The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 20.4
FIRST TIMERS AT BIG SNOW AMERICAN DREAM
Words: Ben Shanks Kindlon. Photos: Shawn Kalatucka 2023-01-24 08:02:32
LJ Henriquez, gap to backside lipslide at Big Snow American Dream, NJ.
“Did you know there’s a big contingency of Dominican snowboarders out this way?” Danny Hairston asks me as we cruise down I-87 from Albany, NY, to East Rutherford, NJ. As the founder and president of the SHRED Foundation, Danny’s tuned into these kinds of things. Having spent the past eight years living in Washington state, this is the first I’m hearing of the Dominican snowboard scene near New York City. This is also the first time I’m going snowboarding in New Jersey, and for sure the first time I’m going snowboarding indoors. Today is Nov. 6. This morning was the first time I’d ever voted in person. A lot of firsts today.
A few hundred miles and several confusing ramp closures later we’re pulling up to American Dream, the hilariously named, massive mega-mall across the street from MetLife Stadium, where the Jets and Giants play football. A ramped structure towers over most of the mall. That’s where we’re headed: Big Snow. North America’s first and only indoor slope, boasting roughly 1,000 feet of rideable manmade snow with a little terrain park to boot.
We link up with LJ Henriquez and his dad, “Senior,” in the lot before heading into the shopping center. They come to Big Snow a lot. “This place is like a second home,” they’d both say near-verbatim at different points in the day. The Henriquez family lives less than 20 minutes away, which allows LJ plenty of time to practice on rails without making it up to the mountains, no matter the month or the weather.
Heading toward Big Snow feels like getting ready to play laser tag. Wading through the tackiness, it’s difficult to imagine that we’ll soon be lacing up our boots and getting on a quad chair. We make our way in through a room with fake gondolas and walls sporting a wintry scene, like something you’d see in an amusement park. Then it’s into a locker room and onto the slope.
LJ’s already gone ahead to ride with the other teenagers while Danny and Senior shoot the breeze in the locker room. I make my way into the fridge to take some laps. It sounds like snowboarding, feels like snowboarding. It’s weird. But still, it’s snowboarding, and the conditions are even better than expected—better than plenty of days I’ve ridden here on the East Coast. Given the controlled atmosphere, it’s safe to bet on conditions being similar next time around, too. Dropping in rider’s right there’s an open lane with a few little moguls. To the left is the park, comprised of an inviting array of entry-level rails, boxes and a jump.
On my third lift ride, a girl named Sofie Rita introduces herself. She’s here a lot, too. By the way she’s riding I would’ve guessed she’s been snowboarding for years, but it turns out last season was her first. “This is my home mountain,” she says with a laugh. “But seriously, it is. It’s where I learned to ride and where I spend the most time.” Sofie says she and other Latines in the area have tried snowboarding for the first time at Big Snow and, like her, are now hooked. She tells me about how she never enjoyed winter before learning to snowboard but is now a proud season pass holder at Big Snow and nearby Mountain Creek. Her Big Snow pass costs $99 per month. “It’s like a gym membership,” she says. One that lets you ride through the summer months.
It’s an odd blend, the pompousness of such a grandiose shopping center and its indoor runs providing people living in this urban area with access to a sport that, until now, required distant travel to a snowy slope. A two-hour session goes for $50 and, given its prime location, the Big Snow facility is attracting entirely new demographics to snowboarding—consistent riders who might’ve never considered trying it otherwise. It begs the question: Could the potential payoff of people from these demographics becoming lifers in our sport be enough to inspire snowboard companies to get behind more indoor slopes? Would bringing snowboarding to the kids in Chicago, IL, Austin, TX, Los Angeles, CA, and other major cities be more cost efficient than trying to bring the kids from those cities to the mountains?
Surely it’s a thought worth further exploration—building new, more accessible home “mountains.” Who’s to say that’s far-fetched? That’s something I’d vote for. And hey, there’s a first time for everything.
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