Community Corner

Boarding Off the Roof

Extreme snows in Grayslake inspired teen snowboarders to create a run off their roof.

What do you get when you mix teenage snowboarders, 20 or so inches or snow, two days off of school and a handy way to climb up on the roof of their house? A homemade snowboarding hill.

Dylan Hay and Colton Brunk, both 16 year old boys who attend Grayslake Central High School, joined their friend Vince Smith, 15, to build a snowboarding ramp off the roof of Hay's house in Grayslake.

It is their own mini-version of Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin where they normally snowboard. Here in Grayslake, they made do with a house, a trellis and a whole lot of snow.

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"It probably took us a total of nine hours," said Brunk. "It's pretty big. It's a good snowboarding hill -- for the backyard."

The boys head up the mounds of snow to the top of the roof. They walk over to the chimney and sit down and strap on their snowboards. Then they stand up, turn and snowboard down over the roof's edge, onto a snow-fortified trellis, down a packed "ski" hill into a smaller jump into a small landing pile of snow in the backyard.

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"We think if a lot of people start wanting to come over, we'll start charging an entrance fee," said Hay.

Dylan's mom, Debbie Hay, said that she worries about the boys getting hurt, but otherwise was in favor of the plan. "I'm just glad they are having fun and keeping themselves occupied," she said.

Underneath the ski jump, Dylan Hay said he and Smith decided to make a large igloo.

"We were bored after we finished the jump," Hay said. "So we were under the trellis eating pizza and we saw a pile of snow, and just decided to start digging."

He said they used garden scrapers and shovels to dig out an igloo on their deck, large enough for two or more teenagers to squeeze into. They used snowblowers to blow snow onto the deck to build the igloo and the snowboarding run.

Hay, who participates in wrestling, football and lacrosse, likes to stay active, Debbie Hay said. "I was glad they keep themselves busy these past two days off of school," she said.

Dylan Hay said simply, "It was something to do during the storm."


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