Bretton Woods Spring Festival March 27th

How to win friends and alienate strangers

Day 40 of the season was a great one. We headed up to Bretton Woods to use the GroupOn tickets we bought back in October. Our crew was me, Sean, Lawton, Courtney, Lisa, Kristine and special guest MC. Pictures are below but I didn't want to scare anyone off before reading the story. Scroll down for immediate entertainment.

Returning from seeing the greatest movie ever made, Hot Tub Time Machine, on Friday night I hoped online to check out Bretton Woods' site. I soon learned that there was going to be a pond skimming competition Saturday afternoon. I would be doing it in two weeks at Sunday River so I figured a little practice would help.

Departing at 6:30am, we made it to Bretton Woods by 9am and hit the hill. Conditions were hard packed and surprisingly good. The cold weather had frozen most of the mountain but as the sun hit the slopes, things began to soften up a bit.

An 11am break had us inside for some courage juice as we awaited the arrival of MC and meet up with Courtney, Lisa and Kristine. After drumming up some fans for the pond skim we headed back out to get a few runs in. MC finally arrived and we did a few laps before I had to go change for the show.

After changing, I made the embarassing/awesome walk up the hill to the starting gate. There were probably 12 of us in total. Everyone brought their A game and a few brought some ridiculous outfits. I think mine took the cake though. Each person got two runs. The first as a safety run, except for the two boarders who decided to 180 in and 180 out. It was impressive to say the least. The best/worst fall of the day definitely went to the guy dressed as a golfer. He made it 7/8 of the way across before catching an edge and plowing hard into the far end of the pool. Being my first pond skim, I took it safe and made it across. It was easier than I'd envisioned.

The second run lost a few competitors due to them getting wet in the first round. Highlights of the second run were one boarder doing a full 360 as he went across the pond. Not to be outdone, his buddy tried an ambitious powder butter across the pool. He damn near made it too. Two skiers also attempted a one footed crossing. The first hit hard, the second actually made it. Everyone was stepping up their game.

With three competitors remaining, the Lumberjack went down with a fall. I was next. Having gained some confidence from my first run I decided to get the crowd involved. As I dropped in, I angled close to the right side of the pond, hit the water and slashed hard onto my healside edge. What happened next was pure comedy. The wall of water that came off of my board was a full 4ft about my head. It drenched an entire section of spectators. I thought I'd be joining them and falling into the water but my momentum carried me to the end of the pond and I hopped out dry as a bone.

I was greated with high fives from the dry spectator and even some high fives from some of the soaking wet ones. It looked like someone had thrown them into the shower fully clothed.

Following the successful competition our group rode the lift up and I took a quick and cold victory lap. We hit the bar for a drink before heading home. I couldn't have asked for a better 40th day.

And without further adieu here are the pics:

The approach

Run #1

Run #2 View from the top

Absolute annihilation!!