When the New York Times features a snowboarding event, you'd be crazy to not take notice. Granted, the event is in the Big Apple, but it's still going to be insane. As the centerpiece of the NYC Parks Department's Winter Jam NYC, a two-day event scheduled for Feb. 5 and 7, Snow Park Technologies's Frank Wells and Mike Bettera have built a 90-foot structure that features a huge booter to an 80 foot long spine (see photo).
In East River Park on the Lower East Side, construction has already begun on the Snowscraper, a structure that officials are calling the largest ever built for a special event in the New York City parks. It is being built by a sporting events company called Aura360 and financed by Red Bull, the Austria-based energy drink maker known for its marketing around extreme sports.
In case it doesn't actually snow, no worries. The snowmaking for the Winter Jam has also already begun. Presumably, the ramp can also accommodate actual, as opposed to manufactured, snow. With a purse of $100k the big guns are coming out to get down in the Big Apple. The confirmed riders are Shaun White, Travis Rice, Pat Moore, Eero Ettala, Dustin Craven, Kevin Pearce, Mikkel Bang, Danny Davis, Kohei Kubo, Kazuhiro Kakubo, Terje Haakonsen, Andreas Wiig, Torstein Horgmo, Jake Blauvelt, Greg Bretz, Bjorn Leines and JJ Thomas.