Who is Billy Van Gilder?

[Papasteeze]

I heard him tell Big Boulder that if they did not stand behind his decision to close the bottom jump of the East Coast Challenge that he was going to pull out in the middle of the competition.

 

I want to know who this guy is that he can act like that? My understandings is that he is the USASA in our area. Is that True?

 

Is it also true that he is the one actually behind Camelbacks' Park improvements or lack of?

[toast21602]

USASA President

[First Grade Teacher]

USASA President

 

Yep............E-board president. He lives in Pocono Pines. They also own the Jubilee Restaurant on 940.

 

Edited January 10, 2007 by First Grade Teacher

[johnnypowder]

His USASA affililation comes from his starting and running the MidAtlantic Snowboard Series (MASS).

He also runs many of the competitions in the region including parts of the Grand Prix at MC (which has been cancelled and is being moved due to lack of snow) and the US Open

He also runs some events out west including the USASA Nationals.

He is the force behind the Camelback Mountain School

 

 

He is also handling the registration and judging for the Oakley Rail or Bail Series. He is picking the rails and will decide on the set up at each location.

 

He knows his stuff and knows how to run a good, efficient, and safe competition

[Papasteeze]

hmmmmm... well.......... from an outsider just starting to look within competitive freestyle in our area, I want to say more, as I stare at this screen I think I will hold my thoughts for now and say that there must be a reason why he has stepped up to the plate to lead that organization.

[Papasteeze]

His USASA affililation comes from his starting and running the MidAtlantic Snowboard Series (MASS).

He also runs many of the competitions in the region including parts of the Grand Prix at MC (which has been cancelled and is being moved due to lack of snow) and the US Open

He also runs some events out west including the USASA Nationals.

He is the force behind the Camelback Mountain School

He is also handling the registration and judging for the Oakley Rail or Bail Series. He is picking the rails and will decide on the set up at each location.

 

He knows his stuff and knows how to run a good, efficient, and safe competition

 

Thanks Johnny!!! That helps a lot. Does he also hold the reigns on the accredition for judges and coaches level certifications?

[Papasteeze]

The USASA welcomes both new additions to the Executive Board.

 

The Rest of the Executive Board for the USASA includes:

 

Bill VanGilder- of Pocono Pines, PA - President

 

Gordon Robbins of Bondville, VT - Treasurer

 

Phoebe Mills of Londonderry, VT - VP

 

Tim Windell of Brightwood, OR - VP

 

Randy Mertl of Truckee, CA - Riders Representative

 

Kit Hennessey of Evergreen, CO - Riders Representative

 

United States of America Snowboard Association is dedicated to supporting recreational and competitive snowboarding and freestyle skiing within 38 regional series throughout the United States of America. Since 1988, USASA has fostered the competitive spirit of snowboard athletes and developed a solid grassroots organization that allows men and women, and boys and girls of all ages and abilities to participate in over 500 organized snowboard events that qualify for national and international competition. USASA Trainers supports educational programs throughout the year and organizes snowboard clinics hosted at various resorts in the U.S. These clinics serve as training for instructors, coaches, judges and technical supervisors to help provide Safe, Fair, and Fun events.

[johnnypowder]

Looks like you answered your own question but for his events in the area he has a staff of judges who he has trained. They are trained for the different disciplines such as pipe, slopestyle, rail, etc...

 

I have known Bill for a while and have been happy with being affiliated with his MASS series as a sponsor and also having him run competitions we have put on.

[toast21602]

Looks like you answered your own question but for his events in the area he has a staff of judges who he has trained. They are trained for the different disciplines such as pipe, slopestyle, rail, etc...

 

I have known Bill for a while and have been happy with being affiliated with his MASS series as a sponsor and also having him run competitions we have put on.

 

what do you do for him and what kind of sponsor are you?

[Papasteeze]

OK.... now I am getting a picture... Our area does not have an accredited freestyle SKIING program. I was amazed at Okemo to see the turnout for the USSA Slopestyle event last Saturday.

 

I am biased towards skiers. I noticed some things, minor things in grand scheme of a really sick event that should be pointed out.

 

Twin Tip skiing is the fastest growing segment of the snow market right now. In an open plea................ Billy, please respect the skiers, get up to speed and tailor your porgram to fit everyone.

 

BTW, that announcer on top of the Red Bull truck..... If he laughed at one more skier wrecking on the bottom jump...........

 

Closing that bottom jump when the BB staff was on it, tweaking it twice before the comp started was just plain lame... I think it was closed because only a very few snowboarders had the skills to hit it. Maybe not, I didn't watch that jump the whole event, I just heard all the comments later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not that this observation is the be-all to end-all.. but I have witnessed a reoccuring trend in the younger freestylers.. The NextSnow event which is for 13 and under is the best indicator of what is happening.. Every qualifying comp that Nips has been in (12) has had snowboarders outnumbering skiers 2 to 1, yet in the finals, skiers outnumber riders 2 to 1.

[Papasteeze]

what do you do for him and what kind of sponsor are you?

 

hahaha relax.. he is with Buckmans. Johnny is a good guy!

[toast21602]

it was a relaxed question.. i was just wondering haha

[johnnypowder]

it was a relaxed question.. i was just wondering haha

 

that's how it was taken

and as papa said, I am with Buckman's and we help sponsor his MASS series of events. this year we are his exclusive shop sponsor. last year we sponsored the events at BC only.

thru stuff with Oakley (in particular Freddie K our rep) we have done stuff with Bill for years like the Feb Rail Jam at BB last year, our Nighttime Rail or Bail Contest (which is where the series name came from for this year) at BB in Jan '04, and some other stuff.

 

had some flurries in Pottstown this morning and looks like a chance for snow on Tues! winter is back!!!!!

[Papasteeze]

Just refreshing this thread.

 

OK.... now I am getting a picture... Our area does not have an accredited freestyle SKIING program. I was amazed at Okemo to see the turnout for the USSA Slopestyle event last Saturday.

 

I am biased towards skiers. I noticed some things, minor things in grand scheme of a really sick event that should be pointed out.

 

Twin Tip skiing is the fastest growing segment of the snow market right now. In an open plea................ Billy, please respect the skiers, get up to speed and tailor your porgram to fit everyone.

 

BTW, that announcer on top of the Red Bull truck..... If he laughed at one more skier wrecking on the bottom jump...........

 

Closing that bottom jump when the BB staff was on it, tweaking it twice before the comp started was just plain lame... I think it was closed because only a very few snowboarders had the skills to hit it. Maybe not, I didn't watch that jump the whole event, I just heard all the comments later.

 

 

Not that this observation is the be-all to end-all.. but I have witnessed a reoccuring trend in the younger freestylers.. The NextSnow event which is for 13 and under is the best indicator of what is happening.. Every qualifying comp that Nips has been in (12) has had snowboarders outnumbering skiers 2 to 1, yet in the finals, skiers outnumber riders 2 to 1.

[Justo8484]

i'm gonna agree with papa again here and add to the claims about bill. johnny, i'm not sure in what capacity you've dealt with bill before but of the comps i've been in where he was in charge, some have been run pretty well (usasa comps where the format is pretty much set) but everything else where he has more of a say in, has been pretty sketch. the oakley jam at boulder last year was awesome, except for the blatant bias towards snowboarders. anyone who witnessed the finals first hand knows who should have one, and if you don't believe me, i have video to back up my claims. as for the team comp at boulder, again, it was top notch, the park was amazing for the most part, and everything was great (besides the forementioned snowboard bias of bill's judging crew) until bill started messing with things again. the bottom jump should have been the feature in the comp, not the top one. everyone on boulder's park staff knew that, which is why they closed it off twice to regroom it and make it quite possibly the best jump i have ever hit in my life, which says a lot for a jump in PA. i've been to mt snow, stratton, okemo, killy, and whistler when they all had sick parks open, and the jump ian and his crew at boulder made down on the bottom of boulder was on par, if not better than anything i hit elsewhere, but for whatever asinine reason, bill felt it was unsafe because a few kids got hurt on it because they came in too slow, when there was ample room to get plenty of speed. you didnt have to worry about overshooting it from too much speed either, so as long as you sacked up and took some speed into the thing, it was spot on. the top jump however, had a much flatter, shorter in run and more kick to the lip with a much shorter landing. out of my heat, i would estimate that close to 75% of the group couldnt clear the jump. during lunch, i asked bill why he switched to the top jump, and said it was because a few kids couldnt clear the bottom one. last i checked, a few is not as many as 75%. no one from the lower numbered heat even practiced that jump because we were told it wasnt in the comp, so for most of us, our first hit on the jump counted towards our results. its flat out unsafe to be throwing tricks off a jump for your first hit, but thats what we were forced to do if we wanted to have our three hits on the thing count towards our score. while i was talking to him during lunch, he even said that after he saw everyone hit that first jump, he thought he should have switched it back to the bottom jump. if the majority of the kids there were fine on the bottom jump, you don't switch things at the last minute and not even give people time to practice a jump and at least get their speed down. so much for him providing a safe competition. also, as papa said, he needs to get his judges up to speed on what's what in skiing. just looking at scoresheets from usasa last year, i noticed kids on snowboards who really didnt do anything spectacular would still be getting higher scores than us skiers who were actually doing technically difficult tricks. granted we were not competing against each other in that scenario, but in an event such as boulder's team challenge or the oakley jam last year where skiers and snowboarders are judged together, they need to be judged fairly. a nollie on a snowboard is entirely different than a nollie on skis, as is riding switch, or spinning onto or off of a rail.

[ThinkSnow]

Dude I'd love to read your post but my eyes go cross eyed looking at that wall of text... Paragraphs please!

[Justo8484]

Dude I'd love to read your post but my eyes go cross eyed looking at that wall of text... Paragraphs please!

ha sorry man it was getting close to bedtime on that one...feel free to edit that for readability if you feel like it.

[Papasteeze]

he needs to get his judges up to speed on what's what in skiing. just looking at scoresheets from usasa last year, i noticed kids on snowboards who really didnt do anything spectacular would still be getting higher scores than us skiers who were actually doing technically difficult tricks.

 

 

So what can we do to move forward? How do we get qualified skier judges or does VanGilder have the monopoly in our area.

[toast21602]

it is hard to find qualified freestyle skiing judges because it is a relatively new sport. when i first started to ski, there were no parks of any sort. now you cant go to a mountain without finding one. i remember when skiers werent even allowed to be in the parks too, creating another setback in freestyle snowsports. many of the people who have the knowledge of judging correctly in these comps are still able to be competing in them as well. so i dont think that we will get the high caliber judges that know snowboarding AND skiing for a few years.

[johnnypowder]

points taken

 

i will talk to Bill about your concerns, perhaps even suggest he read the thread.

 

don't know what to suggest about getting judges more skier friendly...

as more skiers enter contests things will level out.

 

Bill's apparent bias may stem from the fact that he runs an organization which started out as a snowboard specific group and most of the area comps are more than 80%-90% boarders. For the last few years his series has been open to skiers.

Hopefully skiers will continue to infiltrate the comps.

 

i was stoked at Shawnee last Sat as there were between 5-10 skiers out of 60 competitors and a skier won!

it would be great to see skiers making up 25%-40% of the competitors at each comp.

until that happens you will always have some bias and until the number of skiers increases at comps you will have them being judged in the same class as boarders.

 

as an example, for a competition based on the top 6 getting cash:

if instead of an open class there is a boarder and skier division, the amount of prize money will need to be doubled and does that really make sense if the skier division only has a couple entries?

 

hey, i'm just playing advocate here, i ski and absolutely love when skiers dominate a competition. i think skiers on rails is more impressive than boarders (for the most part).

 

back to the topic at hand, Bill is a good guy and is ultimately concerned about the safety of everyone in the competition. if he is running any part of it, he becomes ultimately liable if something is unsafe or someone gets hurt. unfortunately in this great country we live in one needs to be concerned with liability and being sued.

[snorovr]

One only needed to hike up to the first jump and see the multiple bomb holes and craters and hear some kids slap to realize that maybe the jump wasn't quite setup correctly. I saw skiers and boarders both throwing some of the sickest tricks I've seen this year off the bottom hit, and on the top hit flailing straight airs and spread eagles with a loudly yelled "OH SHIT!" seemed to be the trick of the day.

 

I'll reply to this thread more after I ski with some things that I've noticed about newschool skiing and comps.

[Nectur]

Thanks Johnny!!! That helps a lot. Does he also hold the reigns on the accredition for judges and coaches level certifications?

 

The USASA Trainers division holds judging clinicns each year at all the regions prior to the season. Gordon Robbins, Pheobe Mills, Matt Jennings, Mike Chantry, and Bryce Maxwell are all members of the Freestyle commision. They with the help of Greg Johnson create the material, courses and content of the training and certification. I, Bill, only supply the venue on which the training has been conducted.

 

I do not hold the reigns on judging and coaching level certifications. I am the only one in this region trying to promote and encourage more people to take the courses and become certified. USASA is the only organization offering these classes. I do beleive the IJC making a comeback in judging again. There focus for the past decade has been judges for national events like the Grand Prix, US Open, etc.

[Nectur]

it is hard to find qualified freestyle skiing judges because it is a relatively new sport. when i first started to ski, there were no parks of any sort. now you cant go to a mountain without finding one. i remember when skiers werent even allowed to be in the parks too, creating another setback in freestyle snowsports. many of the people who have the knowledge of judging correctly in these comps are still able to be competing in them as well. so i dont think that we will get the high caliber judges that know snowboarding AND skiing for a few years.

 

FYI, Matt Jennings was one of the judges at this past weekends event. He has been training USASA judges for years. In addition to U his USASA affiliation, he has been helping progress freeskiing and in particularly the judging of it for the past 4 years. Matt, has been the head judge of the Free Skiing Open since its inception. The judging and education of judging skiers is there.

 

What I feel the problem is not in the judging, but in the event layout. The staff at Big Boulder created the criteria in which you could have a team of any combination including skiers, snowboarders, males and females. Trust me, it is a tough one to judge with those variables.

 

As for the Oakley Rail or Bail Series, the categories are the same. Maybe we should change that?

[Papasteeze]

The USASA Trainers division holds judging clinicns each year at all the regions prior to the season. Gordon Robbins, Pheobe Mills, Matt Jennings, Mike Chantry, and Bryce Maxwell are all members of the Freestyle commision. They with the help of Greg Johnson create the material, courses and content of the training and certification. I, Bill, only supply the venue on which the training has been conducted.

 

I do not hold the reigns on judging and coaching level certifications. I am the only one in this region trying to promote and encourage more people to take the courses and become certified. USASA is the only organization offering these classes. I do beleive the IJC making a comeback in judging again. There focus for the past decade has been judges for national events like the Grand Prix, US Open, etc.

 

Thanks for Chiming in Bill! It is great to see you here! I would like to step up and ask what can I do to help? I wish that you were here in the preseason commenting in the Camelback Mountain School thread about the judging clinics. Is it possible to do another one, just for our region, MASS? http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6118

 

I am totally convinced of what the trends are as evidenced by the NextSnow competitions with in the SnowMonster program. My son now have 13 different comps at 9 different resorts. There is a definite pattern. I don't believe that the USSA freestyle program is the way to go, yours looks much better in relation to what the "Newschoolers" seem to want.

[Nectur]

I heard him tell Big Boulder that if they did not stand behind his decision to close the bottom jump of the East Coast Challenge that he was going to pull out in the middle of the competition.

 

I want to know who this guy is that he can act like that? My understandings is that he is the USASA in our area. Is that True?

 

Is it also true that he is the one actually behind Camelbacks' Park improvements or lack of?

 

As for closing of the final feature on the boulder park. If you were at the competition, I was judging the Widow park all day and Matt Jennings was the head judge on the Boulder Park. 1st thing in the morning we made the call to have the jump modified as it was extremely dangerous. The landing was way to short for the takeoff.

 

During the event Matt Jennings decided to exclude that last feature for safety reasons. When making tough decisions like this, you are always going to piss someone off who felt it was the opposite. I have to stand behind my head judge Matt and support the decision he made on the hill.