ashleyswan.ca

Dramarama – Shop Kids Edition

So let’s get this straight…

Saturday was an interesting day for me. It was the first contest of the season at Asessippi Ski Area this year. Get Amped was going off in the afternoon starting at 4:00PM. Instead of riding in it this year I elected to help judge it along with four other locals or resort employees. The contest categories were 17 & Up, 16 & Under, Girls, and Skiers. I would say there were at least thirty contestants entered in it this year, which is lower than usual, possibly because of how cold it was that day?

It was a slope style course in Asessippi’s mini terrain park on Robin’s Run, with basically two lines to choose from. The first option was either a ride on flat box or a street style t-box, followed by a small jump or dance floor option, then there was another small jump or a barrel bonk, and finally there was a flat down ride on t-box or a street style shotgun rail. So plenty of options for all riding levels…

I had been coaching all day in a CSF women’s camp (which was awesome!) so I decided not to ride in the contest, and also I felt that I wouldn’t mind judging since I feel that I’m pretty unbiased when it comes to what shop I support in Saskatchewan/Manitoba. Over the years, I’ve tried to support every shop’s start up regardless of what province it’s in. I think if you’re willing to invest the time and money into the local scene in a positive way, then you’re probably worth my time to deal with. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like a lot of other people feel this way…

Now I get it, a lot of shops want consumer loyalty, they want you to come spend your money there over another shop because that’s how they make their living and keep their shop open. If you’re not moving product, you’re not making money, and if you’re not making money, then what’s the point? So getting customers to support your shop is crucial, and one of the ways to do that is to create a bond with a customer. Making them feel like they’re part of what you’re doing… which is awesome, and it helps create and strengthen our snowboard community as well. The only downside to this is when your customers or riders get so loyal to your shop that they start to run down others in the process.

If you’re involved with a local shop and you’re proud of it, that’s awesome! Honestly, support them as much as you want. Sticker up your gear, tell your friends how they hooked you up, and spread positive vibes but don’t start going around hating on another crew just because they’re not part of yours. This seems to be a big problem in the prairies and I keep running into it over and over again this year.

However, an incident at Get Amped really made it clear to me how big of an issue this is… once the results were tallied up, and decisions were made we realized how close the standings were (a 0.5 difference between 1^st and 2^nd place) but we all felt that we did things as fairly as possible and went by the numbers that we had from all four judges. None of the sponsoring shop’s employees, riders, or owners was involved in the final judging process. It was myself, and three resort employees who did all the scoring. Now most of the people riding in this contest were people I’ve rode contests with before or known for many years, but I would like to think that what shop you’re from, how you act, or where you come from has no affect on my judging. I’m judging you solely based on your riding in that contest and on the features that I was given. Falling, putting hands down on a feature, or inverts resulted in no score. So I tried to judge everything as fairly as I possibly could, and I felt that the results on my sheet reflected it. No one seemed to be complaining going into the final rounds, it wasn’t until after it was all said and done that we had a problem…

The sponsoring shop’s rider took first place, now anyone who is putting on a contest knows that this can be a nightmare because as soon as that happens everyone starts crying that it was fixed or unfair. All sorts of strange ideas come up, and the shit talking starts… Now I can’t say that I completely agreed with the scoring done by the judges on the bottom features, but at the same time I couldn’t see them so I can’t say that they did it unfairly at all either. I know the features that I was on were done fairly, but that’s all I can say. That being said, someone is always going to feel that they should have placed higher (I’ve even felt this way at contests too) but that’s just how it goes. The contest was not fixed, no one added up the points wrong to make someone else win, and nobody was going out of their way to score any certain shop’s riders higher. So basically what I’m trying to say is suck it up and stop whining.

If you start hating on the contest and the shop that’s putting it on, all you’re doing is making the shop that you represent look bad. Don’t go around talking shit, and posting crap on facebook (especially if you weren’t even at the contest!!) because all that is doing is making event organizers, judges, and potential shop customers lose respect for you and your shop. We are all in the same industry and it makes a lot more sense to try and keep relationships positive whenever possible. You never know when you may need to work with those people in the future. Also, if you hate on a shop…there’s a pretty good chance that they’re not going to want to let you ride in their events any time in the near future. Just sayin…