Day 1 of Heat Harvest 2 at Sunday River beats late season storm —
10am, Bethel Maine: Riders meeting shows off the quickly growing interest in season two of Heat Harvest. Wardrobe highlights include flourescents of every blinding hue, plaid full-face ski masks, 40s style sunglasses and a bandanna variety that would make 50 jealous. A line forms, credentials are passed out and the lifts fill just as the sun reaches its full, blinding glory. Booyah batman!
11am: Entering into the Superpark area requires showing a credential twice, security has been tightened due to the still open area surrounding the event. A massive 70ft booter gap sits next to a rampy hip that many have begun to use as a media platform. Below the big air setup a number of rails and a box are still in setup-infancy. Neither of the lower features will see any action today.
12pm: Straight air speed checks have been swapped in for massive poll pass cossacks, spins of every variety, spreadies and switch tricks straight out of SSX on tour. I avoid hazarding a guess at the specifics of much of the aerial spin-flippery I witnessed, short changing anything that went down in the morning two hours wouldn’t be prudent. Suffice to say the massive booter rivaled last year’s jump in shape, meticulous grooming and possibility for utter domination. After a morning warm-up athletes and media retire to the lower barbecue area to show lunch just how things are done.
1-2pm: Ahmet has revealed that he is in fact bringing sexy back. Many of ahmet’s skiing compatriots inform him that they are unsure if sexy left at all. Ahmet is undeterred and quiets the crowd with barrage of flowing spins straight out of the JOI bag of tricks. Richie Paradise shows that he may in fact know the location of sexy aswell, floating a number of cab 10’s deep into the landing.
2ish on until 5: Strenio, Ahmet and a few other dedicated individuals choose to hike the jump in order to bag the best lit photos of the day under a slowly setting sun. Strenio declares early on that he will relentlessly pursue destruction of a cab 5 until the crowd is happy. Within three laps Strenio has met his goal, Ahmet has beat the sexy horse to death and the hip jump is now up for grooming. A quick shovel session brings about the last few hits of the day under the watchful eye of Sunday River ski patrol. Shea Flynn dials in a Flynn-ogenic 540, Erik Olson gets his antigravity on above and beyond anyone else and somewhere in the mix a flatspin finds its way into Heat Harvest history.
The sun sets, camera bags are packed and the youth of night ushers in celebration from the youth of skiing.
Day one, out.
