By Brooke Geery
Skolf, developed by Airblaster in 2016/2017, is a competitive snowboarding blend of S-K-A-T-E and golf. For the past several seasons, the outerwear brand has held skolf world tours, crowning champions across the globe. But with Covid-19, the world tour was scrapped for a smaller, localized activation.
The Darkside in Killington was one of the shops selected to hold its own round of mini skolf on Jan. 24. Eighteen riders descended on the Dark Park course around 10 a.m. to try their luck on the six “holes.” With so few competitions happening amidst Covid, the event was a welcome bright spot for local snowboarders.
The course was designed and built by Darkside General Manager Tucker Zink and KSA Built’s Jay Rosenbaum. Each of the six different features had a pre-determined trick, which competitors got four tries to complete. Each feature had a par of three, and a max score of five.
The competitors had no idea what was coming at each hole, and were really thrown for a loop on the bonus feature added by Zink, which involved everyone donning rental skis to try their luck sliding the down box!
“I was afraid people might not want to do it, but everyone was a good sport,” he said.
The course involved the entire Dark Park, including the newly-materialized monolith that now sits at the base of the park. Unfortunately, after only a few hits on the metal structure, the transition collapsed, and no one was able to make it to the top.
In the end, local legend Jake Fornier took the mini skolf title with a score of 19. The podium was rounded out by Johnny Forest (22 points) and Joey Leon (23 points.) Most of the competitors scored 30, meaning they were unable to successfully complete any of the challenges.
The top three will split the $750 worth of store credit on the Airblaster website and have earned bragging rights until at least the end of winter.
