The Burton/Armada Big Air Event, the third of four in the Packed, Stacked and Jacked series blew up as the riders took to the air on February 20th at Seven Springs! No one in the crowd of 200 + was disappointed as everyone enjoyed the sunshine, great tunes and extreme entertainment. D.J. Zimmie spun the tunes and Burton and Armada were on hand with demos, swag and grills. Scion Motors stopped by to meet the kids and they brought rider and local legend Matt Guess who entertained the kids and inspired an army of young snowboarders. Our own A.J. Lawson provided the never dull narrative.

The Amateur riders took to the air first and skier Jimmy Leslie demonstrated why he has dominated the season by absolutely STOMPING every run in an hour long session. His series included a superman front, cork 7, cork 9, rodeo 5 and double front. He won first place, took home a pair of Armada skis and cinched his overall series victory. Close behind Leslie was relative newcomer Carson Kerr who looked like a decorated veteran with his perfectly executed double front flip and superman front. Jimmy Hill put together a typically solid series of jumps showing off his trademark style with a smooth shifty 9. Thirteen year-old Logan Bingamon impressed the judges and the crowd with his ability cleanly landing 10's and 12's like it was his job and finishing 4th.

Competing for the Open Ski division, Justin Petricko wowed the crowed with a perfect misty 9 in his stunning victory over veteran Brandon Stark. Stark stomped a double cork 12 mute in practice but couldn't ride out in competition. He landed some clean cork 9 mutes finishing 2nd. Stark will compete in the Dumont Cup later in March, we're betting he's got the dubs on lock by then. Rumors about Patrick Shepherd's plans to try dubs swirled all week but never came true. Instead his huge cork 540 was enough to secure the 3rd place slot.

The snowboard division can best be summed up as unpredictable. Am Snowboard was dominated by youth. Fourteen year-old Henry Jackson came out of nowhere and threw a big back flip to win the Burton board, helmet and goggles followed by Derek Edwards and Tim Regrut. Jackson now leads the division by just ONE point followed by Chris Petricko. We're all on the edge of our seats.

Alex, Wild Card, Turnsheltz took to the air and threw a backside rodeo 540 to win the Open Snowboard division just a day after winning Best Trick in the ESL stop on the same course. Pulling up second was Cuttler Whitley with a backside rodeo 5 off the small side and local Nick Kiproff finished a solid third with a 720 off the small side. Division leader, Zack Yourd managed to rack up some points despite a back injury. This division is anyone's race with Yourd leading Whitley by just four points and Kiproff by 7.

On the ladies side of things, skier Elle Papas pulled off a super stylie truck driver to beat 14 year-old phenom Jackie Penticost. Snowboarder Shannon Branthoover finally made it to a home mountain event and ran away with it (again). We've missed you Shannon! Shannon was followed by Erin Storch and Willi's own Kim Natural.

The series wraps up on Friday, March 4th in the Goggle Bowl. We're expecting to be on pins and needles as only the am ski division is sewn up. Registration gets underway outside of Willi's at 4:30 and the action starts at 7:00. We're giving out Seven Springs Season's Passes to the winners of the am and open divisions along with other great prizes. We'll take some time after the event to run the numbers and will announce the overall winners of the Grand Prizes, $1000.00 and a session at Camp of Champions for both open divisions and and head-to-toe sponsorships for both of the am division point leaders. We'll also announce the winners of our u16 sponsorships, Atomic Skis and Flow Snowboards.