Snowboard Carving, Racing, Alpine Snowboarding - Boards, Boots, Bindings, Reviews: Bomber Online in Summit County, Colorado: East Coast Expression Session 2001: Part 1

East Coast Expression Session 2001 - Part 1

January 8th to 14th
by Fin Doyle

Carvers The gathering for the 2001 East Coast Expression Session started out at Stratton, Vermont and was some of the best carving conditions this Colorado boy has ridden in years. Icy eastern conditions were nowhere to be seen. Carvers

It was a very strong turn out with over 65 carvers showing up for the first day of riding. Monday started with everyone meeting near the Gondola first thing in the morning.

Party I myself started the day with a reasonably priced bagel and juice from Cook's Corner and sat (or hid) in the Double Diamond Café and watched the steady stream of long boards with plates walk by. A great site. . Carvers

The people at Stratton did a fantastic job of accommodating for all us hard booting riders. From what I could tell, the entire hill was buffed from top to bottom and I think patrol might have been told to give us some sort of "diplomatic immunity" as they waved nicely as we rode by the whole time.

With so many carvers on the hill it was virtually impossible to ride with everyone all the time. Just wasn't going to happen. However, what I found myself doing was jumping from group to group as they passed by. Each group was anywhere from 5 to 15 riders.

Carvers The cool thing about Stratton is that most of the chairs funnel riders up to the top of the hill, so if you lose your group, or want to jump in with a new one, just hang at the top of the hill and you can watch all the chairs come in. For a social butterfly like myself, it made meeting everyone a lot easier.

Had a great mix of riders and styles at the event. At one point I was with one group of locals and we made sweet ultra-tight "J-turns" down the hill, with everyone seeing how low they could go. The hill behind us looked like someone had dragged a huge bear claw down the groomed run. Slashes everywhere. Then I hooked up with group of riders comprised of some guys from Pennsylvania and Bruce from Coiler on his one-of-a-kind long board. We proceeded to do laps on a run called "Polar Bear" but it was so good and hidden that we decided to call it "Run X" so no passing yokles would over hear us talking about this great run. With an empty trail and our posse of riders egging each other on, we didn't so much "ride" down the hill, but fly. I have done some Super-G races in my time but always with a speed suit, in this case I was wearing a full jacket and pants so at some unmeasurable speed my cloths felt like they wanted to pick me up off the ground. Quite a rush, considering the trails at Stratton tend to be a tad narrower than I am used to. It is nice to blow the cobwebs out once in a while.

Carvers A great thing about the carving scene right now is that it is still small enough to where you can meet and ride with people from the industry. Bruce with Coiler drove down from Canada to hand deliver some orders and show us how they make turns up North. John and Mike from Madd were there, talking about the new Madds due out any day. Binding shleps like myself from Bomber and Jeff from Catek were also there pedaling our goods.

Carvers Before I knew it, the day was over. Some people retreated to the closest bar called Grizzlies for a few brews. A little later on the majority of riders moseyed on over to a great low key bar called The Green Door. They had a deal on a steak and potato meal for six bucks at the bar. From the number of meals ordered it looked to be the choice of most.

Then came the raffle by (shameless plug) BomberOnline.com. I had brought a huge bag of goodies and damned if I was going to lug it back with me to Colorado. Bindings, a board, and all kinds of swag where passed out to those who held the lucky ticket. To top it off, a mysterious carving enthusiast bought all raffle ticket holders of a raffle ticket a round of beers. Who says you can't buy friends!

Carvers Tuesday was once again at Stratton. The weather was a little cold and blowing with low visibility. However, the weather couldn't even come close to keeping spirits down, with some of the best carving conditions nationwide. Much like the previous day, small groups of riders made their way down various runs. Trails like Standard and Liftline were some of the favorites.

Party By noon I was forced to rip myself away from the hill, get back in my rental car and head to the airport. The rest of the event was scheduled to continue at Stowe, but work was calling and I had to get back and start preparing for our Summit Expression Session. East Coast ice? All myth. This year's East Coast Expression Session was buttery smooth. Living up to its expression session roots, the group of riders made my experience out east a great one.