The big snowfall last week gave the Penn State Snowboard Club another reason to celebrate this weekend besides a chance to hit the slopes: the club could host their ninth annual PSU Open.

The two-day event, held at Tussey Mountain, consisted of the Rail Jam competition on Friday night and a Big-Air jump competition on Saturday afternoon.

"We were talking about not holding it, but luckily, it snowed the night before," Snowboarding Club President Kyle Barnoff (senior-petrolium engineering), said. The club decided not to hold the slope-style event on Sunday, which it tried for the first time last year, since they needed more snow to build it, Barnoff said.

"The Rail Jam is usually the most popular anyway," he said.

Both events were open to Penn State students and State College residents. It was judged by three members from the Snowboarding Club. The contestants were separated into a juniors division for under-18 year olds, sponsored by Tussey Mountain, and an adults division for over-18 year olds, sponsored by the Snowboard Club.

While the majority of the riders were male, there were a few female participants in the event.

"We like to get students from local colleges to participate with us," Art McNulty (junior-public relations, sociology), team manager and designer of the jumps, said. This year, he said, it is about half Penn State students and half State College residents and non-local students.

"We have some great prizes this year too," he said. Some of the prizes are name brand outerwear, bags, hooded sweatshirts, gloves and watches, and the top three winners in each division will receive a prize, he said.

One of the best tricks seen at the big air was a 900, McNulty said, which is two and a half rotations in the air.

"We modified the design to be a lot safer this year," he said. "Besides some bumps and bruises, no one had to go to the hospital yet," he said. At last year's PSU Open, nine participants out of 40 went to the emergency room.

"We're really happy with Art's design of the park this year. Everything is set up more technical and it really makes a difference," Barnoff said. Some of the changes were steeper rails for the Rail Jam and the use of more snow for building a more technical design really helped, he said.

Snowboarder Dave Fox (senior-architectural engineering), who competed last year, said he was not nervous at all while waiting for his turn to go. "It's big, it's fun, it's fast." he said.