USASA at the Northstar Halfpipe 1999/2000

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USASA - Northstar Halfpipe January 2000

The snow season of 99/Y2K has been pretty sad so far this year as far as natural snow fall. The resorts that have made a lot of snow have been able to make the best of all the blue skies. Northstar wins the prize for the best early season halfpipe in the Tahoe region so far this season. So the USASA was lucky to have 2 halfpipe contests there early in January 2000. Saturday was a previously scheduled North Lake Tahoe Series event. Sunday's halfpipe contest was for the South Lake Tahoe Series because Heavenly was not able to get their halfpipe formed in time. So they had to come North to be able to get their competition season started.

Open Men Winner - Cameron

2nd place Open Women

The weather forecast for the weekend called for cloudy with cold temperatures which was accurate for Sunday, but Saturday was mostly clear and warm. 140 people showed up for halfpipe contest on Saturday to compete in their age groups and the open divisions on the nice halfpipe transitions.
Holly Lyons took top honors in the Open Women with 2 solid runs. The 2 girls on the new Sierra Nevada College snowboard team were close on Holly's heels with similar runs that had a couple of stumbles to put them into silver and bronze.

Tia Ma put together 2 competitive runs but still ended up in 6th place. I thought his runs would get him on the podium but the competition was real tight. Another factor is that they were using an overall judges system instead of the old way of having several judges focused on a certain aspect of the run. Cameron Beck started off his runs with a tail grabbing corked out 540 (pictured at top) and then combined some straight airs, lip slides, and flat spins to take home the gold in the Open Men.

Tia Ma -Open men

Brian Richardson

Brian Richardson was impressive but fell on his 1st run which hurt his chances because both of everyones 2 runs counted.
Helmets are now required for all USASA events , but inverted airs are not allow. Front flips, back flips, and upside down rolls will get you disqualified real quick; like the inverted roll pictured on the right below. Sideways rolls and the misty flip corkscrew type of maneuver are OK and can score well, like the corkscrew 540 Cameron did pictured top and Mitch's sideways cork 540 pictured below left.

Mitch's 1st air was legal

Mitch Pulls a DQ for this inverted air.

These USASA events gives people of all age groups a chance to compete with their peers and still have a grass roots feel, but with 140 competitors and another 100 or so spectators this event felt pretty Big. Check out the USASA web site for more results and the schedule of events in your area.

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