Riding Together Beats Winning
Shred for the Cup is more than a local competition..
Blowing Rock (NC): When looking back at the videos of all the gnarly tricks riders threw down in the 400 vertical foot Terrain Park at Appalachian Ski MTN this season, it is easy to say 2021 was another successful year for the mountain’s local Ski/Snowboard competition Shred for the Cup (SFTC).
Six time Shred for the Cup overall champion, Duncan Nielander, said it was one of the most memorable years yet, “I think the turn out was like seventy people to slopestyle which is huge… we got really lucky this season with snow and the weather this year was beautiful on all three competition days.” Nielander was crowned the overall Shred for the Cup champion again this year by placing second in the Smith / Dakine SFTC Rail Jam competition, first in the Arbor / Spy SFTC Big Air competition, and first in the Volcom / Oakley SFTC Slopestyle competition. Although it does feel good to see the hard work pay off with a victory, Nielander says his favorite part of competing is reconnecting with familiar faces he hasn’t seen in a while, “you can text like thirty people and say lets have a ride day today but it’s not an actual commitment so no one ends up making it half the time… the benefit of contests is they bring people out.” Nielander has close friends at Beech MTN and other places across the state he doesn’t see very often, but looks forward to riding with on competition days.
As Nielander put it, Shred for the Cup is a great event for the community and he is far from wrong. On February 21 the date of the Volcom / Oakley SFTC Slopestyle competition, the mountain’s terrain park had large clusters of spectators on the sides of the park trying to get a good view of the contestants riding through. There was lots of cheering, clapping and smiling faces from the sides of the park creating an exciting atmosphere for viewers. Many people who had come to the mountain to ski not knowing there was a competition that day pulled off to the side of a near by slope to watch the competition unfold. You could say while being there the event feels larger than a local competition.
About The Competition
Another cool attribute of Shred for the Cup is the competition is open for everyone to compete in. Based on your level of experience in skiing or snowboarding you can choose between three different subdivisions of either sport to enter in (Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced). Women and men do compete on the mountain together, but the competition is broken up by gender. Shred for the Cup includes three separate competitions (Rail Jam/Big Air/Slopestyle) all on different dates during the season. In order to be crowned the overall season champion in your division, you must compete in all three of the SFTC competitions as each competition is judged on a point system. The set up of features used in the competitions change every year as well. Different prizes are also awarded to contestants based on performance after each of the three competitions.
How to Sign up
Although the season is over in North Carolina you can still participate next year as the competition is open to everyone. You can sign up for the 2022 season of Shred for the Cup on Appalachian Ski MTN’s website next year.
