History. Culture. Two nouns, that...come to mean so much when it comes to an event like the Banked Slalom.  A fairly self contradictory event that is both underground yet famous at the same time.  Without TV distribution, prize money, VIP areas, and media only sections, the Banked Slalom rids itself of the exclusivity of many other large events while bringing people closer to the roots of snowboarding.  With a list of competitors that seems to include half the snowboard industry, the event could easily become pretentious and lame.  However, in towns like Glacier and at resorts like Mt. Baker, this could never be possible.  The first Banked Slalom took place in 1985, back when snowboarding was just beginning.  It hasn't changed much since then except for the course through the natural halfpipe being longer with an added, man made feature such as a cave/tunnel thing that riders must pass through.

A unique social scene surrounds the event with live bands, sponsored parties, seemingly mandatory bonfires at every social gathering that usually involve people jumping and walking across the fire and the burning of mattresses and rugs.  The final day of competition involves a massive feast of unusually large proportions of salmon and beer in the lower base area and...another massive fire. 

The awards say it all, with mounted rolls of duck tape spray painted gold, silver, and bronze along with handmade surfboards for the more competitive categories.  Yeah...the duck tape really is real duck tape from the store, none of this fake duck tape that has been going around. Damn high school kids. Where are the values these days?  Well, they definitely weren't at the party on Saturday in Jo's Garage at Joowana's, mainly because only people of age were allowed in the bar. What do you think this is? Another country like someplace other than this country? 

This year's event was knocked a little off by the weather and the fact that Tak's skate ramp wasn't finished.  Normally the saturday night party goes off at his place with kids sessioning the skate ramp and DJ Pat A laying down some beats, along with a massive bonfire of course. 

There was no shortage of police again this year as you can see from the photo.  Driving with open beers in the car  suddenly becomes a very risky endeavor...yes, it seems many people practice this forgotten ritual as there were cars pulled over everywhere, it felt like flipping a coin as to whether you would be stopped or not, even in the morning.  Yes, and...that's all I have to say right now so thanks for tuning in,  next year we'll have a reality TV show on Glacier, titled "Glacier: When Cops Invade, Put on a Charade."   I don't even know what that means actually.