The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 21.4
SASSY COPING AT THE BURTON BOWL
Words: Evan Litsios 2024-01-29 10:51:04
Curren Caples’ shadow as he airs out of the bowl in the back of Burton’s headquarters in Burlington, VT. Photo: Dean “Blotto” Gray
Shock has a funny effect on your consciousness. Even after watching my foot spin 180 degrees, hearing the crunch and feeling the stub of my tibia slam into the flat bottom, I didn’t feel any pain. In fact, I pulled myself up out of the bowl and walked down to the parking lot. That’s when it started to hurt (a lot). It had to be on the first roll of the session too. I got out of work, said hi to the crew on the deck, dropped in, pumped around, slashed the pool blocks, and felt my truck catch.
The skate ramp at Burton headquarters in Burlington, VT, just loves twisting ankles. Skate it enough and you’ll see. Rolls, sprains, breaks. People get too comfortable. Let their guards down. Maybe it’s the skatelite, more friendly than concrete, or the way the old frame bounces underfoot. You get a false sense of security. Or maybe it’s the ramp forcing us to pay our dues.
It’s one of the biggest transition features in northern New England. The 9-foot-deep end has a snappy radius that pops you up to vert and right back down just as quick. The 6-foot middle section feels forgiving in comparison. Not to mention there’s a beginner-friendly mini ramp just a stone’s throw away. The perfect training facility to get you feeling a little bigger than your britches. Most often, when someone gets hurt it’s because they got a little too yew’d up on the mini ramp and stepped up to the bowl without paying it the proper respect.
Vermont has a healthy tree-to-person ratio, roughly a bajillion to one. Paved surfaces are few and far between, but skate parks of varying quality (mostly prefab and crumbling) are up and down the state. The Queen City of Burlington serves as a community hub, both for its higher yield of skate spots and proximity to Montreal. It has produced some notable skaters and sees a regular influx of new ones moving in or out. It’s a popular stop on a lot of East Coast road trip itineraries.
A good ramp acts like a magnet. The better the ramp, the bigger the draw, and from farther away. There’s no ramp like the Burton Bowl for a hundred miles in any direction, so you never know who you’ll bump into. Of course, Burton riders like Mark McMorris or Danny Davis may join the session while they’re in town. Shaun White once aired clean over the peninsula. Pro BMXer Gary Young stopped by on his way through town and tossed a few overhead airs out of the deep end.
Legend tells of a vert ramp that once stood in the same spot. A real behemoth with its own folklore and history. Unfortunately, it wasn’t being skated much by the early 2000s. In 2006 a crew of Burton employees made a proposal for some budget allocations and got the green light for a new ramp. They hired a park-building crew called 4Down. It wasn’t until the opening party that someone asked, “Hey, where’s the mini?” The crew had spent all their time and resources on the bowl, and maybe just forgot (wink wink) to build the mini ramp. They tacked one together that weekend with leftover building materials. Ironically, it gets skated more than the bowl. Everybody loves a good mini ramp.
It’s developed some quirks. The whole thing’s sinking into the mud. The decks lean to and fro, and the coping sticks out more in some spots than others. Every year or so someone goes up to re-grout the pool blocks. It feels grumpy and tired until you start skating, then the real personality comes out. Tired or not, the ramp just wants to party.
Maybe that’s why it yearns for pain. Isolated in the north country, surrounded by trees and not enough skaters skilled enough to love it like it wants—it gets bored. With all its clever offerings and playful features, it spends most of its time sitting quietly alone in the back of the parking lot. Maybe some people will come and skate in the afternoon, or for a lunch session. A summer camp might bring a crew of kids to run up and down the walls while ignoring their skate coach. Or perhaps a rollerblader will arrive with a fistful of wax to coat the metal coping. The wax will melt and drip onto the fading skatelite, and later one of the locals will greet their friends, saying, “Heads up, the coping’s extra sassy today.”
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