At the quarterpipe in the Telluride Air Garden Friday, there were lots of "congrats" and "rock on" signs, as the United States Deaf Ski and Snowboard Association held its qualifiers for the U.S. Deaflympic team, part of last week's Deaf Winterfest, an annual event held this year in Telluride. When the winners were announced, not only were there a lot of "congrats" and "rock ons," but also there were lots of hugs and a surprising amount of yelling. Sometimes you just got to yell, even if you can't hear yourself doing it.

Course, it isn't all love and hugs and sugar. These are serious competitors. Those who make the team will represent their country at the 2007 Deaflympics in Salt Lake next winter. One woman, upset about her low scores, argued her case with the judge. "I grabbed, I grabbed, I grabbed," she pleaded, but the judge said he wrote down "no grab," and what the judge writes down is final. He said something about "over-rotation" and "amplitude," and still the girl protested. "I thought it was a trick contest," she signed.

The athletes gathered afterward at Tracks for beers.

Blake Herbold, 22, and his sister Tenaya, 17, grew up in Fremont, Calif., four hours from Lake Tahoe, and would drive there on weekends. The whole family is deaf. Rick, the father, drove out from Fremont with Tenaya. Blake's girlfriend, Shanna Winesburg, came from Washington, D.C., where she's a graduate student at Gallaudet University, an all-deaf university.

About 250 people registered for Deaf Winterfest, and Jeff Lewis, one of the organizers, figures that about 100 more people came on their own. Lewis said he was impressed with the Telluriders. Most of them knew a little bit of sign language - hello or you're welcome - and most were eager to learn more.

"They're all very motivated to learn some signs and ask some questions," said Lisa Tempesta, one of the team leaders.

I try to learn some signs, too, and Rick tries to convince me that the sign for "asshole" is actually the sign for "thanks."

Nearly everybody carries their Sidekick for a sidekick. These little wonders, invented by T-mobile, are popular among rappers and jetsetters who can't be bothered to speak into an actual telephone, and also apparently among deaf people, who can't speak into a telephone at all. Often, when the athletes want to talk to me, they type it out on their sidekicks and hand off the little machine, and I type back a response.

Blake Herbold has grown more dedicated to boarding recently. After graduating from Gallaudet, he did what so many young people do - he chucked his fancy degree and moved to Keystone with a couple of his college buddies. Now, he somehow manages to get by with working only two days a week on the snow crew - clearing roads with bobcats, shoveling snow off stairs and scattering salt - and snowboarding the other five. You ask how the snow's been, and he can hardly stretch his arms up high enough to show how deep it's been. "Best snow in 20 years at Keystone," he writes in my notebook. "Lots of powder. That's one of the reasons I moved to Keystone."

He broke his thumb and wears a cast, and so wasn't sure if he was going to compete at the tryouts. At the last minute, he decided to go ahead, and he got fifth in Giant Slalom and sixth in the quarterpipe.

"There's definitely room for improvement," he writes. "And I will definitely compete again in the next one."

Tenaya, a strong girl, wears a T-shirt that reads, "You should need a license for these guns." The quieter the person, it seems, the louder the T-shirt. "Sorry, it's not my day to care," reads one. "I'm not lucky, I'm good," reads a third. These are quiet people, but they're not exactly shy.

For a hearing person, walking into Tracks on Friday was like stepping into an alternate reality. It looked exactly like your average bar scene - flirting and feuding, people getting worked up over stories - but all without decibels higher than the clinking of glasses.

Hearing people who encountered this huge group of nearly soundless people often reacted with a certain befuddlement, the way you would puzzle at an entirely new species just discovered on a remote island. Shy or arrogant people tended to ignore them. Kind people nodded or waved and then didn't know what to do next, and so left them alone. Which seemed just fine with the group.

The U.S. Deaflympic team was announced later in the day, and the Ski and Snowboard Club was filled with tension as Jeff Lewis announced the team.

Four years ago at the Winter Deaflympics, the U.S. snowboard team took home half the medals. Snowboard coach Will Garrow thinks the team can improve on that. But the rest of the world is catching up with the U.S. in snowboarding, and so Garrow can't be sure.

Neither Blake nor Tanaya Herbold made the squad that will compete, but they did make the development squad, which was a pleasant surprise for both. Via videophone, Rick relayed the news to mom. The others offered their congratulations and their signs for "rock on."

By Reilly Capps
http://www.telluridegateway.com/articles/2006/03/20/news/news02.txt