No snow? No problem, dude!
Boarders truck Zamboni shavings to their homemade run
|
|
Toolbox
By HANNAH VAN SUSTEREN Correspondent - Published: December 24, 2006
Desperate times call for desperate measures. No two people know this better than Parker Fothergill, 18, and Sam Amses,17, of Calais, avid snowboarders who have found snow during this mostly snow-less December.
The two have been finding snow behind the Civic Center Memorial Center in East Montpelier, and they have hauled it by truck to Amses' home in North Calais, where they have set up their own snowboarding run in the backyard.
It all began a few years ago when the two, in their early teens, and without driver's licenses that would allow them to drive to Sugarbush, constructed a run with wooden boxes and sheets of Plexiglas.
"We didn't have our license so we brought the mountain to us," said Amses, a senior at U-32 High School.
Now they can drive and would prefer to head to the mountains but with few trails open, the two are back in the back yard and using their own snow. They have taken to filling up Amses' pickup truck with ice shavings left over after the Zamboni has cleaned off the ice rink.
Returning to Vermont for the holidays from college in a now-very-white Colorado, Fothergill was disappointed to find a mostly brown Vermont.
"I went from boarding all the time to having nowhere to go," he said.
"We got the idea to take the snow from the Zamboni last year and did it maybe once or twice for fun. Now we don't have a choice because there's not enough snow on the mountains," said Amses.
Using an entire truckload of ice shavings, they have built a snowy run about five yards long. What follows the run is a jump of several feet and then a landing on the Plexiglas. The two can do a 270-degree flip, a nose press and switch front board pretzel. Walt, Sam's father, is impressed.
"They're really the only ones with any snow right now," said Walt, joking that he could sell tickets to other boarders but that "insurance might be a problem."
"They used to play outside when they were young, but when they got older you don't see that much anymore. It's great to have them out in the yard again."Wearing long-sleeved shirts, ski pants and winter hats, Fothergill and Amses team up with friends Charlie Mayforth, 14, of East Montpelier, and Jeff DeForge, 16, of Adamant.
Pulling a car right up to the hill, the boys can turn on the headlights and have a lighted trail at night. They also can blast music.
The run itself is only about 30 seconds but it is long enough for a thrill. Using a shovel and metal rake, they groom the trail between runs.
This practice is actually important. Fothergill and Amses are serious enough snowboarders that they were picked up by Pure Snowboard in Waitsfield last winter. Mayforth became sponsored by the snowboarding store earlier this year. They also make videos of their moves to send out to competitions.
"That woulda been unbelievable if you didn't fall," teases Mayforth as Fothergill teeters at the edge of the Plexiglas before falling in a pile of snow at the end of the trail.
"That move was sick, dude," chimes in DeForge.
While all four boys play other sports – Fothergill a golfer (finished second in the New England boys high school tournament 2005), Amses and Mayforth on the U-32 soccer team, DeForge on the U-32 hockey team — , they agree that there is something special about snowboarding.
"It's just the most fun," said Mayforth. "It's just the most free-willed sport."
"It's just not worth going up to the mountains right now. We were there earlier today but with only one lift open, you had to wait an hour. This is much more fun right now," said Amses. "We could stay out here all night."
"What makes me happiest is that no one else can do it (snowboarding) right now," said Fothergill. "We're pioneers."
37