Steamboat knows how to close out the ski season in style: from free concerts to killer powder (yep, we still have that) to skiers jumping over water, Steamboat does it right.
Check out what Steamboat has in store for 2016's Closing Week:
Spring Rail Jam, April 3rd
Bust out your sunscreen and come show your surf style on the biggest wave in Steamboat! This event is geared towards individual style and smiles. Contestants are encouraged to slash, catch air and get barreled. Judging will be based on style, individuality, and overall crowd response. Surf-style outfits are encouraged and all ages and abilities are welcome. Contestants will receive a free luau lunch and a free beer for those participants 21 and over thanks to Bud Light. Prizes include GoPro cameras, Ramp skis & snowboards, Zeal goggles, shades and more.
Be prepared to get wet! Helmets Required.
36th Annual Cardboard Classic, April 9th
The Cardboard Classic, Steamboat's traditional rite of spring returns to the Steamboat Ski Area for the 36th year. This wild and hilarious race features homemade cardboard crafts, constructed only from cardboard, glue, string, water based paint, duct tape, masking tape, balloons and other decorations, racing down Stampede to a hysterical finish. The uniqueness and creativity of the race make it an event looked forward to each year. [Competitors slide down the slopes in the annual Cardboard Classic]
Schedule:
9:00-10:00am: Participants must check in at the Coca-Cola Tent in Gondola Square or their spot will be released
10:00am-11:00am: Cardboard D'Elegance/Judging
11:00am: 17 & under race begins followed by 18+ race
Award Ceremony will follow the end of race
Splashdown Pond Skim, April 10, 11:00am
The Splashdown Pond Skimming Championships hits Steamboat once again on Closing Day - Sunday, April 10th! Wrapping up another epic season at Steamboat, this event has antics like you wouldn't believe. The Splashdown Pond Skimming Championships brings brave (and slightly crazy) skiers and riders in costume with a dream – of crossing the icy pond successfully – and, if they're lucky, with style!
Schedule:
9:30am-11:30am: Participants must check in at the Coca-Cola tent in Gondola Square or their spot will be released
1pm: Pond Skim begins, first come, first serve basis
Award Ceremony will immediately follow the end of race
Bud Light Rocks the 'Boat:
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad , Apr 9, 3:30pm
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad (GPGDS) formed in 2001 in Rochester, New York. A mysteriously fertile area for developing the U.S. reggae scene, the city has ties going back to 1981. In these formative years, GPGDS began to explore their songs with an experimental approach that is stylistically akin to the Grateful Dead, while keeping their roots firmly planted in reggae rhythms and lyrical content. Around 2005 tapers began to notice and soon after one of the band’s first Colorado shows received homepage placement on the popular taper website Archive.org. Almost overnight they became a mainstay on the jam band festival circuit. GPGDS is known for folding the aesthetics of the jam band scene into the structures of reggae. In the live setting, the band performs extended jams. On their current album, they have synthesized their approach by weaving traditional folk instrumentation into a foundation of reggae, with arrangements that let the reggae breathe in a non-traditional way.
Ozomatli, April 9, 3:30pm
Bursting onto the L.A. stage with their first eponymously titled album in June 1998, Ozomatli capitalized on being the talk of the live music scene, particularly their show stopping gigs at venues such as Dragonfly, Opium Den and The Viper Room. By 1999, they were touring with Carlos Santana and soon won the 2001 Grammy for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album. They repeated history in 2004 by winning again in the same category for their album Street Signs. When they were formed, Ozomatli symbolized an emerging, multicultural Los Angeles. Over the years Ozomatli has become the ultimate jam band, pulling together the strands of creativity into a unique rhythmic machine. And learning to live together, like the city they represent, has made their music even stronger. Ozomatli closed out Steamboat’s 2008/09 season with a huge crowd and a concert that is stilled remembered by many.
Leftover Salmon, April 10, 3:30pm
Looking back over the past 25 years of rootsy, string-based music, the impact of Leftover Salmon is impossible to deny. Formed in Boulder at the end of 1989, the Colorado slamgrass pioneers took their form of aggressive bluegrass to rock and roll bars at a time when it wasn’t so common, helping Salmon become a pillar of the jam band scene and unwitting architects of the jamgrass genre. Today, Leftover Salmon is: Vince Herman (vocals, acoustic guitar, washboard); Drew Emmitt (vocals, acoustic and electric mandolin, electric guitar, fiddle); Andy Thorn (vocals, acoustic and electric banjo); Greg Garrison (vocals, acoustic and electric bass); Alwyn Robinson (drums).
Though the lineup would change through the years, the foundation of Leftover Salmon remained strongly rooted in the relationship between co-founders Emmitt, Herman, and banjoist, Mark Vann, proceeding through a decade of constant growth and nonstop touring.
On March 4, 2002, Vann lost his battle with cancer. He was only 39 years old. Herman issued in memoriam: "Mark lived life to its fullest and he would insist that we do so as well," so LoS carried on through a succession of replacement players including Matt Flinner, Scott Vestal, Tony Furtado, and Noam Pikelny, but then took a hiatus from touring at the end of 2004.
