Icer Air 2008 Blog

I was very excited for this years Icer Air event. Media pass in hand, I was looking forward to the evenings festivities (Something to keep my mind off a dwindling 401k). As we were driving up from Santa Cruz, I was pumping up the event to my engineer bro “D” (An Icer newbie) about all the ripping camera angles we will have access too!

Connecting from 280 to 101, I kept telling him “Check it out…you should start to see the ramp from here”…I nearly ran of the road squinting to locate the ramp at the park???? WHAT THE F*@&!!!! Where the hell is it??? Well, they must have move it…yeah, that’s it! Makes sense, start it in the stands over home plate…less scaffolding, no direct sunlight on the ramp…That HAS to be it!

We check into our hotel, made sure camera batteries were charged and headed down to the pier for some over priced calamari. D & I talked over a few Anchor Steams about where we would like to setup in the morning, including capturing some city shots for our annual ‘CrackTube” Icer contribution! “Dude, its 9:00pm, lets head over to the Media Party”.

The Media Party was held at the Aquarium this year – great idea, something to distract you from the $8.00 beers! (I think I’m getting a money complex here). Tons of wannabies made the show and a couple of shredders but most of the Athletes were getting some well-needed rest. We ran into the crew from BNQT and asked (knowing they had already captured two days worth of footage) what the scene looked like? “Well, consider it Icer Light this year!” the event was moved to McCovey Cove parking lot A and instead of a ramp; they brought in a Euro Catapult! After picking our jaws off the floor, we decided to call it a night!

Loading up on the morning hot brew and unloaded the previous nights calamari we decided to head over to the park. Waiting in line (Still fuming about the $20.00 parking, guess it is a money thing!), I couldn’t help but notice there was no structure in sight (even over the 6’ temporary crowd control fence). Moving through the maze of tables, we finally made it inside, D turn to me and said “Is this it?” not saying a word we walk straight over to the jump area.

Standing in front of the jump-site two things came to mind, “Sign of the times and who is going to risk their career on this thing?” Just then Sammy Carlson came strolling up, I asked what he thought? ”Should be fun, I guess”. I asked Simon Dumont the same” Not sure yet, we’ll see”. I then walked over to the ever-positive Jon Olsson and asked if he would be jumping today and he said, “I wish, looks like a lot of fun”. Jon is still on the mend with a banged up meniscus and another heavy year of filming on the books.

It was already noon, the gates were open, crowd filling in and the guys had yet to launch any practice runs…and there was an obvious lack of snow! What’s going on?

According to an insider, this years financing fell through due to a personal relationship split! Sounds a little spinned to me! (What happened Glen?)

On top of that, the show had to deal with striking locals ? Union scaffold builders because Icer brought in non-union ramp builders in from Sweden, can’t we just have a show without some kind of drama!

The Catapult was at ground level, about 75’ in length, 6’ wide and a 15’ – 60 degree vertical launch ramp to a right hip. Riders held onto a ¾” rope and hit 0-60 in 2 seconds. Skiers straddled the pully system while boarders shot from one side or the other. The brave test pilots reported back to the team, this would need further discussion before anymore effort was put into it.

A riders meeting was called at 1:00 to discuss whether or not they would move forward with the program. Meanwhile, the 80 degree afternoon-sun was beating down on the snow, salt seeding seemed useless!

It was a little strange when golden boy, Jonny M. was on the ramp; in flip-flops stealing snow from the edges, to fill in the bare patches in the middle of the landing area…where the hell was the ground support?

It was decided a free-for-all “Best Trick” would be the way to go, splitting the purse between skiers and boarders. All were winners!

BMX & SKATE crew did their best on a smaller ramp version – I just kept having flashbacks to Spinal Taps, Stonehenge scene!

Metal Mulisha still blows my mind, how do you move that much steel in mid-air, I would say THEY were the highlight of the show!

There was an obvious lack of vendors and if felt like a disconnect in every section you stopped at. Cool stuff from Go Pro Camera’s and Quad Pong beer pong tables, they had a very good stoke going on. Great to see the continue support from the US & Canadian Resorts, very important to have them on board!

The Athletes, what can you say – it is such a treat to have these rippers in an environment that will stoke the newbie’s unable to see this kind of air in person on the slopes. It’s so important to have these young ambassadors jack up the kids on taking this sport to the next level. Thank you guys for risking your careers and lives for our entertainment.

Icer Air is such a treasure for the NorCal area and we (the consumer) need to do everything we can to help make sure this event continues on. This was just a little speed bump, bad timing, sucky economy, and who knows…maybe the last show! Lets make sure we spread the word for next year’s event and go out and spend some money!

OUT!