Big Boulder Christmas Week Skier Only Event Ideas

papasteeze

papasteeze

Active member
Staff member
Hello All,

I need your ideas and suggestions and ideas. Big Boulder in the Heart of Pennsylvania, 2 hours from Philadelphia and New York City - 4 hours south of Vermont wants to make something happen for the skiers during the Holiday break.

Last year we had full blown parks while the big western resorts were still waiting for natural snow to pile up. With the firepower that Boulder has, there is no reason to think that the same thing will happen this year. Big Boulder wants to open as soon as they can which hopefully will be the first week of November! Mt Snow is our Big Brother under Peak Resorts and we all no what they are planning to do this season, so........

What we need help with. We need to hear what people like and don't like in a regional event. Is it as simple as just having a well advertised and funded slopestyle divided into gender and age groups?

Even if you aren't in the area, your thoughts on what we should do, would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

 
NS hostile takeover? haha

Comp wise, I think for most regional events, is to do rider judged stuff. Gets people more involved and seems to get everybody more amped on the event....... kind of hard to do with a full on slopestyle, so it really depends on your setup....
 
Damm and i just moved out of PA. But do age groups for sure and then have a open group. Rider judged and some good prizes.

Also i would like to say Big Boulder is awesome. November 2nd last year was ridiculous.
 
I really like the idea of groups headed up by pros, who session various features and then vote with in their group to move onto the finals in a slopestyle format. Age and gender groups would make that format tedious though and unfotunatly PA doesn't have a large crop of pros who will be home for the holidays.
 
OK here's my idea. The freestyle.tv comp has one score for style and one for trch tricks right? I think you should make a two hit big air with one hit style and one tech- rider judged
 
i always liked the concept of having a giant session with a few select judges handing out $$ for legit tricks thrown down.

that way nobody really "wins" or "loses," and everybody has an opportunity to score some dough...
 
I'm a fan of that, never seen it in action but sounds really fun.

Rob, what about just doing local "pros"? There's always a select crew of kids who are the local shred-gnars at the hill that everybody looks up to, mabye just have team captains or something like that?

How about semi-random teams (mabye with one of the captains assigned to them to keep the event together?) who register early in the day, ski together for the morning, then have some sort of comp in the afternoon?
 
25 + age group.............as long as boulder has similar sized jumps as last Christmas I don't think you will have a problem getting people to come and ride comp or no comp.
 
Hahahaha You must be readin my email! Exactly!

Okay here is what I got so far. This is Salomon Jib Academy variation.

Invited local pros home for the holidays, hopefully the likes of Wallisch, Stepp, Brogan, interested others down from VT along with Big Boulder team members like Sean Jordan, Big Ben, Nipples etc. Each of them leads a group of skiers in the morning sessioning the various features of a slopestyle course consisting of 5 features. Keep in mind that Boulder has limitied vert.

At Lunch each group votes with in itself on who moves on to the Main Slopestyle final that includes the group leaders from the morning sessions. The final should have the largest prizes awarded from the entire field for best style, best technical, Overall? Not sure how to pull off voting in an organized expedient way.

All the other skeirs who skied that morning are then divided up by gender and age group divisions at lunch and get first shot at the entire slopestyle course. They could then be voted upon by the finalists that are in the feature event. Here again, voting could endup slow and disorganized and tedious.

Ideally the event would have minimum registration fee that includes the lift ticket and pizza lunch - tons of swag for gender and age groups, cash for the pros in the open event.

how can voting be kept organized? Any other potential problems, likes, dislikes with this format?

 
haha not your email Rob, your mind. I'm secretly telepathic.

Or telepathetic.....

Anyway, I think that's probably the best way to run an event, keeps it down to earth and fun all around. I think throwing in random prizes for best trick/biggest air/smallest air/idk or having people roaming around giving out prizes for wacky shit (best costume?) would also add to the stoke level. Are you running the show on this one, or just assisting with putting it together?

Either way, let me know the details when you know, I'll make a road trip down to PA for it....
 
we did that at a rail jam this year for my mountain..it was a huge hit..we had two judges handing out money...1's, 5's and tens for reallllly legit tricks...it was a retro themed rail jam too..it was pretty fun haha
 
Have loads of different prizes for different things. Like... Best Crash etc as well as prizes for each age group.
 
thats very sick that boulder is planning on opening at the beginning of Nov, i will definitely be there for opening weekend. as for the competition i like what i have read so for, i will have to attend that as well if all goes according to plan.
 
how about everyone has a team that they pick.

there are judges at various features around the mountain with megaphones. money gets thrown out for good tricks, that way everyone has some cash.

You don't have to hit all the features, or neccessarily be with your team the whole time, so you can have your rail guy slaying the jibs, your jumper hiking the jumps, etc.

at the end of the day, every team votes for which team threw down the best overall, and they get a bunch of product.

basically, get some ski company sponsors, and then get the word out, and no matter what it is it will be awesome.
 
i think the sickest idea would be to get different teams to get together representing their mountains. we could have a tournament between mountains or something like that. roundtop could get a team and face liberty or boulder or bear creek. i dont know how that would be judged though
 
skier only sounds ig'nant, it should be open to all snow sliders with whatever you decide. strength is formed with a common bond.
 
You dont understand how Big Boulder Park works. Most special events are snowboard only. Other than there weekly series, most things are snowboard only. And this place has a sick park and a great skier comp is something truley needed.
 
having a skier only event only promotes the divide between ski and snowboard. just have a big ol event with different divisions for either side...still shouldnt be hard to come up with ideas for it.
 
either way, this comp is gonna be dope...i really like the idea of throwing down for sickest trick and then cash prizes in 1's, 5's, and 10's because it is CHRISTMAS BREAK and EVRYONE LOVES PRESENTS : ) ...the only problem with this is how are you gonna judge every kid hitting each feature?? Plus, the costume idea could add to the vib also....should try to get NS to sponser it--just a thought b/c it would be only skiers
 
Rob, rent a bus and drive a crapload of kids to Jay instead. We're gonna have Amanda's going away party right after Xmas @ Jay.

The last party I threw involved jello wrestling, 2 kegs of magic hat, and 20 gallons of apple cider moonshine. Do you really wanna miss that?!
 
Rob, as you attorney I advise you to rent a very fast bus with no top. Get out of PA for 48 hours.....
 


As mentioned, there is already a "division" due to sponsors who are snowboarding specific to events there, it leaves the skiers out. Big Boulder Management is encouraging a complimenting skiing competition to round out their event schedule.

So is it plausible to do the Jib Academy format and toss $$ during the morning sessions? My thinking is too get the younger kids more involved by having age groups in the afternoon who also get a "chance".

 
possible event idea that I've been kicking around in my head for a while:

One of the main frustrations I've always had with comps has been

features. The box wasn't set up as fun as it could have been, the rail

didn't have a good landing, it was boring or too small, etc.

The way to change this is to have the riders design the features. So

this idea is a two part competition. One for construction, and one part

for riding. Most likely two days would be required.

To start, teams need to be registered. I would think anywhere from 7 to

12 people would be a good number for each team. A team leader would be

a good idea too. Ideally, a wide variety of ability levels should be

present in each team, as this will keep features at a medium level, and

allow enjoyment for everyone.

A group of obstacles should be assembled. As many boxes and rails,

wallrides, barrels, etc as possible, as this will allow for creativity.

Teams participate in a glorious rock paper scissors tournament to

determine order of picking obstacles. Then each team is allowed to

select a maximum of 2 obstacles to build their feature.

After at least 15 minutes to brainstorm what they think would be a cool

idea (team leader can facilitate discussion), each team should quickly

present their idea to the park crew, to ensure liability is not

excessively compromised. Once this is confirmed, the team and team

leader present their plan to a cat driver, and get around 30 min of cat

time to push snow for it. They then have the rest of the first day to

shovel and rake everything to perfection.

Second day is comp day. Each feature is sessioned for approximately 30

minutes, with park crew maintaining as needed. A best rider per feature

(possibly with ability categories as well) is judged by the athletes.

At the end, a grand prize is given to the team with the athlete judged

best feature, and maybe an overall best rider across the features.

There are some kinks in this, but this is the competition I want to be

a part of. It allows people to take an active part in what they get to

play on, allows them an environ not necessarily under the controls of

judges, lets them learn about the difficulty of constructing features

and gives them more respect for what grooming and park crews do, and

they cannot complain about the features because, well, they designed

and built them.
 
^ it's a really good idea.

the problem is there's alot of nuances in building parks, cat time/fuel, weather/temperature, and how much snow you actually have available (man made snow is REALLY expensive). I'd love to be wrong, and Rob I'd like to see your take on it, but I'll play devils advocate and say that I don't think that's really doable on the east coast.....
 
i like the teams format, it is a lot more inducive to having a good time and riding for fun.

you could break the comp down into disciplines, and have 2 (or 3 or whatever numbers allow)members of the team represent their team in the disciplines, making sure everybody is in at least one discipline

winners of each discipline could get swag, and the team that is the overall winner could get a prize too

to make it fun though, you could mix it up a bit with more than just slopestyle, big air, rail jam, halfpipe contests i dont know the facilities you have at your disposal, but this would be a sweet ass contest in my mind.

along with the slopestyle/rail jam/big air/pipe stuff you could add events like:

monoski race: where you get 2 monos with demo bindings on them and set up a course the teams race down

all around race: start a course out with a few tight slalom turns, ease that into a bump run, and then have there be a kicker with a rail after the landing or something to incorporate jibbing. time plus trick judging would decide the winner

sled sprint race: innertube sled race down a run with the opposing teams lined up to pelt the opponent with snowballs to throw them off the course

synchro big air: where two skiers go off a wide jump at the same time and its judged like synchro diving in the olympics

stuff like that would break up the typical contest mode, make things fun, and im sure the people in the contest would get competitive about it.

 
This could be the very best comp idea I have ever heard. There are a few things you would want to work out there, but overall, so sick!

You could also try an Orage Masters approach to this comp. You would have a team captain (pro) with a team of 6-7 skiers that would face off against another team in the Masters format. In order to keep the teams as close skill-wize as possible, you could hold an open slopstyle (excluding the pros) the day before to determine how the teams should be made. The first day (open slopestyle) could also have awards/prizes like a normal slopestyle, and day two would be organized more like the Masters.
 
make a loopty loop like in the candide invatational..... and whoever can do it... throw that kkid a fucking juice box
 
no one has said this, but i think its fairly common. bump some music...one of the worst things that can happen at smaller mtn comps/railjams is no music. its awful.
 
Good point, it often gets overlooked. An actual DJ would be cool. Especially if there's music that's a little bit beyond the standard issue ski-rap....... not that I mind a little bit of it.
 
Team events have been successful and well received at other resorts however since this will occur during the holidays I think we need to keep it open and more relaxed by encouraging everyone from those who are learning 3's to those who can double.
 
ok how about this...

each team has a PRO, and a BOULDER TEAM MEMBER

kids register, and the pros are paired up with the boulder team members, and they get to pick teams, like a draft from the registered skiiers. you can have the kids that are just registered sessioning in the plaza in the A.M. while pro and boulder team member pairs watch and pick their team. thoughts?
 
ehhhhh that's basically like dodgeball in middle school, people would definately get left out and that's no fun.
 
im not saying they have to openly say "I CHOOSE THIS PERSON"

just have the pros and team members meet after an hour or so session and come out with teams.

i think thats prett fair. this way you wont have any real stacked teams either.
 
this idea is kinda directed towards the better skiers because i feel that boulder itself has quite a few legit skiers as well as all the surrounding mountains. we can get a pretty legit comp going

boulder should build 1-2 ideal park jumps taking up all of boulder park.

It should be 1vs1 bracket just like JOI used to be. 1 jumps style. 1 jump technicality

if boulder put time in the the jumps.

shit could get way outa control.

open division

1,2,3 cash prizes

then crazy after party
 
yeah it really just depends on where it's decided to head with the comp, if it's geared more towards the upper end of ski ability or if it's geared more towards the larger population/gromlets...........

I really don't know what the level of PA skiing is like cause I've never skiied down there, but I would probably suggest targeting the middle of the range of abilities, from a park manager's perspective....

and seany, people party in PA? i thought everybody was amish haha!
 
Seany did you read my idea? the feature heat would have the best skiers in it. Nothing to stop us from taking the top 2 from each group. and really there aren't that many really good skiers in our area.

I would love to see 100 entrants of all caliber, all age groups.
 
the last time they had that shop comp on a weekday when the mountain was closed to the public was absolutely amazing. they should really do something like that again.
 
i gotta agree with poppa on this one. sean, as much as i'd love to compete in a JOI style comp, i think it would be better to just get as many people as possible of all levels to give everyone a fair shot, and to show an overall successful event in terms of numbers. I'm so hyped on this event. We need something fun and big.
 
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