Legal to Shred (But Not Much Else)

It’s official: kids are better at riding rails than the old guys. At the Honda Session Steel and Sky Rail jam at Vail, January 12, 2007, the champions combined ages totaled a whopping 32. Seventeen-year-old Lucas Magoon and 15-year-old Ellery Hollingsworth each rode away from the rail competition with the most cash, and thus the men’s and women’s titles, respectively.

PHOTO GALLERY    Check out photos from the Rail Jam View Gallery>

The Session is in its 5th year at Vail, and every year the courses get bigger and better. This year, the course more closely resembled a skateboard park than anything that is meant for snowboarding. Riders tackled an uphill configuration of rails, boxes and even bowls, which beckoned them to be highly creative. And creative they were.

The judges weren’t looking for single tricks, although there were plenty of big moves to write home about, like Danny Davis’s 900 on the quarterpipe. But that didn’t even earn him a top ten slot, because it was the riders who did different lines every time, and used the entire course that really earned recognition.

With the unique format of the session, the top riders were paid out every fifteen minutes. That means the person who wins the first quarter, could potentially earn a ton more money, or none at all. And those who had a rough go at it for the first 15 minutes got a chance to redeem themselves, since their early blunders didn’t carry through on their score. This format really allows rider to go all out, try new things, and push the level of snowboarding.

It wasn’t just the champions who were young. The field was stocked with other youngsters like Jamie Anderson (16), Kevin Pearce (19), and Dustin Craven (18), who all held their own against some much older riders. For the women, veterans like Tara Dakides and Leanne Pelosi were in attendance, and for the guys, experienced riders like JJ Thomas and Zach Leach showed the new kids what their future might look like.

The steel and sky rail jam was definitely the best rail event of the year so far, thanks in large part to the course. Perhaps Magoon said it best, “If you went on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and built a course, this is what it would be!”

- Brooke Geery