Snowflex Introduces New Competition

Liberty’s Campus Recreation hosted a “skolf” event at Snowflex on April 9. The event aimed to combine elements of traditional golf with skiing and snowboarding. 

Instead of holes in golf, competitors would need to complete specific features or tricks. The competition included multiple categories for tricks, specifically a jump and box section. The entire event had nine “holes” or features competitors needed to complete. 

To challenge every skill level, each trick had three difficulty levels, ranging from easy, medium or hard. Easy gave three points per attempt, and hard gave one point per attempt. The player with the lowest score at the end of the event would win. 

Campus Recreation’s idea for this event came from a company called Airblaster, which features this event all over the country. While they usually just feature one trick, Snowflex adopted the idea and tweaked it to have multiple tricks with a greater field of skill, allowing beginner and advanced riders to participate. 

The recommend skill level for the event was experience in beginner freestyle for preferably a year to ensure safety preforming the tricks. 

Spectators could see tricks like a 360 off of a three-foot jump, a 540 off of a six-foot jump and switch backside 270 onto the box. 

There were 23 competitors, some of which are members of Liberty’s Ski and Snowboard team. However, like many Snowflex events, the competition was not limited to Liberty students but open to the public of Lynchburg as well. 

Josie Rich, a competitor, said this event challenged her.

“Skolf was a lot of fun for me. It was a format I’ve never competed in before. It definitely pushed myself and everyone to try new tricks and features we haven’t before, that was the best part of my day,” Rich said.

The event had four categories for competing: men’s ski and snowboard and women’s ski and snowboard. 

For men’s ski the first, second and third place winners are Isaac Shephard, Trevor Keller and Spencer Ekeroth, respectively. For women’s ski, the first and second place winners are Lauren Harder and Josie Rich, respectively. For women’s snowboard the first and second place winners are Emory Orlando and Kate Thresher, respectively. And lastly, the men’s snowboard winners of first, second and third are Tory Scott, Jesse Mast and Tyler Sherbine, respectively. 

“I was very happy about it. It was just my friend Lauren and I riding, so we focused on having fun and trying new tricks together,” Rich said about placing second in women’s ski. 

While traditional events have judges, players judged each other during the skolf competition. As seen in traditional golf, players grouped together for one score sheet and kept each other accountable. Gibson said this helped eliminate the ambiguity of whether someone actually nailed a skill or not. 

“I liked judging each other a lot better because it took away the pressure of a normal competition with judges. We focused more on having fun with each other and trying new things rather than focusing on the technical stuff,” Rich said. 

Programs Coordinator for Snowflex Isaac Gibson said he hopes this event will give people a new way to practice tricks on their own. 

“People could come up here and even play a round of skolf on their own. They could make up their own tricks and do it on their own. They donʼt have to play it in an actual contest weʼre holding up here,” Gibson said.

Haydon is a news reporter. Follow her on Twitter