Crystal Mountain, WA – The North Face Masters of Snowboarding day one qualifier has come to an end, once again showing the amazing progression of the sport. The field of riders was a who's who of the snowboard industry. If you have watched any videos as of late you will be sure to recognize some of the names that competed today including Lucas DeBari, Tim Eddy, Yuta Watanabe, Blair Habernicht and many more amazing athletes.

One of the highlights of the day belonged to North Face team rider Ryan Hudson who sent the large diving board feature at the bottom of the venue. Ryan was among 3 riders to hit the feature but the only one to air from the top and have a clean landing, easily 25 feet. Even with one of the largest air's of the day Ryan barely made the cut in 27th place. The field was as strong as ever.

Bissell Hazen Photo

First place for the Men's qualifier went to big mountain veteran Brian Bozack who combined billygoating, high speed turns and large ollie sending him 20 feet plus down the slope. Everyone was so stoked for Brian, who failed to make the cut at Snowbird weeks earlier and now is in first place heading into the finals.

At the riders meeting head judge, Tom Burt, addressed the crowd by saying, "It's been really tough on us to make the cut as the riding was top notch." For the finals, riders will be limited to 1 run as snow conditions on the Silver King are slick and very icy in spots. North Face Masters judge and professional snowboarder Temple Cummins inspected the finals venue today and said it was "Burly" with ice throughout 3/4 of the venue.

Tim Eddy dropping the waterfall / Bissell Hazen

The Silver King hasn't been skied since Thursday, however with temperatures dropping and heavy winds most of the new snow has blown right off the venue. Tomorrow, to be blunt, could possibly be more slipping then sliding on snow. Hopefully the riders take it easy in the extremely variable conditions. As much as I would have liked to have made the cut, I wasn't looking forward to riding a huge mountain of ice, let alone in a competition.