Master of board games

STRATTON, Vt. -- A quarter century ago, few skiers in these parts had seen snowboarding, and the early boarders were using ropes to steer their boards, which were just emerging from "snurfers" -- surfboards on snow.

Nearly all ski areas banned the infernal things, and yet there was a youthful movement afoot. In 1982, Jake Burton brought a few of those experimental boarders together in Stratton -- where he worked -- for boarding's first competition, and the birth of the US Open.

Where the last 25 years have gone mystifies Burton, who is about to preside over the 25th US Open at Stratton Mountain this weekend. Few of today's top riders -- Shaun White, Kevin Pearce, etc. -- were born when Burton formed that first event. But now, with boarding having three events in the Olympics, the sport obviously has matured.

"We've come a long way since we used an upside-down kitchen table as a start gate," says Burton, remembering the first Open. If he's not technically the inventor of the snowboard, Burton certainly is the father of what was once called "skiing's alternative." But despite the growth and new professionalism of the sport, Burton said he is pleased to see that some things don't change.

"In those early days, I never looked much beyond a year at a time," he says. "I knew we had a real sport here, but I had no idea of where it was going. What I love about the [Open] is that not much has really changed at the core of the sport. You still have these passionate fans who are like they were in the beginning."

And despite boarding's growth into a worldwide sport, Burton is pleased by the success of boarders from the Green Mountain state at the US Open.

"It's still great to have these local Vermont kids like Kevin Pearce, who may be the best in the world right now," says Burton. "And there's Kelly [Clark] and Ross [Powers]. That's part of the feeling that things are very much as they were. There's that hardcore vibe and the laid-back feel there always was."

What has changed is the scope of the event, the media frenzy, and the prize money. On Saturday, Burton will announce the winners of the Burton Global Open Series -- the male and female winner each will receive $100,000. Some 30,000 spectators are expected to watch the Open as Olympians and X-Games champions compete for more than $250,000 in prizes.

The competition begins tomorrow at Stratton's Sun Bowl with the men's and women's slopestyle finals. On Saturday, the men's and women's halfpipe finals will take place, and the Big Air competition is under the lights.

Asked if he had any idea the sport would grow to such an extent, Burton said he never focused too far ahead.

"I think I had the vision to realize we had a real sport here, but I never could foresee how far it could go," says Burton. "It's not like the sport grew like an Internet company -- a thousand percent in one year. We grew steadily and hung in there through some tough times."

From the time it took off in the 1980s, snowboarding doubled in size every year for the first 15 years, and much is made of how modern skiing borrows from snowboarding's innovations, says Burton. "I think boarding is a lot more laid-back and more about the experience on the snow," says Burton. "I mean, open up a ski magazine and it's about the hotel room and putting a roof rack on your BMW. Boarding still feels very different from that."

Skiing has changed, largely by the influence of boarding. The most obvious development is free skiing, in which skiers use twin-tip skis to perform on the same venues, pipes, and terrains that boarders use. The X-Games have both skier cross and free skiing in the pipe, but Burton does not see anything like that happening in the Open.

"We're not trying to be the X-Games here," he says, adding that even snowboard cross, which first appeared in the Turin Olympics, has not been fully accepted in the snowboard world.

Snowboard cross was a crowd pleaser as it entered the Olympics. The only problem, says Burton, is that slopestyle, a discipline much more popular with riders, was left out of the Games.

"No one's angry that snowboard cross is in the Olympics," says Burton. "But [Olympic officials] are just oblivious to youth culture, because it's a sin that there's no slopestyle. That's what kids want to be doing."

Having had a finger on the pulse of the sport through its development, Burton would like to see boarding become easier lo learn and more fun.

"We have LTR [learn to ride] centers," he says, "and we're totally focused on trying to make the sport more fun and the learning process easier."

But whether it's a halfpipe, terrain park, boarder cross racing, free riding in the back country, or taking STASH runs -- terrain parks with natural features -- to Burton and the millions of fans of a sport, "The bottom line is that there's no uncool style of riding."