Monday, March 12

2001 TransWorld Rider's Poll Awards

EXPN.com

The 2001 Transworld Rider's Poll Awards a.k.a. "The Tara Dakides Show" went down at the Hard Rock Cafe casino in Las Vegas. Tara took over the awards winning all five of the categories she was nominated for including, Female: SIA retailer's award, Female: TransWorld SNOWboarding Readers Choice, Female: Best Rail Rider, Female: Best Freestyle Rider and Female: Best Overall Rider.

Best Halfpipe Rider, Todd Richards hangs with the Rock Star Of the Year Peter Line.

Don't count on seeing this event on network television anytime soon. When the top riders and snowboarding industry folk gather to honor the best of their sport and VIP passes include four free drinks it's an uncensored event that's the hottest ticket at SIA but isn't quite ready for primetime. Tara who's ability to make acceptance speeches steadily waned throughout the night, summed it up this way, "This is very fun. Everybody's wasted".

Shaun Palmer set the tone for the night when he accepted the first award presented, Best Boardercross Rider. "I am a complete a--hole. Every sport needs one and I'm glad to be you're a--hole."

Peter Line won and lived up to the Male: Rock Star of the Year award. Sporting a felt beret and shades, he looked the part. A sarcastic Mr. Line gave props to his injuries for helping his rock star image, "I'd like to thank my torn ACL and the two chips in my elbow because the last seven weeks of vacation from snowboarding have been the best of my life."

After accepting the award for Female Rock Star of the Year, Tara got a congrats from presenter Kevin Jones, by draining a can of beer on her head as she accepted the award. Tara said, "I'm definitely getting arrested tonight", just before retaliating and dowsing Kevin Jones with a beer of her own.

The illusive Terje Haakonsen was not in attendance. So when Terje won the Male: Readers Choice award, the host of the Transworld Riders' Choice Poll awards, Selema "Sal" Masekela, (also an X Games commentator) stepped up to the mic and gave an impersonation of the native Norwegian - accepting in his behalf. Aside from his Terje impression, Sal did a great job of keeping things moving along, keeping it fun and acknowledging the importance of the riders recognized at the show to the sport and the industry.

Though they were pretty rare, the evening was not devoid of serious moments. Victoria Jealouse accepted the Best Big Mountain Rider award and she urged filmmakers to feature more female riders so girls will have more heroes to look up to. Kevin Jones dedicated his win of Best Freestyle Rider award to his grandfather who passed away two weeks previous.

The best video segment and best overall rider went to Bjorn Leines. The end of his acceptance speech for the last award was a fitting end to the evening. The eloquent Leines put it this way. "That's my word for the day. Awesome. I've said it like twenty times. Awesome!"

Check out the full results and our photo galleries from the event.