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This seasons highlight, apart from all the wet weather, was again the Burton Team Challenge.
On the last Friday afternoon of winter, the TSC van pulls up to Southern Cross Station in Melbourne. Double parking in a taxi zone, they are not too worried about the no standing signs or the parking inspector eyeing them off 30 meters up the street.
Unconsciously, pedestrians leave a little more space when walking past the TSC van's cargo. You see, Tom Pelley had just left Thailand, flown to Sydney where he met a buddy with his board bag and swapped it for some dirty washing (that's a nice buddy!), back in the air to Melbourne and bus'd it through peak hour to meet us in the city.
“Hey Jarrod”, Tom greeted as he squeezed his board bag between some Tele-Tubby costumes and 3 boxes of Burton loot.
“Oh man! I stink, need a shower bad man” Tom continued. “So who's coming? What costume did you get me? Is the Roth coming? What about the Ranga? Oh and how's that little Alex guy! Are those his goggles on the back seat? It's all over his Facebook!”
One hour later, navigating through the back streets to pick-up points around Melbourne, Piers' life sized Mickey Mouse head was hanging out the window jammed on Tom's heads. He was dressed from head to toe in a mixture of a fat green alien, and an over excitable Disney mascot.
There were tears of laughter as the mild spring air filled the van. The Burton TSC Team Challenge had begun for 2009.
A chance of sun. That was the weather report again for the first few day's of the Challenge. It had been a funny old season. Wet, wet and wet. But it was spring... right. For now, watching the shadows submerge into the bush on the foot hills of Buller, the day was looking fine.
Outside the Abom, the campers gathered. There was an excited murmur among the group and it was not just the sight of Tom Pelley being back in town. The sun was beating down on the slopes, and everyone new that the jumps where going to be on.
The teams where announced for the week, the scoring systems explained, and then down to the first days challenge. Big air jam session. The individuals that through down scored points for their team, and of course, there was plenty of gear from Burton to also wet their whistles.
Sitting on the Summit chair there was not a breath of wind. When we came over the rise, muttering began again as the realisation set in that the last jump it the park rose high above the rest. There had been a rebuild in the recent past and the old dogs in the team where getting excited.
Before the tripod had been set up, the crew started flying past. The speed was good. The snow was fast. Iver was the first to unleash.
As Tom shook the snow out of his googles, he looked up quickly to see Iver stomp a front 7 half way down the landing. He got them back on his head as Iver shot past him on his way to a second lap; not even giving Pelley the time of day.
“God damn these kids man!”, chuckled Tom.
Back up top, people were hiking. The first hit was softening up nice and Hotham import, the Wildman, took it upon himself to show why he won his place in the TSC house for the week.
Then before we knew it, everyone was warmed and the session was under way.
The ladies made their mark. Kate, April and Georgie went blow for blow on the first hit. Only once Lauren landed front 3, back 3, and front 5... the smoke cleared and something snapped in the remaining crew.
Iver went back up, front 900. Daley did his daily 3, then Spencer too. Alex the trooper broke the record for number of hits in one morning followed closely by Mr Fitton.
Jesse Hill implemented his shock-n-ooh-ah campaign with some super styled out one-footers. Unfortunately this all came unstuck for him and he ended up a little worse for wear by the end of the session. He joined his bench warmer buddy Benny Alexander after he did some crankel tweaking on a backside air earlier.
By mid session there seemed to be a backside pin spin event unravelling; maybe in honour of Darrargh. DK, Andy and Cam clocked up a few thousand degrees of rotation between them.
Then came Leons and Pelly... Oh, and Alex Scott for old time memories. These boys decided to take advantage of the lippy wu-tangs and began underflipping everything and anything. Ever seen a 90kg Mexican stomp an underflip seven? Lap after lap, sorting out their movements, the three seemed oblivious to Tim Laidlaw.
Tim was giving everyone a chuckle with some switch methods on the first hit. This tweaking would have sent shivers down the spine on Abe Teter. But that was just the teaser.
As he tucked into the last, a few cheerleaders and bystanders gave the rest of us the heads up. If you turned your head in time you were greeted with the trick of the day. Cab 900. Lap, after lap, after lap.
So as you can imagine, the Burton Team Challenge did not disappoint on day one. Nor did it the remaining of the week.
Each day, the teams worked harder for points. As the week grew older, the teams stayed neck and neck. Well, Luke's, Lisa's, and Jimmy's teams did. Tom Pelley, although a unbelievable motivator, pin-up boy and social advocate of team based challenges, could not quite get his followers across the line... at all. In fact, I don't think his team really scored any legitimate points.
Come the end of the week, when it was time to dig deep into the Burton boxes, there was only one point between first, second and third. And about 10 between third and fourth.
Results:
1st - Sexy 7 - Captain: Jimmy
2nd - Aladdin's Carpet - Captain: Skywalker
3rd - The Counting Song - Captain: Lisa
4th - Team Sharmagarmseow - Captain: Tom Pelley
TSC rider of the Year:
Jnr Men: Alex Main
Snr-ish Men: Daley Watson
Girls: April Shannon
Pelley's Pick: Wilding Richardson
For the full video wrap, stay tuned for the TSC movie premiere in the new year!
Thanks to all our coaches, campers and supporters for the amazing season.
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