Mammoth Mountain, CA (Thursday, January 29, 2004) - The Built Ford Tough Championships of Snowboarding kick off tomorrow at Mammoth Mountain and continue through the weekend, bringing the top snowboarders in the world to compete for more than $125,000 and the keys to a 2004 Ford Ranger FX4 truck. Locals Danny Kass, Tommy Czeschin (defending Super Pipe champ), Hana Beaman, Eddie Wall and Tara Dakides will join Monday's X-Games Super Pipe champ Steve Fisher, Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark and over 100 professional boarders. The Built Ford Tough Championships will air on NBC Sports on February 28 at 3:00 pm EST.

The Built Ford Tough Championships consist of three events - Slopestyle, Super Pipe and the Built Ford Tough Rail Jam. In Slopestyle, riders make an untimed run loaded with jumps, a quarter pipe and hand rails with the run judged on consistency and level of difficulty. In the Super Pipe event, riders utilize Mammoth's Unbound Super Pipe walls to perform tricks judged on difficulty, execution and height. The Built Ford Tough Rail Jam features riders each taking a stab at pulling off the toughest moves on a specially built competition rail in a less formal setting, but with big cash still on the line.

The Built Ford Tough Championships are the second stop of the Vans Triple Crown of Snowboarding, following the Mountain Dew Pro Nationals at Breckenridge Ski Resort last month and preceding the Vans North American Championships, March 5-7 at Northstar at Tahoe. To win the overall title, an athlete must earn points tabulated from the three Vans Triple Crown Series events.

Schedule

Friday, January 30
10:00a - 3:00p: Super Pipe Practice
9:30a - 3:30p: Men's/Women's Slope Style Prelims

Saturday, January 31
8:45 - 11:45a: Men's Super Pipe Prelims
12:15 - 1:30p: Women's Super Pipe Prelims
2:00 - 3:45p: M/W Slope Style Finals

Sunday, February 1
10:00 - 10:45a: Men's Super Pipe Semi-Finals
11:15 - 12:15p: Women's Super Pipe Finals
12:45 - 1:45p: Men's Super Pipe Finals
2:00 - 2:45p: Built Ford Tough Rail Jam
3:00: Awards