Ben Hanisch had something in his head. It's stillthere. Last Friday night, Hanisch lined up with the bestin the snowboarding world. A couple guys ahead was his idol, EddieWall.
You couldn't miss Wall. He stood out like a neon bulb in hiselectric green snowboarding coat.
It was the rail jam of the Boost Mobile Pro of Snowboarding heldjust south of Soldier Field. In a rail jam, riders (the snowboarders)slide down a short approach, then hop their boards up on a rail andperform tricks.
It's about improvisation. That's partly explains the procedure, orlack of it. Riders roughly follow each other as they arrive at theapproach. But occasionally, the spirit will move one "to jump in."
Rail jams for snowboarders are cousins of the outlaw sport,perfected by skateboarders, of riding handrails and walls in publicspaces.
Friday's rail jam was legitimized with a $20,000 check going tothe winner.
Hanisch had a plan.
"I wanted to try one trick I had for a long time, this one thing Ihad in my head," Hanisch said. "I couldn't do it. It got prettyfrustrating. It is a 270 [degree spin] on and, at the kink, doanother 180 facing the rail. It is pretty difficult.''
His first attempt was, well, an attempt.
"I went down the middle one, and slipped out,'' Hanisch said. "Ihadn't snowboarded in like a week and a half."
I cringed at the crash landings. On missed tricks, a couple ridersdid massive headers into the snow piled around the bottom.
Hanisch said it wasn't so bad. The fake snow, giant ice cubesground up in a chipper and sprayed around the rail jam, was actuallypretty soft.
The setup was a center metal handrail flanked by two fake walls.
Crashes are part of the sport, a missed paint stroke on amasterpiece.
"It takes more than [chutzpah] to do good tricks on walls,''Hanisch said before the rail jam. These days it is all about style.Whoever looks best on the rails should come out on top."
The 17-year-old junior at Fremd High School in Palatine earned aspot in the rail jam by looking good and winning a Forum Youngbloodseries event at Raging Buffalo Snowboard Park in Algonquin on March13.
The world of snowboarding clips along. Hanisch already hassponsorships, including Jeenyus snowboards.
Even a novice observer such as myself easily could pick out whodeserved to win. Mark Frank Montoya did a nasty high-speed trick onthe center rail that had the crowd sucking in its breath. He took theoversized check for his "gap backside 270 to boardslide."
Oh, yes, there's lingo in snowboarding. I had brought along myskateboarding 12-year-old as a sporting interpreter. But the rapid-fire nouns the announcer clipped against the background of throbbingmusic baffled even him.
Snowboarding deserves more verbs.
Jeremy Kent, publicist for FUSE Sports, translated. Gap: he jumpedfrom one side of the rail entry to another rail. Backside: he spunbackwards. 270: he rotated 270 degrees before landing on the rail.Boardslide: he slid with board perpendicular to the rail (vs. a '50-50' done parallel to the rail).
You pick up [the lingo] as you go along,'' Hanisch said. It takesa long time to learn all the different tricks. After you have beendoing it for a while, you can name them. It is the direction youspin. There are two ways to spin, frontside and backside. [There isthe] switch, normal and opposite foot. Whether they are doing ontheir regular foot or their switch foot, which is a lot harder."
Hanisch has picked up a lot. He came to snowboarding because ofhis older brother Tim. Having been born in Palatine, snowboardingwasn't a natural fit. Ben started out with wakeboarding, the watersport similar to snowboarding.
"I know the next time, the next contest, I will have a lot moreconfidence,'' Hanisch said. "And I will probably end up doingbetter."
Part of winning the lead-in event at Raging Buffalo meant thatHanisch was put up in the same Chicago hotel with the othersnowboarders for the weekend. And he tasted the lifestyle.
It seemed like an interesting life,'' he said. You travel aroundto different countries. It seemed like it would be a greatprofession.''
There's something new in his head now.
DOING IT
Raging Buffalo Snowboard Park
Fact: Raging Buffalo was the first snowboard-only park.
Uh-oh: It's closed for the season. Spring melts snow.
Where: It's on Route 31 by the Fox River between Algonquin andCarpentersville.
Getting there: Exit Interstate 90 at 31. Go north seven miles.
Contacts: www.ragingbuffalo.com or (847) 836-RAGE.
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