Thanks to Jenny Naftulin for the story & photos. 

Photo credit also goes to: Michael Nakonachny.

I awoke at 4 in the morning on Saturday to the sound of my rental car being returned to me at the Spruce Inn in Mansfield, Ohio. It was like Christmas morning. I jumped out of the bed, put on my coat and went out in to the starry night. Peter Olenick emerged from the car with only a pair of SpKs slung over his should and a very confused look on his face. After a cancelled flight from Denver, 3 delays and one rerouting with no luggage at all, Peter Olenick had successfully made it to Ohio for the 3rd stop on the Jib Academy Tour, Snow Trails! I took him to the cottage next door so he could get a few hours of sleep before the madness. Young Sam Carlson was already asleep sprawled out on the king sized bed. This of course left Peter who is easily 2 feet taller than Sammy, on the cot. That’s what teammates are for! I went back to my cottage and fell asleep wondering how I was going to find a XXXXL Obermeyer outfit and some Bigfoot-mounted Salomon’s by 9am….

We now know what kids in the Midwest do for fun! Saturday’s Jib Academy at Snow Trails completely exceeded everyone’s expectations! Attended by 60 participants, the park at Snow Trails got a good working on all day. The features were in top notch condition due to the hard work of the Snow Trails crew and no one was disappointed…not even Hood and Aspen locals Sammy Carlson and Peter Olenick who could not believe what a great park they got to session in the Midwest! Peter and Sammy were joined by Seth Warner, Tommy Ellingson and four amazing Snow Trails locals- Justin, Mitch, Mark and Ashcroft as the guest coaches.

At the end of the day it was Nick Goepper from Lawrenceburg, Indiana who won the coveted trip to Mammoth. The top three winners were only separated by a few votes each and the level of competition was amazing! Nick’s favorite part of the day was getting to watch Peter and Sammy kill it in the park. “I can’t believe I got to ski with Sammy and Peter and now I am going to Mammoth! I’ve barely been out of the state of Indiana,” said Nick. It was definitely worth the drive for Nick! He wowed judges with his smooth cork 9’s and amazing attitude.

After the awards and the Snow Trails Spongebob piñata, (don’t ask), the coaches decided to keep skiing the park. As if the day couldn’t get any better, we happened to show up on the day of the Snow Trails annual Hawaiian party that night!

We can’t thank all of you guys for showing up to make this event go off! Huge props to Snow Trails for taking such amazing care of us and making sure we had a killer park to ride all day! I want to give a shout out to Nate, Scott, Amy and all the coaches who made this such a successful event. We are definitely going back to Snow Trails next year! If you missed out this time, you got a few months to get ready for the next one!

See you guys at Northstar on the 17th and Breck on the 1st! We will find out who else will be joining Nick #1, Nick #2 and Anna at the final!! If your name is Nick… I would definitely hit up the Northstar or Breck stop.