All four members of Team J.A. Custom made it up on Tuesday night for some Hawk runs. MMT, H, and 4X were the dryest trails, W, EE, and HS had some really mucky sections, BB was okay.
My buddy was up for the first time this season and it was the most disappointed I had seen him since 2005 re: Mt. Wash. I didn't ride in 2004 but he did. He retired from jumping a long time ago when he busted his shoulder up so now he likes the flowy trails and nice berms. I have to agree with him that the new berms this year get a D minus. Most of them don't even deserve to be called berms but I don't know what else to refer to them as. Maybe super-mini-crappy-berms or SMCBs for short. According to my buddy, in 2004 they raced dual slalom on the old run from the lodge down to the Hawk. This year they flattened that old course and replaced it with a bunch of SMCBs. Lame!!!
I did two of the larger wood drops on the mtn for the first time and both landings were good.
The step-up-drop stunt at the slopestyle is super wide and beefed up this year. It appears it is going to shake down like this over the next 3 weeks or so: Course not ready -> open to pros only for practice -> competition -> dumb-down the bigger stunts -> hopefully open to the public by Thursday Aug. 9
Cotty