Snowboarders, skiiers and snow will blanket the lawn at the Bean Housing Complex at 15th and Agate Street this Thursday beginning at 3 p.m., as riders attempt to show off their skills and win a $500 cash purse in the UO Rail Jam.
Four dumptrucks of snow will be hauled onto campus from Mt. Hood Meadows, and coupled with three rails over 20 feet long, UO Snowboard Club President Austin DeKoning promises the competition will be exciting.
“With this rail jam, it’s a great opportunity for the riders to get up in front of their own friends and show off their talent,” DeKoning said.
Daniel Genco of Galvanic Design, the company in charge of bringing the competition to campus, said the UO Rail Jam will be the biggest and last in the four-stop tour.
The University is the final college campus along the route and will feature winners from previous competitions at Oregon State University and Chico State, among others. Additionally, 15 of the University’s own boarders will compete for bragging rights alongside professional and semi-professional performers. X-Games Silver Medalist skiier Sammy Carlson will also compete. Local professional snowboarder Corey Noble is also expected to compete.
Scotty “the Body” Conerly, who has hosted many action sports television shows for channels such as Fox Sports and emceed several national contests, will run the microphone. Conerly said he has always been around snowboarding and skiing.
“I grew up on Mt. Hood alongside some of the biggest names in snowboarding in the late ’90s,” Conerly said.
Conerly said he spends most of his time traveling around the country to all the major contests, but he said he is glad to help out the UO Rail Jam. He said although this year it is considered a smaller event in the world of action snow sports, he thinks that will change.
Genco and his business partner Ryan Kirkpatrick graduated from Oregon State last year, after having put on the first Rail Jam on campus. For the partners, it started as a student project for a business class, but Genco said he wanted to see it become a reality.
“We were told no probably 15 times,” he said.
The two didn’t take no for an answer and put on the event, which Genco said went really well. After graduating, Genco said people kept asking him how they could bring something similar to their college campuses.
“That’s when we decided we would bring this event to them and make their dreams possible,” he said.
Although the project is not a full-time job yet, Genco said he hopes to continue to expand the company.
OSU had its second Rail Jam last week and Genco said it was “probably five times bigger than last year.”
The rail jam has a following on Myspace.com, Genco said, and he said he hopes to continue to add new campuses next year, although he would like to keep the competition in the Northwest.
“It’s going to be a much bigger competition than everybody realizes,” DeKoning said of the UO Rail Jam.
Many sponsors will be on hand, and both DeKoning and Genco said there will be free giveaways and raffles for the crowd, which is expected to be about 5,000. Genco also promised “a DJ putting out some good underground sound.”
In addition to Galvanic Design, the University’s snowboard team has worked with the University chapter of the American Marketing Association.
Alex Kniess, president of AMA, said, “It’s an incredibly unique event.”
The AMA has been working with the UO Rail Jam to provide its members with real-life experience that isn’t available in the classroom. He said the rail jam was a perfect event to give its members an opportunity to find out if marketing is for them.
Kniess said, “There will be over 50 riders, both snowboarders and skiers that can throw down incredible tricks.”
Conerly said the integration of both snowboarding and skiing is great. He said although skiiers and snowboarders used to have a feud going on, both groups are beginning to realize they are there for the snow.
The competition will be run in 30-minute heats in a jam format, DeKoning said.
“One, two, three, back-to-back-to-back,” DeKoning said, describing the fast paced feel of the heats. “It’s going to be person after person, going in any order.”
Winners from each heat will move on to the finals round.
For Conerly, sports like snowboarding, surfing and skateboarding are about creative freedom. He said snowboarding is not a team sport.
“When you’re at a contest, you’re really competing against yourself,” Conerly said.
For DeKoning, snowboarding has a lot of appeal, including the extreme thrill and knowledge he can do something that has never been done before, all while expressing himself.
“Snowboarding has so much to do with culture,” DeKoning said. “It really makes for a fun environment.”
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There will be an informational and organizational meeting for volunteers interested in helping at the UO Rail Jam tonight at 6 p.m. in the EMU Fishbowl. For more information about the UO Snowboard Club or to volunteer for the event, contact Austin DeKoning at [email protected].