Just had to Photoshop that in there, didn't you?

Words by Josh Malczyk

Photos by John Wiechecki

The third annual LINE skis Downtown Rail Jam went off Saturday, Feb. 12 in Burlington, Vermont. The event took place at the bottom of College Street, overlooking the Lake Champlain waterfront with the Adirondack range in the background, a majestic scene for intense rail sliding action. This year the event was brought to you by the dudes at RightSide Productions and LINE skis, with sponsorship help from Sugarbush Mountain, the Ski Rack, Alpine Shop, Technine, Siver Cartel and a local frat, Kappa Sigma, threw down some money for the mass amounts of free stuff. Goggles, jackets, shirts hats, DVD and a ton of other schwag was flying around all night to the beats of DJ Danimal, Johnny Utah from the Buzz 99.9, DJ Milo, Darcie and Leia.

Rom has studied math enough to know that 90 + 180 = 270. Good work, Rom.

Tons of jibbers showed up from everywhere to session, and even Mike Nick showed up, new child in hand, to show him the sport he will be ruling in the future. The setup was sweet, a 12-ft flat box about 6 feet off the ground to a 16-ft down box provided by Sugarbush, as well as a 28-ft flatbar rail. The potential for combos was endless on these features. This thing was slayed by many a skier, notably Will Wesson throwing 270 on, fs switch up to bs 270 out, and LINE intern Rom busting some sick 270s and near 450s; way to slay it in the office and urban arena, buddy. Pat Waite, the eventual winner of the best trick comp, threw a tech switch 270 on, bs switch up to fs 270 out.

The flat bar saw a ton of action as well, with Will throwing some double switch up 270 outs, Tyler Secrest doing rollerblade style blind switch ups to 270 out and LINE el presidente Jason Levinthal getting some smooth slides in on some crazy looking new LINE skis. On a side note, not to be upstaged by the tech "lets see how many switch ups we can do on the flat bar" mini-comp, Pat Waite felt the need to do a back flip to face plant off a tiny bump lower on the street that Will had created earlier in the evening, taking mini shred to the next level, you almost got it man.

At the risk of writing an incredibly unoriginal caption, 'he should have read the sign.'

The boarders also killed this thing in beautiful harmony with the skiers as Mike Galves killed it all night finishing with a sweet board slide 180 to front side and Ben Stewart throwing smooth front sides and 270 on winning best trick for the shredders. So that was it for the 2005 LINE Downtown Rail Jam, the weather was sick, vibe was sweet, crowd was pumped and the progression of these kids on double tipped skis shows our sport getting sicker every year.

Q: How many snowboarders does it take to change a light bulb? A: 10. One to do it, and nine to say, "I can do that."

Thanks to everyone who came out, RightSide and LINE skis for putting on the event, the Burlington Park and Rec people for letting us use the road and to all the sponsors for hooking us up with tons of free schwag. Finally, big thanks goes out to injured LINE ground trooper John Wiechecki for taking a ton of tight pictures all night, talented on snow and also behind the camera, good work. Keep an eye out for next year's event and see the DTRJ video, more pictures all the other good stuff going on up here in northern Vermont at http://www.rightsideproductions.com. Peace.

Will gets tail.