Pipedream
Local park and pipe huckster David Sugnet has landed on top of the Collegiate freestyle skiing world.

Sugnet, a Durango High graduate who skis for Western State College in Gunnison, took home a silver medal from the U.S. Collegiate Ski & Snowboard Association Nationals, held March 5-10 in Sunday River, Maine. Sugnet, who honed his chops on Purg’s Paradise Terrain Park and now trains at Crested Butte, took second place in the mens individual slopestyle event March 9.

The USCSA is the national governing body of team ski and snowboard competition at the collegiate level. Its stated goal is to promote and increase awareness of and participation in alpine skiing, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding in the United States. It also provides competition and development opportunities for student athletes.

Some 500 athletes from 200 colleges across the country belong to the USCSA, competing in more than 200 sanctioned events annually. The National Championships are the showcase event.

Get your brew on
If you are one of the few remaining homebrewers who has not yet started your own brewery, Ska Brewing wants you for its 2012 HomeBrew Contest.

Hopeful homebrewers can register online at www.durangohomebrew.com. All entries must be received by Ska between April 23 - May 9. The winning home brewer will win a day on the Ska production line, helping craft a batch of his or her masterpiece for release this fall as part of Ska’s “Local Series.”
Last year, beer blogger and Westword managing editor Jonathan Shikes brewed his beer with Ska. The result was “Big Shikes Orange Blossom Imperial Pilsner,” which was released at Old Chicago restaurants around the state.

Shikes describes what he remembered of his “special” experience. “We started quality-testing numerous batches of beer around 11 a.m., and the rest of the day is kind of a blur,” says Shikes. “I do recall brewers running up and down metal stairs in rubber boots, turning an endless series of knobs, levers and buttons. But those might have just been for the stereo, which was cranked up pretty loud. For the yeast, they said.”

The winner will also be entered in next fall’s Pro-Am category of the 2012 Great American Beer Fest in Denver, the nation’s largest beer festival and competition.