Tuesday, February 21

washed up cup 2012 -preview w/ seth neary

I have mentioned the Washed Up Cup a few times on 10engines before [a GS race for former and non-pro snowboarders, held during the US Open Snowbard Champs' at Stratton, VT -ed.] but just grabbed co-founder Seth Neary for a quick interview and wanted to hear the thinking behind it, in his words.
Seth: Basically, the Washed Up Cup is a reunion of past competitors of the US Open. We're all Washed Up and we know it. We love it. This will be the 4th annual.

[In 2 weeks the view from here will be racing gates all the way down... -ed.]

10engines: Respect that this is a timed event and revel in the retro-ness of it, but beyond that also seems like a chance to celebrate some of the "personalities" from USOpen's past?
Seth:Yeah, it's really an excuse to get together to celebrate and relive old glory days. The GS was the easiest thing to organize - A lot the competitors are actually half-pipe riders from the 90's. We're hoping a lot of old pros show up. We'd love to resurrect the original pipe in the original spot and have Lyle cut it with the backhoe. We can only dream.


[Trevor Graves photo of Lyle Blazedale in action, circa 93/94.
This was a poster for the 25th USOpen -ed.]

10engines: You are the Friday night show now? How did this get added to the Open schedule?
Seth: Burton contacted me and Steve Hayes and proposed the idea of including the WUC in the 30th annual US Open. We thought it was a great idea - We all miss competing at the Open and started this little reunion event during the Open so we could some how feel a part of it again. We have our event on Suntanner on Friday - that way we could go over to Sun Bowl on Saturday and watch the main event. The last 3 years have been really fun and a great time for people to catch up and race.

10engines: There is kind of a twist this year, a jump on the course... As soon as I heard "jumps included" all I could think of was this shot below of Jeff Brushie breaking out in the middle of a run (1992).


Seth: A lot of the competitors were half-pipe riders back in the day; Jason Evans, Seth Miller, Eric Rehbein, Jason Goldsmith, Jay Rehbein, Lukas Huffman, Jesse Huffman, myself... We were talking about changing it up a little bit this time and not be so structured. Basically we want to throw Methods for the crowd (if we still can). The jump will be after the timed finish line and is optional. That part will be judged and time will be deducted from your overall time based on how rad you get.
10engines: Over the past few years some guys on older equipment did quite well I believe... what is your take on that? They just know how to ride or "short boards suck, long boards truck" as Coughlin would say? Haha.
Seth: In the past 3 years some older boards have been dusted off and waxed up. Kevin McMan road an original Burton Cruiser and did really well. I think he got 3rd.

Basically, If you competed in the Open before 2006 and consider yourself retired or Washed UP you're welcome to compete. If you're Ross Powers and just won a Method contest at the Xgames last year or you're Terje and competed in the 1992 US Open but just won the 2012 Baker Bank Slalom... you can forerun, lol.
The 4th Washed Up Cup will be on Friday, March 9th, 6-9pm at Straton Mountain, VT. More official info via OpenSnowboarding.