Inaugural Vans Cup at Northstar this weekend

The world's best snowboarders, including several from the South Shore, will flood to the North Shore this weekend for the West Coast's largest snowboarding event of the season.

The inaugural Vans Cup at Tahoe starts today with a rail jam at Northstar-atTahoe. Qualifying begins at 5 p.m, with the finals schedule for 6 p.m.

South Lake Tahoe's Jimi Tomer will be one of 20 riders to compete in the men's rail jam. Among the other men entered are Marc Frank Montoya, Shaun White, Danny Kass and Jeremy Jones. Erin Comstock, one of the top riders in the world, will compete in the seven-person women's rail jam.

The Vans Cup at Tahoe, which has a total prize purse of $200,000, continues on Saturday with the men's and women's superpipe. Stacie Anderson and Joanie Anderson, sisters from Tahoe Paradise, are entered in the women's competition, as is Zephyr Cove's Elena Hight.

Joanie Anderson is coming off a third-place finish at Jeep King of the Mountain Series held last weekend at Heavenly Mountain Resort and a fourth-place finish in women's boardercross two weeks ago the Winter X Games. Qualifying for the men's and women's superpipe event starts at 9:30 a.m., with the finals scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m.

The men's and women's slopestyle event will be held on Sunday and will conclude the weekend's festivities. Tomer is also entered in slopestyle, which begins its qualifying rounds at noon. Both Anderson sisters and are scheduled to compete for the women. Finals for both men's and women's slopestyle begin at 2 p.m.

There will be an awards ceremony on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in the Base Camp Pavilion at Northstar. Friday's rail jam in the village is free for anyone to attend. Saturday's and Sunday's events are free with purchase of a lift ticket. However, those wishing to attend either day's events can receive a free gondola ticket to watch the competitions, but no personal ski/snowboard equipment will be permitted inside the gondola.

The Vans Cup at Tahoe will air nationally on Fox Sports Net in a two-part segment that starts at 3 p.m. on March 17 and 24. For more information on this weekend's event, visit www.Vans.com.