SKIING
Ski notes: Competitors strive to finish on high note
By Fletcher Doyle - News Sports Reporter
01/24/08 8:53 AM
Music always has been a big part of freeskiing. At the Red Bull Rhythm Section event Saturday at Holiday Valley, it will be the course.
"This is a first-time course," event organizer Pat Morgan said of a course that will be laid out with features representing notes on a musical score. "It will have the topography of sheet music."
The tune the expected 150 riders and skiers will be playing as they navigate the 16-feature event is the rock anthem "Back in Black." Competitors will drop into the slope-style course off a stage constructed at the top of Foxfire.
The features, a mix of rails, jumps, boxes, barrels and jibs, will be tightly bunched over approximately 1,000 to 1,200 feet, according to Chris Perks, who will help build the course for Holiday Valley. This will require a great level of technical skill.
"Riders will have to keep a rhythm and keep their speed," and develop a "flow" to do well in this event, Perks said.
"This is a high-caliber event. The level of riding will not be marginal," Morgan said. "It will be an X-Games style of event with lighting on the course."
The competition has attracted some of the top amateurs from New York and Canada, some pros from the Northeast and top amateurs and aspiring pros from as far away as the West Coast. This event is the only one Red Bull has sponsored in Western New York; other Rhythm Section events have been held out West.
It will take three days to build the course, with construction starting Wednesday, at which time Foxfire will be closed to the public. The course will be dismantled right after the event and will not be available to noncompetitors.
The competitive divisions are men's 15- under snowboard, men's 15-over snowboard, men's open free ski and women's open snowboard/free ski. There will be a "Best Overall Rider" award for each division but the real prize is photo and video exposure on Web sites such as
Transworld Snowboarding and Snowboard Magazine. That can translate into sponsorship, turning an amateur into a pro.
"Events of this kind are good exposure," said KB's terrain park manager, Eric Langman. "[They can help you] do what you want to do and get paid to do it."
Registration begins at 9 a.m. in the Resort Services Center and jam sessions begin at 11. The awards party starts at 5 p.m. The cost is $45 ($25 to Holiday Valley pass holders) for competitors but is free for spectators.
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