Boardistan

Good-bye Burton US Open of Snowboarding. Sure, it limped along for eight years in Colorado. But we all know the Open died in 2013 when, after 30 rad years at Stratton Mountain, Vermont, it moved to the middle of the country. Now, according to a press release from Burton Snowboards, the US Open of Snowboarding is finally and officially done for good.

What will rise in its place? Who knows. But we do know that it will be called — The Burton Mystery Series. With a nod to the Craig Kelly Mystery Air, this new series will apparently be a collection of “global grassroots” marketing efforts eventually culminating sometime in the future at a big Mystery event that is not limited by the United States of America.

Burton’s vision is to build up the Mystery Series into a global series of snowboarding events that welcomes all levels of riders. Then, down the road, the ultimate goal is to host a pinnacle Burton Mystery event that includes elements from the global grassroots events and features the world’s best riders. Unlike the Burton U·S·Open which was always held in the United States, this final, pinnacle event would ideally be hosted in a different country each time, opening up the new event series to more international riders. . . “One of the major goals of the Mystery Series in the years to come is to get back to the roots of what events like the original Opens were all about – the idea that a young unknown rider could break into snowboarding through Burton events,” said Donna Carpenter, owner of Burton. “With all the passionate people working to build the new Mystery Series, Burton will continue its long legacy of hosting the greatest snowboard events in the world.”

So, RIP US Open of Snowboarding. It was really fun while it lasted. We will always remember bombing those hardwood Vermont forests hot on the tail of Jake Carpenter, laughing till we cried trying to untangle ourselves from those pesky Beech trees. Here’s the Queen of the US Open’s take on all the feels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tricia Byrnes (@triciabyrnes)

Enough nostalgia. For the official “mystery” news from Burton, please follow the jump.

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