By Tim Schmitt
NIAGARA FALLS — Don’t knock Ricky Beuler’s work ethic if he admits he won’t be practicing before this summer’s Red Bull Butter Cup, a one-day snowboarding showcase to be held July 9 at the new Snow Park Niagara Falls.
With a purse of $5,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs, it’s not that Beuler wouldn’t love to hit the slopes for a few practice runs before the big event.
But no snow means no practice.
“If they had rails set up over the whole summer I’d be up there a lot,” Beuler said about the new park located on First Street just a few hundred yards from the Rainbow Bridge. “But since they don’t, there’s really no place to practice. It’s going to be one of those things where if you’re on, you’re on. If you’re not, look out.”
Beuler, who lives by Kissing Bridge in Colden, is among the 50 invited riders who will take part in the competition. A handful of local riders will be on hand, but stars from as far as California will make the trek to Niagara Falls for the inaugural event.
“There are a few events in the summer, but they're not of this caliber,” said Pat Morgan, one of the organizers. “Nobody tries to put on something like this, something for the up-and-coming guys. The park had everything we need to pull this off.”
Since the park is configured for tube use, a staff will come in the night before the event to transform the park into a snowboarding venue. According to Morgan, the entire process will take place from the park’s closing on the night before the showcase, and will be ready for daily use the day after the event.
“It’s really phenomenal, the way this thing will play out,” he said. “We have an overnight crew that will remove the tubing lanes, put up the infrastructure, get the boxes and stages.
“You’re really going to see this park transformed from a fun tubing park to snowboard-ready in a few hours.”
Beuler, who left Colden and spent a year in Salt Lake City, won a similar event in Ellicottville in February. He said the Red Bull Butter Cup series makes for great entertainment.
“It’s really like a rail jam,” he said. “They do it a little different for the finals than they do for the qualifiers, but with the jam format, they just keep going and going and going. You just do as much as you can.”
And if the event draws the type of crowds organizers think it could, the competition could become a staple in an otherwise empty summer schedule.
“It sounds like they’ve got some of the bigger names coming in for this,” Beuler said. “I think it could be a summer hit.
“If there’s people having fun, I’m assuming people will start looking forward to it.”
Contact sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.
