Pond Skimming goes Intergalactic

Words and photos: Hendrik de Zwart

Madness—that is the best way to describe the Intergalactic Pond Skim that took place at Echo Mountain Park last Saturday. Set up as two ponds seperated by a single shotgun-type rail, the present, albeit small, crowd was stoked on the options that the rail gave to riders as a means to get across the pond, and they would not be disappointed...

The pond skim got underway, despite strong, damn cold winds, in an elimination format where each contestant got a turn to clear the pond, either by skiing the pond or sliding the rail, and those who made it across would try to make it again—this time from a shorter distance. Early favorites in the contest were Lakota Sage, in his... her... its? tight pink spandex and matching blue and pink Adidas starter coat for snowboarders, and Landon Spear a.k.a. skier extraordinaire and Jibij shop rider with some smooth 180 outs of the ponds, and siiiiick locked on slides on the rail.



After many runs, a gnarly face plant into the opposite wall by a skier, and a non-judged 180 INTO the pond to clear the whole thing, it was down to Landon Spear and Lakota Sage. Lakota, going first, opted for the skim from a ridiculously short distance, judging the rail to be too sketchy from so close for a snowboarder—mistake that was, as he found himself waddling in the pond.... and it was down to Landon to take the gold, needing only to grease the rail, and that he did. While a judging controversy almost caused Landon and Lakota to almost have to take another run, everyone soon realized that it was quite ridiculous to be bickering about who won a pond skim, because everyone wins.





At the end of the day, everyone was stoked on the pond skim, and even MORE stoked to hit the hot tub on the patio of Echo's lodge... Definitely an event to check out next year.