Bryan Daino: US OPEN

Once I got into Stratton Vermont I went strait to registration to pick up my bib and backpack that they always give you then headed to the house I was staying at. I was staying with the Tierney family and my coach. That night I had to dry off all my cloths in my bag because my bag was completely soaked from sitting out in the rain all day. The next day was the first day of practice where so we woke up all early to get ready and found out that practice was cancelled due to an ice storm that knocked out the power for the whole mtn. So after we got that news everyone went back to bed and watched some movies for the rest of the day. The next day we woke up early again to find it sunny and sick outside! Today was the day of pre quals so I was very excited to ride. Once we got to the pipe we had an hour to warm up and feel the pipe out. The pipe was probably the iciest pipe I have ever ridden in my life! So during practice I just did strait airs because I was to scared to spin. Once the contest started I knew that I had to do more then strait airs so I dropped in and did a mellow run of back 5 to front 7 to cab 7 to front 9 with this run it qualified me into the semis in 3^rd place which I was stoked about.

The next day I woke up and it was just pouring rain out so I decided not to snowboarded because there was a stream running down the middle of the pipe so it was closed. So that day we did a lot of hanging out and watching movies because there’s not much to do in Vermont. The next day we got up and the weather was looking better then the day before. It was a little overcast and not raining so I was excited to ride! We got to the pipe and no one was riding it again because it was a sheet of ice. So I just did a bunch of strait airs to try and get use to it. Later that day we headed to the waffle house, which is, the best part of Vermont, he waffles there are just amazing!

On Friday was the day of semis and when I woke up it was really snowy and windy so people weren’t so stoked on riding. From about 8-11 the women were up and it didn’t look like they were having too much fun! It was really foggy, rainy, and windy which are pretty challenging conditions. Before we got to practice there was a 2-hour delay for the girls because you couldn’t see the pipe. Once the fog burned off and they finished the girls we got to practice. During our practice it was pouring out so a few of the riders were riding in trash bags to try and stay dry. Once it came to my run I put down a mellow first run because o a lot of people were falling because it was so soft and there were huge holes in the wall. My first run I started with a back 9 to a front 7 to cab 7 to front 9 that I stomped. On my second run I started with a back 9 to front 7 to cab ten that I fell on because I got bucked into the flat bottom. With my first run it put me in 9^th in my heat and I think 15^th over all at the US OPEN, which I was kind of stoked about. After the open I went home to pack up my bags because I wanted to get home as soon as possible because I was tired of the rain. When I got into Denver it was 65 degrees and sunny and I have never been so excited to be back in Colorado.