The rails were huge. The staircases were long. And Travis Rice made US Open history, winning the first Rail Jam event ever held at the Open. Held under the lights, the new Friday night exhibition event got the Open off to a strong start, featuring some of the most progressive rail riding seen at a contest this season.

Travis was not daunted by the challenging course or the long list of top riders competing in the event including Jeremy Jones, Colin Langlois, Ryan Lougee, Zach Leach and Shaun White. During the hour-long jam session, many riders had strong runs. But Travis pulled ahead with a switch 50/50 to switch frontside boardslide on the top 15-flat-15 rail and Cab 270 to nosepress on the left ledge of the straight 30 rail. Travis walked away with $10,000 and a Philips Wall of Sound audio system.

This year, Travis was runner up for Snowboarder Magazine’s coveted Rider of the Year award and has been a podium threat at every major pipe, slopestyle and rail jam event that he’s entered this season.

Other riders put up a good fight. Shaun White did a Cab 270 to boardslide on the 15-flat-15 and did a nollie to backside tailslide on the bottom high ledge of the straight 30 rail. Shaun landed in second place, adding another $5,000 to his ever-growing pool of winnings. Zach Leach took third in the event. And Nik Batko went home with $5,000 after winning the Best Trick award from SoBe. He definitely earned it with a gap to backside 270 on the upper rail, a Cab 270 and later, a backside 450 on the upper rail, taking out a movie camera attached to the handrail. Nick’s camera-smashing run earned one of the loudest responses from the crowd all night. The high level of riding and DJ Z-Trip’s pre-event show kept the thousands of people in the crowd warmed up, despite the frigid evening temperatures.

Showcasing the strong influence of urban settings on snowboarding, the Rail Jam attracted a long list of invited heavies to the event. In recent years, city rail riding has become a huge part of the sport at both contests and in snowboarding videos. Rail riding adds a new dimension to snowboarding because riders don’t need to be on a mountain or buy a lift ticket. All they need is a little snow and a staircase to tackle.

The US Open Rail Jam course setup was very similar to a staircase riders would hit in a city setting. Even the color of the staircases was true to an urban rail scene, painted cement gray with yellow handrails. The late Jeff Anderson, who was very involved in the design of the course, insisted that course builders include the entire width of the stairs on the sides of the rails. This forced riders to step up, just like in downtown settings.

The upper set of staircases featured a 34-foot kinked rail, and the lower set featured a 30-foot flat rail. Riders chose different lines depending on the level of difficulty they were looking for. On the upper stairs, riders had the option of hitting a more difficult two-inch round kinked rail or a flat rail. There were also three difficulty options on the lower set of stairs, including a 30-foot round rail in the middle, a five and a half foot high ledge and then a double height step ledge. For added difficulty, there was a one-foot kink on the top and bottom of the round rail.

In addition to attracting a huge crowd, the Rail Jam was also shown live on Outdoor Life Network (OLN) to millions of TV viewers nationwide. On Saturday, March 15th, the Philips US Open Halfpipe Finals will also be live on OLN from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. The Sunday Slopestyle event will be covered from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm.