strong competitive spirit
Little Robert Torres (Sims) took
the 14 and under honors showing
much promise.
Trophies were given out and over
$2,000.00 in prize money was is-
sued with Burton boy Andy Coghlan
netting $600.00 of it for his brilliant
efforts.
The competition was far greater
this year than last and should be
even tighter next year so I better
grease my gears and tighten my
cables in anticipation of this
new breed of rider and the World
Snowboard Championships at Soda
Springs in 1985.
-Craig Ramsay
Tom Sims was upset in his bid to
retain the number one title, but man-
aged to pull off another successful,
and most of all fun, anowboard event.
SLALOM
12. Ken Achenbach
1. Andy Coghlan
17.86
2. Tom Sims
18.50
1984 SIMS
WORLD SNOWBOARDING
CHAMPIONSHIP
3. Allen Arnbrister
18.53
4. Steve Link
18.63
RESULTS
5. Evan Feen
18.98
6. Terry Kidwell
19.10
HALFPIPE FREESTYLE
7. Mati Dodge
19.59
1. Terry Kidwell
187.25
8. Chris Karol
19.63
2. Jeff Grell
185.00
9. Bob Klein
19.87
3. Ken Achenbach
185.00
10. Stephen O'Hara
20.09
4. Evan Feen
183.50
11. Ross McGowan
20.81
5. Steve Link
180.00
20.83
6. Andy Coghlan
178.25
7. Tom Sims
177.50
8. Tito Ramos
175.50
1. Andy Coghlan
14.57
9. Mark Meingartner
173.75
2. Mark Meingartner
14.79
10. Mitch Hargraves
169.25
3. Steve Link
14.91
11. Allen Arnbrister
167.75
4. Tom Sims
15.06
12. Craig Ramsay
166.00
5. Chris Karol
15.10
16. Stephen O'Hara
15.21
WOMEN'S SLALOM
7. Craig Gietzen
15.36
Marianna Fruhmann
8. Keith Daly
15.43
9. Terry Kidwell
15.44
AGE 14 & UNDER SLALOM
10. Marvin Christianson
15.50
Robert Torres
11. Mitch Hargraves
15.58
OVERALL WINNER
12. Ken Achenbach
15.66
Andy Coghlan, Vermont
DOWNHILL
KERS
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