Mark Sullivan and the Legend of the Cage

  If you grew up snowboarding on the East Coast in the 90s or even beyond, then surely you’ve heard the legend of the Cage. It certainly shaped my perspective on snowboarding and “what it should be.” Looking back, maybe I should have had better influences. Anyway, thanks to the magic of the Internet, this tale of the cage Mark Sullivan told to Sevenyearswinter popped up in my Facebook feed, and reminded me of the days that were.

You were a big part of another contest that was infamous with integration of dirtbag (drunk) fans with elite (drunk) pros. What story best reflects the renegade nature of the Open in the 90’s? MARK: The most obvious story that comes to mind is the Cage at the 1996 US Open. Prior to that, the US Open was always the best party of the year for snowboarders- in particular the halfpipe final. My goal was to up the ante and do something that embraced the history of the halfpipe party while taking it to the next level, while promoting our publication, Ei. One night, over a couple of cold beers, Pat Bridges and I formulated the idea for The Cage. We wanted to replicate the scene in the movie the Blues Brothers where they were playing a gig behind a chicken wire fence while the crowd shelled them with beer bottles. Only for us, the idea was to keep the beer bottles from hitting the riders. So on our way to the US Open we stopped at the New Hampshire state liquor store and filled the Ei Tour Van with Country Club Malt Liquor tall boys – something like 40 cases. The key to the plan was simple, get up earlier than the staff of Stratton and set up our area on the side of the pipe – I figured by the time they figured out what had just happened, it would be too late. So we got up to the side of the pipe at 6am and started to build the cage which consisted of a couple of rolls of chicken wire and some 2x4s pounded into the deck of the pipe. When the first Stratton employees showed up at 8am, we were done building the cage – one walked up to me and asked, “What do you guys think you are doing?” My unbroken reply was, “We are building a private viewing area for Jake.” Not reading my bluff, the helpful employee offered, “Do you need a table and garbage can?” “Yes.” From that moment, I knew we would pull it off. By the time the finals rolled around, the Cage was totally out of control (to plan) – and it was time for phase 2 – to bust out the mascot uniforms ( I have always subscribed to the idea that multiple contingency plans cannot all be stopped at once). When Pat and I got back with the mascot uniforms on – it all broke loose. It seems people in the cage thought Stratton had sent us as an olive branch to calm the waters. Instead it started the closest thing to a riot a snowboarding event has ever seen. The cage collapsed, empties skittered down the walls of the pipe, bodies spilled out in every direction and the finals got put on hold until some semblance of order was restored. Two years later, I started announcing the Open. To me it is sad that for many, the high water mark of the US Open happened 16 years ago. It was the mark of the beginning of the end, or maybe the end of the beginning, to loosely quote Winston Churchill.

If you’re down with nostalgia and wanna read the whole thing, Mark has stories for days. Check out part 1 and part 2.