Mt Baker, WA (February 5, 2010) -- The first day of the 25th Annual Legendary Banked Slalom saw over 300 racers take to the course under classic Baker conditions--fun, wet, and variable.

For the lucky 25 percent who qualified today, milking slower conditions and fighting through chop was essential; "I stayed low, it worked," to quote Mervin's Tim Standford, who got through clean and will be racing on Sunday. For the rest, the chop may have been a little too much, or the new feature called the Gravitron, which basically consisted of a steep-ish straight line into heavy compression before the last turn--a minute and forty seconds into the race--one of the longest courses in recent memory that made all but the most seasoned of legs beg for a break.

But we all ride the same course, and for those who didn't make it, there's always tomorrow--and plenty of hit runs and soggy pow lines left to ride in between laps through the berms. Thanks to the everyone on the Baker crew for running 300-plus less-than-perfect characters down the natural halfpipe in less-than-perfect condtions, and doing it all with a smile.

Unnoficial word on the street had locals leading the charge with Lucas Debari and Temple Cummins near the top of the pile for men's pro. As of 9:45, official results hadn't been posted, but you can follow them as they go live on Mt Baker’s results page because I'm going to sleep--Team Funny Feelings needs to step it up tomorrow. See you on course!