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Utah State University Big Blue performs a jump during the Rail Jam event of Entrepreneur Week at USU Tuesday. Spectators watch a performer at the Rail Jam. Kade Hansen competes in the Rail Jam. Greg Steindorf performs a move on skis. For video of the Rail Jam, visit www.hjnews.com.
By Joey Hislop Photos by JENNIFER MEYERS
othing embodies the entrepreneurial spirit like a sick frontside 50-50, and there was plenty of both at the USU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council’s Rail Jam 2011 — a snowboard and ski trick competition held Tuesday in the Romney Stadium parking lot on a touring two-story-high snowboard rail apparatus. The attraction was the centerpiece of “E-Week” (Entrepreneur Week), which is put on by the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, but it’s difficult to say whether Rail Jam patrons came for the accompanying business expo and stayed for the Rail Jam, or vice versa. Regardless, a good time was had by all. “Their set is pretty sick, and everything’s pretty mellow,” said Spencer Olson of Salt Lake, one of the top boarders in the competition. “(I did) some front 50-50s, switch-up on the down, front lipslide, two sev-out and 360 and 180 off the little rocket slider. ... I wish I could do a couple more things. ... It’s good fun. I like it, good set-up. Fun to ride it.” Sporting a couple battle scars from a spill on one of his drops, Olson was awaiting the final round of competition, having moved on with a number of well-executed tricks. The IEC’s Rail Jam event was not only the second year in a row the tour had made its way to Logan, but it was also the ninth of 11 stops on
the Ford Campus Rail Jam Tour. The traveling crew, made up of snowboarders, has been out on the road in the late winter and early spring months for four years now. “It’s great. Besides setting up these events, we do a lot of snowboarding in different areas,” said Drew Diehl, of Pennsylvania, one of the founding members of the tour. “We do a lot of hiking, and a lot of going to different places — Trampoline Worlds, batting cages, roller rinks. We just try to have fun as much as possible. It’s great. I love it. It’s four years now, and I’ve been doing it every year and I can’t get away from it. “This is our last stop before we go back to Oregon for a month and a half. We have our finals in Portland, Ore. — downtown Pioneer Square. All the winners from the event top five from each category ... will go to Portland finals. The winners from this event will be invited to come to Portland finals. It’s on them to come, but there’s a $5,000 cash purse given away.” While it may seem like quite a task for the small crew to throw up the scaffolding that supports the rails, after enough times doing it and undoing it, Diehl has it down to a science. “This is my fourth year on tour. I’m the only remaining guy from the original year, so we have pretty much a whole new crew this year,” Diehl said. “... It’s not really that hard, as long as you know what you’re doing. It’s just basic scaffold-
ing.” Having drawn roughly 2,000 people to last year’s Rail Jam, the IEC decided to try it again for 2011. According to Brianne Petersen, a public relations student and vice president of events for the IEC, the hope is to make Rail Jam an annual event. “They had already done it last year, so we decided to make it an annual thing,” Petersen said. “... It has two purposes: one to have fun ... and two to give student businesses an opportunity to advertise for free. Any student business can have a booth here for free, with the hopes that a lot of people from the community and students will come and kinda see what’s going on and everything. ... We’re just letting student businesses ... get the word out to the community that we’re here to go big. Go big or go home.” As Petersen pointed out, Utah State has one of the best entrepreneurial programs in the country. So good, it’s starting to draw national attention. “We’re trying to promote entrepreneurship, obviously, and kind of showcase how good of an entrepreneurial program this school has, because it really is excellent,” Petersen said. “... I don’t know all the stats exactly, but I do know we’re one of the top in the nation. ... It was voted the most bang for your buck.” One student-run business that was at the expo was Rayne Clothing, out of Ogden. Having start-
ed just this past September, the maker of hats, beanies, shirts and hoodies for use in extreme sports was hoping to spread the word and get some exposure in Cache Valley. “We’re just trying to get our name out. We’ve been using Facebook a lot to who people who we are, but it’s great to get out to events like this,” said Jason Gardiner, a Weber State public relations major from Ogden, and one of the owners of Rayne. “... We have a great niche — we have a really cool logo and name. ... That right there gives someone an instant (recognition). They instantly like it. With that, all it is is getting the name out. ... We’d love for all of Northern Utah to know Rayne like any other brand they know; that they feel a part of Rayne because they’re from Utah. And then hopefully we’ll just continue to grow.” While profit is the sole objective for most businesses, Gardiner says Rayne is also about making a difference in the community and the world. “What we’d love to do is make enough profit to start making big organizations to start helping charities and different things so we can make a difference, especially in Northern Utah,” Gardiner said. “... Business is good. We’re really happy with it. Right now it’s self-sustaining, so we don’t have to put any more money into it. Our profit is helping us continue to buy clothing.”