Dear Newschoolers,

POWDER Magazine is about to officially announce that Superpark 7 will not be held this year. After months of searching, we have not been able to secure a venue capable of providing us with the resources required to build a park living up to Superpark’s reputation. This is despite offering more exposure than we have ever provided in the past. After our first two choices opted for smaller, less costly projects with single film companies, we were left with limited time to find a new location. The half-dozen or so resorts we subsequently approached had either already allocated their 2005 budgets, or didn’t feel confident that they could provide us with a Superpark caliber venue on such short notice.

As Mike Douglas said at Superpark 5, “Superpark is the one event every year where you can pretty much guarantee something that no one’s ever done before will go down.� Superpark was the first event of it’s kind for skiers�a no rules, no-holds-barred terrain park session for the best of the best. The idea was so well received that it has been copied over and over. Rather than put on a mediocre event that doesn’t live up to this legacy, POWDER has decided to put Superpark on hold for a season.

We are breaking this news on Newschoolers first because we realize how passionate this community is about skiing and the park and pipe subculture. We would like to assure you that this decision is in no way indicates a loss of interest in new school skiing on our part. POWDER was the first ski magazine to cover this sect of skiing (before the Winter X Games even existed, let alone allowed skiers), and we take pride in continuing to cover and push the most progressive edge of our sport. The pages we had set aside for Superpark coverage will be dedicated to a photo-driven freestyle-oriented feature. We are working on a few forward-thinking projects for 2006 that will mirror the direction the top athletes are taking our sport. And we plan to take this time off to improve on the Superpark concept, to once again make it unique as well as reflective of skiing’s future.

We appreciate how dedicated this community is to skiing, and we welcome your comments, criticisms, and suggestions. Though I’ve never posted, I read this board often. I will continue to check this thread, and attempt to answer any questions you may have. You can also direct comments, negative or positive, to the Powdermag.com message board, or PM me directly there. I post as KevinDineen.

Thanks for skiing,

Sincerely,

Derek TaylorSenior EditorPowder Magazine