Resort Closed for the Winter Season

The Burton Qualifiers North America Snowboard Tour hits the terrain park, one of the prime snowboarding places in New Jersey, Saturday. If you’ve been wondering (probably not so quietly) how you measure up against other snowboarders (aside from your friends, who are obviously impressed), this would be the time to put up or shut up.

Registration for the open-format competition is free and open to the first 100 riders. You’ll have the option of competing in either the 15-and-under or open divisions. The top six in both divisions from each of the tour’s six stops will be pitted against each other in the finals at Seven Springs Mountain Resort on March 18, where they’ll be vying for a piece of the $10,000 prize purse.

The park’s rails, jibs, chiseled transitions and tabletops are at your disposal. A piece of advice: Go big. We’ve no doubt that you spend chunks of every weekend honing that technique, but clean riding probably isn’t going to draw the judges’ eyes to you. Rise above the pack. Literally. (Registration opens at 9 a.m.)

The qualifier’s just a piece of the action this weekend. The three-day Burton Mountain Festival, which kicks off Saturday, will feature free product demos (including kids-specific ones), concerts, team rider appearances and Riglet Park, which is designed to introduce the youngest riders to snowboarding. Mountain Creek will be the destination in New Jersey for family snowboarding this weekend. And, as we all know, the family that snowboards together, stays together.