January 19, 2005

Article and Pictures by Joe O'Connor

The weather was perfect for the rail jam, despite the frigid temperatures. Although there weren't many skiers, everyone was pumped to ski. There were about 10 skiers in the Am division, and about 5 in the Pro division. There was only one female skier, who participated in the Am division.

The course consisted of an A-box, a flat-down, a mini battleship, and a straight rail. To most people's standards, this isn't anything special, but it worked out fine and the rail jam had an overall great turnout.There was also only one skier judge, Mike Macura, who did an awesome job for judging by himself. The other two judges were boarders.

Both divisions had 45 minutes for their athletes to pull as many laps as they could, throwing down their best tricks. The one main rule was that you had to hit at least three jibs, if not, the run did not count. The Ams werenâ??t having any trouble with the a-box, and it was also pretty standard to disaster the flat-down. I was hoping to see a 270 disaster attempt, but my hopes were diminished because most of the skiers hadn't skied much, due to the lack of snow on Bromley and the east coast in general. Most of them weren't even bothering with the mini battleship, and skipping right to the flat rail. It was rare to spin onto the rail, but many 270-offs were executed.

Amateur

1st- Brian McKenna

2nd- Alex Cohn

3rd- Chris Conetta

Chris Conetta hits the flat rail.

After a short 15 minute break to grab lunch, the pros were out there. Although there were only about 5 skiers in the pro division, they all were pumped to ski and threw it all down. Bromley local Jon Dean had a great first few runs, stomping a switch butter 270 on, blindside switch-up on the a-box, a disaster on the flat-down, and a switch on 450 off the straight rail. Chris Kenefick made a really big effort to stomp a switch butter 270 on, switch-up, 270 off, but didn't quite get it. The rail jam had a great turnout and Bromley plans to have another this season.

Pro

1st- Jon Dean

2nd- Jeff Sponzo (boarder)

3rd- Chris Kenefick

Jon Dean on the downkink.