BURTON
SNOWBOARDS
BURTON
NATIONAL SNOWBOARDING CHAMPIONSHIPS
SNOW VALLEY, VERMONT
The 1984 National Snowboarding
Championships were held March 3
and 4 at Snow Valley Ski Area in
Southern Vermont, drawing a field of
over 100 riders from across the
USA, Canada, and Europe. The
weekend competition featured a
downhill event on Saturday and a
slalom on Sunday. Speeds as high
as 50 mph were reached on the
straight downhill course. The time
differential between the top 5
finishers was less than three tenths
of a second. As in downhill skiing.
the ability of the rider to maintain
aerodynamic body position and
good balance over the bumps distin-
guished the good riders from the
rest of the pack. Despite the many
wipeouts by the less experienced
riders, not one of the 100 contestants
was injured. The event was won by
Andy Coghlan (East Dorser, VT).
sacond place was taken by Steve
O'Hara (Lowell, MA) and third place
was taken by Jeff Hayes (Burlington,
V.
The slalom event consisted of a
tight, 15 gate course over hard-pack
snow. Even some of the top seeded
riders had difficulty negotiating the
course. Good balance and the ability
to control the board through tight
turns once again, made Andy
Coghlan (East Dorset, VT) the win-
ner. Second and third were taken by
Tom Sims (Santa Barbara, CA) and
Allen Ambrister (Lake Tahoe, CA).
The new overall champion was
Andy Coghlan. The Women's over-
champion was Marianna
Fruhmann (Hinterstoder, Austria).
The championship displayed the
growing popularity of snowboarding
which began 10 years ago as a
backyard sport. Snowboarding is
now enjoyed both on local hills as
well as at many ski areas across the
country. All one needs is a board
and a snow covered hill to get in-
volved. Sponsor of this competition
was Burton Snowboards located in
Manchester Center, Vermont.
-Cheryl M. Wilcox
A hard driving boarder carves past a gate at the
National Championships in Vermont. Photo:
Hubert Schriebl
4TH ANNUAL FOG-TOWN
CONTEST
Corte Madera Punks Ramp
Mill Valley, CA
This contest had been planned for
weeks. Thursday, two days before it
was to happen a city park employee
showed up to state his complaint
"The ramp is located on park prop-
erty. His voice was a downer to all
present practicing for the contest.
Practice was halted. Carlos De Fog-
town did some phoning on Friday,
which acquired him a city permit and
insurance, both of which cost him
over a few bills. Friday was full of
practice. Duane Peters, Owen
Neider and friend, Dave Chicago,
had shown up Thursday night and
were shredding. Roger Folsom
turned up with some other Sac-
ramento locals. All the Bay Area
skaters were pretty much in atten-
dance and practicing. But where
were all the San Jose boys? During
Friday's sessioning a cycle cop
showed up, everyone expected the
worst. Little Luis Espinosa dropped
in and blasted a bruly 4 foot plus
backside air, the officers face
started to contort, he was blown
away! "Pretty remarkable, isn't it?" I
stated to him. He was speechless.
He said he was glad he stopped in,
and glad it was here, because "It
cuts down on the dumb skateboard-
ing tickets I have to give out for riding
in the street."
Darkness set in and began play-
ing havoc with the skaters vision of
the transition, therefore some types
decided to regroup at the show that
night in S.F., others, at the ramp in
the morning, for the contest. Once I
returned to S.F., I found out that
Street Scott was hosting his own
birthday party celebrating his quad
year on this world. Loud music, talk,
and lots of fun was in store at SS's.
The Black Athletes were to play at
the Club Foot. There were a lot of
skaters at the show. They put on a
really good show. Highlights of the
Up and away. Luis Espinosa blazing at CMP, Photo: Dana Carver.
show were Owen and Dave thrash-
ing horsey style. Owen Neider help-
ing his hero Duane Peters out of the
gutter.
Saturday morning was a haze.
We showed up at the Ramp to see a
few skaters practicing for the jam.
Sam Cunningham from Sacto was
ripping hard, as was Gumby. Skat-
ers kept showing up, practice was
shredding and all present knew the
contest would be rad.
The format was basically the
same as Joe's Ramp Jam, two 45
second qualifying runs, then cut to 8
into two half-hour jams. In the end
hour was too long, it should've been
15 or 20 minute jams. The intensity
of the jam format was a bit much for
some.
The cut to eight was pretty evi-
dent, until last minute entrant Jeff
Flej blazed heavily during the final
high energy runs of qualifying
knocking out Al Asbe, a heavy
shredder from years back.
The judges were doing their best.
They were Duane "Nightmare" Pet-
ers, Rodger Folsom, and Don
Fisher.
The jams were next, the eight rid-
ers knew what was going to go
down. The first jam was just like the
second with everyone pushing their
limits, it was quite a show.
The hot moves were Lopes hand-
plant off the high to low, stalled Stal-
masky plants, Cooksie fake-n-rolls
(fakie from a rock'n'roll position) on
3 feet of past vertical and just totally
on the edge of disaster. Luis
Espinosa, more often than not pul-
ling gay twists, Caballerials, high
backside airs.
Sam Cunningham, just pulling
moves all over the ramp. Tom Guer
rero, ripping with total style, pushing
his moves. Owen Neider was ripping
handplants and reverts fluidly. Bryce
Kanights riding with style and pow-
erful moves. Flej did back pedalling
Andrechts, and Elguerials. At one
point, Cooksie sent his board hight
into the overhanging tree branches,
after an aborted "Bomb" drop
attempt from the high to low. This
brought a shower of dead branches
and leafy matter onto the ramp sur-
face and a good round from the
crowd in attendance.
Mr. Duane's crowing at top vol-
ume throughout the contest was a
bum for many but no one tried to put
a lid on him. There were at least 100
skaters' parents and spectators
watching and/or participating. In my
opinion everyone had a lot of fun,
especially the entrants. As Owen
said: "This is the most fun I've ever
had at a contest, everyone was yel-
ling for everyone who rode."
FOGTOWN-CMP RESULTS
1. Joe Lopes
2. Chris Cook
3. Luis Espinosa
4. Sam Cunningham
5. Tommy Guerrero
6. Owen Neider
7. Bryce Kanight
RESULTS 1984
NATIONAL SNOWBOARDING
CHAMPIONSHIP
SLALOM
1. Andy Coghlan
2. Tom Sims
3. Allen Ambrister
AMATEUR
1. Rob LaVigne
2. Chris Gamble
3. Chris Muniz
WOMEN
1. Marianna Fruhmann
2. Heather Smith
3. Sue McGrath
4. Holly McDonald
5. Abbi Coghlan
DOWNHILL
1. Andy Coghlan
2. Steve O'Hara
3. Jeff Hayes
4. Chris Karol
5. Mark Heingartner
6. Tom Sims
AMATEUR
1. Chris Gamble
2. Chris Muniz
3. Rob LaVigne
4. David Breinig
5. C. Hamilton
WOMEN
1. Holly McDonald
2. Marianna Fruhmann
3. Sue Rueck
4. Abbi Coghlan
5. Sue McGrath
6. Heather Smith
$500.00
200.00
100.00
$500.00
200.00
100.00
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