WATERVILLE VALLEY, New Hampshire ??” Students from ski and snowboard academies across the Northeast will converge at Waterville Valley on March 13 to compete in the third annual Red Bull Schooled. This competition challenges up-and-coming athletes to battle their peers in a snowboarding and skateboarding format for the highest team score as well as best individual performance. The winning team will receive a $2,000 tuition scholarship and the highest scoring competitors in each category will take home a 2SI surfboard.

Each team will consist of four students from the same academy: one male snowboarder, one female snowboarder, one skateboarder, and one athlete who will compete in both the skateboard and snowboard competition. In a best-of-three run scenario, participants will be judged on three elements: technical expertise, course use, and style/expression.

MAKING THE GRADE

This year’s Master of Ceremonies, Snowboarder Magazine Editor Pat Bridges, will work with a panel of three expert judges to encourage the student athletes to make the grade. The Northeast is known as the breeding ground of professional snowboarding, with the largest number of ski- and snowboard-specific schools in the U.S. turning out top athletes like Ross Powers, Mark Fawcett, Pat Moore, Kelly Clark, and Hannah Teeter.

HIGH HONORS

Vermont’s Stratton Mountain School has taken first place since Red Bull Schooled started the event in New Hampshire two years ago, but this year the format is changing from a superpipe to a slopestyle event. The skateboard component of the event will take place on a 5-foot mini halfpipe situated at the bottom of the slopestyle course. Schools expected to challenge the defending champions this year include Maine.s Carrabassett Valley Academy and Gould Academy; Vermont’s Okemo Mountain School; New Hampshire’s Waterville Valley Academy.

For more information about the event, visit www.redbullschooled.com. To learn more about Waterville Valley, please visit www.waterville.com, or call 1-800-GO-VALLEY.