Page 43 - 77834_NSAA_Batch

The third and final event in the 2017 Under Armour getting until later when it hits you.”
Mountain Running Series is wrapping up, and endurance The Woodward WreckTangle was designed and built by
runners of all ages are stretching and checking out vendor Human Movement Management, the experiential, events,
tents after completing the morning’s races. Families are and entertainment arm of POWDR. HMM has a history
playing mini golf, little kids are back-flipping on trampolines of producing obstacle races and mud runs, many of them in
with bungee harnesses, and riders are loading mountain bikes partnership with NSAA member resorts.
onto the American Eagle chairlift. Most impressively, actual “We spent the better part of a year designing the
skiers and snowboarders are hiking laps to hit the rails on WreckTangle and beta-testing it at our offices in Louisville,
the Big Island Terrain Park, built atop what’s left of the snow Colorado, with all the kids from the local community
that was piled up at the base area at the end of the previous there, because we really wanted to create something that
season, when the Olympic-sized Main Vein Super Pipe and
all the rest of the snow on the mountain was pushed down-
hill to make summer shredding possible.
Then we catch sight of what we came for: the Woodward “We wanted to challenge
Copper WreckTangle, an imposing rectangular steel cage
containing nine modular obstacle course features inspired
by Woodward, a leader in youth lifestyle and action sports spatial awareness, be in
programming. It was built as an extension of Woodward’s
mission to empower kids through physical activity. The the ninja space, and do
course is crowded with aspiring ninjas of all ages engaged in a
free-form practice session, trying to figure out the fastest and
most expedient ways through features designed to challenge: something cool in a way

ropes to swing on, cargo nets to climb, rotating platters to
dash across, swinging punching bags to avoid while running that’s never been done.”
across a balance beam, trampolines for launching parkour-
inspired vaults over wedge-shaped foam blocks, and a zipline
with an airbag landing. — Jeff Suffolk, Human Movement Management
The challenges on the course are (mercifully) less gruel-
ing than the ones we’ve seen on the hugely popular American
Ninja Warrior show on NBC, now dominating the Monday
night broadcast ratings in its ninth season with around 6
million weekly viewers. Still, I’m put in my place when my
kids scramble past me while I’m attempting to navigate a
series of vertically swinging slices of “Swiss cheese,” then
vindicated when I’m the first in the family to make it up the
10-foot quarter-pipe feature at the finish line.
We’re pretty full of ourselves as we notice a couple of
ultra-fit endurance athletes struggling through parts of the
course we just breezed through. Then we overhear their
banter about how exhausted they are after running a full trail
marathon. Even so, I’m still proud for being able to complete
the entire course several times, improving with each pass. The
feeling dwindles only slightly as I watch from the sidelines
while my kids take another dozen laps… every twitching
muscle in my body reminding me that once or twice might
have been enough for me.
“Humbling, isn’t it?” jokes Tina Hauser, lift operations
manager at Copper Mountain. “It obviously involves some
skill, agility, and risk-taking, but you’re having so much fun
you don’t even think about how much of a workout you’re

EARLY WINTER 2017 | NSAA JOURNAL | 41