{"id":55133,"date":"2019-09-25T17:35:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T22:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brookegeery.com\/?p=55133"},"modified":"2019-09-25T17:35:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T22:35:05","slug":"the-yobeat-race-team-competes-at-slash-and-berm-5-last-weekend-whenever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brookegeery.com\/?p=55133","title":{"rendered":"The Yobeat Race Team Competes at Slash and Berm 5: Last Weekend, Whenever"},"content":{"rendered":"\t

Archives<\/h1>\t\t

Originally Published on Yobeat |\u00a0March 5th, 2018<\/h5>\n
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The Google bots want keywords in the header so here goes: This is a story about the\u00a02018 Slash and Berm Banked Slalom<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Killington, Vermont<\/a>. This two-day event was sponsored by\u00a0Darkside Snowboards<\/a>\u00a0and Whiteflag Sales and benefited the High-Fives foundation. The weekend consisited of an individual race Saturday and an Industry Team event Sunday. As is to be expected from Yobeat, I wrote a story about our team\u2019s journey, as well as a quick review of\u00a0Torah Bright\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0autobiography \u201cIt Takes Courage<\/a>,\u201d which you can read below. And since we snowboarded instead of watching the individual race, please enjoy this non-exclusive gallery from Killington sharp shooter Dave Young!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Torah Bright had already won an Olympic gold medal in halfpipe and established herself as one of the the most progressive and stylish women in the snowboard world, when she decided to do the incomprehensible. She aimed to\u00a0compete in all three disciplines of snowboarding in the Sochi Olympic games.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d Everyone asked. \u201cWhy on earth would you wanna risk a broken neck in snowboard cross and huck yourself of the sure-to-be-unsafe Russian slopestyle course?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s not even taking into account the grueling qualification process to earn slots in each of the three events for her motherland of Australia. But Torah\u2019s answer was simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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I purchased\u00a0Torah\u2019s autobiography<\/a>, written not just about this incredible feat, but also about her childhood, family, religion, career and even her short-lived marriage to\u00a0Jake Welch<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIt Takes Courage\u201d in 2015. It\u2019s been sitting idly on my bookshelf since. But with my sights set on the team event at the 5th Slash and Berm Banked Slalom in Killington, Vermont, March 3rd, 2018, I thought, \u2018what better way to waste a cross country flight than actually reading it?\u2019<\/p>\n

As I sat in the JFK airport watching Winter Storm Riley bare down on the Eastern Seaboard and the departure of my flight to Burlington push further and further back, I lost myself in Torah\u2019s cute Australian phrasing and the quick and easy reading that was her life story. I read each chapter (which she cheekily referred to as Runs) with a much better understanding of what it takes to be a top-level competitive snowboarder (of any gender.) And I smiled and pondered deeply as I read each of the inspirational quotes at the beginning of each \u201crun.\u201d<\/p>\n

What I didn\u2019t realize is that when I finally made it to Rutland (8 hours later than I was supposed to) and woke up on Sunday with sore muscles from the recreational shred day with friends I\u2019d enjoyed the previous day at Killington, I would actually need to channel my inner Torah make it down the course that day. In fact, the first thing I did after wiping the sleep from my eyes was text my teammate\u00a0Jason Bayne<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Bayne had been instrumental in helping assemble team Yobeat, and had already recruited Ian Nugent from Darkside Ludlow. Our fourth recruit (teams could exist with three, but since the lowest score would be dropped, that\u2019s just silly) was Colorado-bred eyecandy Patrick Whitehead. Patrick had landed on the East Coast right as I\u2019d posted a plea for team members on Instagram and a few quick texts later had secured his slot. Really, they didn\u2019t even need me, I told myself. And surely there would be someone else that would take over my pre-paid entrance fee to benefit the High-Fives foundation happily, and do a better job.<\/p>\n

But nothing resonates with me like the word lame, so I thought about Torah\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don\u2019t try.\u201d \u2014 Beverly Sills, Run Six<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She\u2019s right, damn it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing you can give and keep is your word.\u201d \u2014 Unknown, Run 15.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018Fuck,\u2019 I thought, as I pulled on my Airblaster ninja suit, and realized I didn\u2019t have a choice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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When I arrived at Darkside Killington to pick up my freshly-waxed snowboard, Patrick was in the shop scraping the wax off his board. He smiled and hugged me and thanked me for letting him represent Yobeat that day. I continued to the journey to the Bear Mountain parking lot. With no parking lot attendants in sight, I chose to begin a new row directly perpendicular with the lodge and was happily relieved as our first alternate and waterboy Jim O\u2019Leary pulled in right next to me. The rest of the row filled in quickly and I realized I\u2019d set a trend. This was my calling, to lead the team to victory. Yeah, I probably wouldn\u2019t go the fastest that day, but if I didn\u2019t show up, why would anyone else even want to try?<\/p>\n

At registration, Bayne and \u201cNuuge\u201d had already signed us up and left to go get beer. I carried a 12-pack of CL Smooths in my hand and cracked the top to hand one to Patrick as he put on his bib.<\/p>\n

He accepted it and said, \u201cPerfect, I\u2019ll have this right after my runs.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I shook my head in disappointment. \u201cPlease, that\u2019s your warm up beer and liquid courage,\u201d I explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I could drink and snowboard,\u201d he said. \u201cBut all I can really do when I drink is drink.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOh Patrick, it\u2019s a dosage thing. One is just right, two is too many.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the best coach I\u2019ve ever had, Brooke,\u201d he laughed, as I cracked my own warm up beer and headed out to the lift line.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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At the base of the Skye Peak quad I encountered another unforeseen challenge. How to strap in with an open beer in one hand and an open 12-pack in the other? I gently placed one on either end of my first-generation DWD Bogart and figured it out. But as I stood back up, an angry skier lady scolded me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know it\u2019s illegal to bring your own alcohol on government property,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I had a flashback to the last\u00a0Slash and Berm event I attended<\/a>. When I\u2019d done the exact same thing in the exact same line and was pretty sure the exact same lady scolded me in the exact same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh sorry, I\u2019m not from here,\u201d I laughed, slamming the rest of the beer and tossing the can in the garbage. She didn\u2019t need to know that I\u2019d grown up here, right?<\/p>\n

At the top of the course, energy levels were high. We still had time for a course inspection and I decided in the interest of training, I\u2019d take my first run swaddling the opened 12 pack of beers. I wiggled through the gate and made it through the first two turns, down the staircase, up and over the step up and even managed to figure out there was an easy way around the gator pit. I didn\u2019t go fast, came to a couple complete stops, and I skipped the icy halfpipe wall gate entirely, but me and my 10 silver bullets were in tact when I crossed the finish line. The Killington Parks crew had created a totally manageable course and I didn\u2019t think I was going to die even once. Success!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Worried about another encounter Debby Downer in the lift line, I decided to stash six of the beers at the finish line and put the other four in the Kangaroo pouch of my Saga jacket for safe keeping\/additional training. I gave one to the finish line attendant to keep an eye on my stash for me and continued on my way.<\/p>\n

When it actually came time to race, I discovered my team was a good one. After the first run, Patrick sat in 9th, Ian in 15th and Bayne was in 24th. I held it down with a solid 59th place time (not terrible, considering there were 115 competitors.) The Phat Italian had catered an incredible lunch of sub sandwiches and choosing between the \u201cPhat Italian\u201d and the \u201cPhat Stallion\u201d actually proved to be a much harder decision than forcing myself to compete that day.<\/p>\n

Of course, we still had another run to complete and the rapidly firming man-made snow was starting to give way to the classic Eastern Blue Ice you knew was under there the whole time. We took our runs quickly and I\u2019m sad to say, Team Yobeat suffered two rider crashes and a DSQ. Only Patrick was able to improve his time to earn 10th over all.<\/p>\n