2/17/07 - WATERVILLE VALLEY, NEW HAMPSHIRE Back 1st - Ben Ross 2nd - Merrick Joyce 3rd - Robert Hallowell DOWNLOAD THE WATERVILLE VALLEY VIDEO PODCAST GO TO THE SNAKE SESSIONS PODCAST PAGE Hometown boy, Pat Moore, returned to his old stomping grounds to host his own Youngblood event for the eighth US Snake Sessions stop at Waterville Valley. Known for it’s sick history of east coast quarterpipe radness, we weren’t fighting the feeling at Waterville. We had a quarterpipe contest. Pat, who decided to both judge and compete, pretty much held it down all day, but he stepped aside to let the contestants ride a bit, too. It was a nice sunny morning and the QP softened up pretty quickly so that the contest could get underway. The riders were gutsy on the pipe. We saw a few nice Mctwists and even a couple of dirty 7s. The top 8 riders were chosen for a final after an hour of hitting the QP. Pat decided to have the final round on a big black barrel feature to see who could get the most creative. The standout of the day was definitely Ben Ross. A couple of one-footed tricks thrown down by Ben in the final round sealed the deal. Other standouts included a sick backflip off the barrel by Kiah Ellis, Worst Rider award to Hondo, Nicest Kid award to James Crowther and Best Girl went to Devon Crowther.  After the awards, Pat could be spotted taking runs with competitors for the rest of the afternoon. What a nice guy! INTERVIEW WITH THE WINNER - Chase Fromm Forum: Hey Ben, what got you to come out here today? Ben: I thought it would be fun to session a quarterpipe because you don’t get to ride them too much and they’re really fun when you do. Forum: What happened to your eye? Ben: Um, I was doing a backflip over next to a wallride at Pat’s peak and I overshot the back of it and just WHAM! Smashed my face into the ground. Forum: Awesome. Are you a local to Waterville? Ben: Actually, my home mountain is Pat’s Peak. I work there in the park and teach lessons and ride there mostly. Forum: And you’re how old? Ben: 16. I’m a senior in high school. I skipped ahead. Forum: Where are you in school? Ben: I am home schooled, actually, which is sweet because I get to ride during the week and fun stuff like that. Forum: Are you home schooled so that you can do that? Ben: I’ve been home schooled all the way through and then when I started riding it just worked out good so we just kept doing it. Forum: Do you normally do contests and stuff? Ben: Yeah, I’ve done a bunch of them this winter. One every weekend for the past couple of months. I’m going out to Nationals for USASA for slopestyle.