It's Not Over Yet

In this case, I mean winter isn't over. A recent cold snap brought over a foot of snow to Mt. Bachelor and two feet to Timberline, just in time for their finale weekends. Of course at Timberline it's more of a soft close since they'll still be running, but you can't use your season pass or spring pass after Memorial Day. Both resorts have plans for their weekends, final or not.

This storm keeps up and they're gonna have to change that graphic.

Timberline is having their inaugural Top to Bottom Race. If the storm lets up soon enough to clean off Palmer it will be a team race from there to the lodge. That in itself would be boring, so they're throwing in some bonus tasks including 'Double Dare'-style contests (I can only assume the mean the 'physical challenge' [bonus points if you actually remember 'Double Dare' the Nickelodeon family game show]) to shave time off your race clock. Sound like fun? Assemble your crew and head to timberlinelodge.com for the deets.

Had to reschedule Matt Damon, didn't have time to fit him in.

Down south at Mt. Bachelor, they've got a whole grip of events going on. If you know anything about Bachelor, you know they're developing a rep of having killer contests, especially in the springtime. If you follow the boredyak instagram feed you may have already seen killer pics of the Gerry Lopez Big Wave Challenge. Well, that's not all they got. It's closing weekend and they have to cram all they have left into the last two days. They've got a two-day brewfest for the adults with live music both days (remember that new stage they got?), a ski contest Saturday and the North American Pond Skimming Championships on Sunday. Hope that's enough to keep you happy 'til November.

Holler if you see this guy. He's a pond skimming master.

Winning and Losing at the Dirksen Derby

When you look at it from a distance, The Dirksen Derby is a snowboard contest. It's a race from the top of a course to the bottom. Last one down's a rotten egg. First place gets the glory. That's pretty much where the comparison to competition ends. You see there's no money on the line (just custom walking stick and painted glove trophy along with some schwag), no energy drink sponsors (Drink Water provided 60 gallons of Oregon's finest tap water) and no drug testing (stress was the only 'banned substance').

The money raised over the weekend goes toward Tyler Eklund's medical bills. Tyler broke his neck in a crash preparing for USASA Nationals years back. Now he's paralyzed from the neck down. If you can judge a man by his friends, Tyler must be a hell of a guy. The way the snowboard community rallies around him at the Derby makes you wonder, "If the same thing happened to me, what would the reaction be?" Tyler's all smiles. He's got scads of great friends around him and the Derby raised over $30,000 for him this year alone.

Tyler Eklund, the man of the weekend, grinin' til the finish.

I showed up to Mt. Bachelor without much of an agenda. I have some friends in Bend that I don't see often. The Derby courses are always fun to ride and I figured I'd demo some boards between my runs on Saturday. Turns out, by the time I registered the courses were closed for maintenance and I didn't get any practice runs. I did, however, pick up some free ClifBars and Mountain House dehydrated food and take a few laps around Bachelor on a chilly, breezy day.

I guess I gotta go have fun instead of practicing.

That night was the kickoff party, but first I had to fill my belly. I wasn't able to stay with my Bend friends for the weekend because they had previously booked their space with family who was in town for a wedding (lame). They were also at the rehearsal dinner, so I was on my own for food. Not for long, though.

Baldy's Barbecue is always my first dinner stop in Bend. I showed up right behind another group of snowboarders and was seated right next to them. They let me know that their group was going to get much bigger and asked if I'd like to join them (or sit alone on the other side of the restaurant). So I shared chicken and ribs with 15 new friends from the Mt. Baker area including women's Derby champ (last year, this year, probably next year) and all-around ripper Maria DeBari. I also got to hear about the souped up Subaru Loyale headed out on the GO! trip from Kael Martin himself. How cool is that? Cool enough for me.

The GO! Subie. Mad ponies under that hood.

Next stop, opening party/art show. Artist find new ways to artify snowboards every year. Take something that someone shredded to bits, add some time and sweat to it and all of a sudden you get a thousand dollar charity art piece. I love that about this community!

Also, raffles. I took a load off and sat next to some old dude midway through the night. He handed me a gripful of raffle tickets as he up and left. Long story short, I won a bucket of Mountain House dehydrated food, a grocery bag of ClifBar product, a 24oz. Mizu water bottle and a half-gallon Hydro Flask thermos (for those times when you need 64oz of hot soup?). Not a bad haul for five bucks worth of tickets and a couple hours of partying. Seriously, I will always buy raffle tickets. Not only do I like to gamble, but I like to kick some money down to support a good cause and I like that feeling when they read your number. Maybe I won the smallest prizes they were giving out, but I won a bunch of them and that's a bunch of fun. You'd have to be raffling off the worst shit ever to not get me to buy one. I've bought raffle tickets for quilts before.

My eyes are drawn to the guy in the orange hat. You?

The next morning I woke up at 3am to an air raid siren! What the fuck is going on!? I don't see any smoke or fire. The building isn't shaking. I hear no jets overhead (or underfoot for that matter). The sound was coming from my phone. The National Weather Service was texting to inform me that there was a blizzard warning until 1pm. Thank you NWS, for rousing me from my slumber to tell me about something that I'd rather have slept through. Note to self: set phone to airplane mode before sleeping to preserve the alarm, but prohibit random acts of silence disruption.

Good night sleep: take two. Success. Breakfast was some Mountain House meat and potato something or other rehydrated by water from the coffee pot. The second run, of course, to clean out the coffee taste. I got to the mountain just in time to miss any chance at a practice run, but I watched a bunch of the first runs and felt like I had a good grasp of which course to take. I settled on the mellower green run (so as not to get bucked out of the tighter berms of the red course) and headed to the main base to take some fun runs and demo some boards (full posts coming soon on the Gnu A.S.S. Pickle, Capita NAS, K2 Ultra Dream and Never Summer Evo; not a bad quiver if you could swing it).

If you know me, you know that by the time I got back to the race area my number was up and they were waiting on me. No time to go to the car and get the race board and tune it up. Not quite enough time to adjust the bindings from the wacky stance the demo tech gave me, but I did that anyway. Just enough time to get to the gate and hear the timer count to three in poor German. Was it an attempt at a Cool Runnings reference? Did the green course signify something that I wasn't fully prepared for?No time. Dropping! Turns out the green course was mellower than I expected. Every bit of speed had to be pumped and fought for. At one point I was going so slowly that I felt the need to reach down and push myself with my hands. I did not qualify for Sunday's finals. Not even close. Not even in the old peoples' division (Seriously, Gerry Lopez!? I couldn't compete with him on a good day). I did qualify for throwing pow around (remember that blizzard warning), 'sneaking' into practice runs to get a peek at the yet unscoped red course and marveling at the spectacle that is the Dirksen Derby Splitboard Race.

Drink Water and eat Parrilla clam chowder. That's all you need.

The Derby Splitboard Race is the most entertaining race in all of sport. Near as I can tell, head honcho Josh Dirksen makes up the rules for each installment the minute before it happens. This year, riders started 100 yards downhill from the bottom of the courses' finish lines with their splitboards fully assembled and ready to ride downhill. They then break them down into split mode, affix skins and skin uphill. Upon reaching the finish line, they skin up the red course (reminder, that's the tighter course) to the staging area. At the top of the course, they reassemble their boards, strip their skins and stash everything in their packs. There is a 'no junk show' rule that Austin Smith (already way out of the running) hilariously disregarded as he skied down the green course, poles in hand, jacket flapping. Then it's a mad rally down the green course to the finish line to stop the clock. Only the top three finishers were placed with everyone else sharing 4th place.

That's the skin and bones of it, but here's the mucus. Everybody's ready at the bottom of the course except Alex Yoder who was trying to find his poles at the top of the course. Someone comes up with a pair of loaner poles (fixed ski poles) and Yoder hauls to the starting line (he would take his loaner poles to a strong 4th place showing). Just then, Dirksen fires the starting gun and they're off. Of course, by 'fires the starting gun' I mean he counts down from 5 and yells "GO!" What ensues looks something like a Rubik's Cube competition in a blizzard. Everyone is trying to find space to turn his splitboard into skis. The wind is whipping skins against people's faces. A tense minute passes and the leaders emerge shuffling uphill in huge strides. I get on the chairlift for a better angle, but the slow-ass double can't even keep up. Are you kidding me? They might not be high-speed quads, but their quads are moving at top speed. I reach the top just in time to see the leaders zip down the course. From mid-course I hear Temple Cummins cursing for air. He would finish a disappointing 4th. You know it's a good event if you can get that guy out of his comfort zone. Meanwhile, back at the top, the rest of the pack is still reassembling their boards. Some look like it's their first time putting together a bookshelf from Ikea. Some are blatantly disregarding the 'no passing on the course' rule with mixed results. Everyone is gassed at the top, but hyped, laughing and swapping stories by the finish. I gotta get in this race next year.

Dirksen, making up the rules for the splitboard race as he goes.

Oh wait, what!? There was a whole matter of fast-ass racers up in this mug? Terje, was there!? Overheard asking someone to tuck in his hood so it wouldn't slow him down?? Just in case you thought no one was taking it for real. Austin Smith and Curtis Ciszek boasted about spending 150 bones on a postage stamp-size wad of wax. Didn't save Curtis the utter humiliation of finishing third to Scotty Wittlake's second and Austin's champ. Bragging rights for a year and something about cock piercings. Not all the rights, though. Overall champ came from the men's division, not the previous-podiums-only Elites. That title went to local ripper and leader of the resistance Ben Connors. Thank God no one went back in time to kill his mother (if you don't get that reference I'm not spelling it out for you). Among other swag, he got an Aesmo powsurfer. Not only can you not find those things in the wild, if you wanted to buy one you'd have to sell some vital organs for it. Have fun ripping it and see you in the Elites next year, Ben. Unless the T-1000 gets you.

As we all exited the award ceremony, the snow was still coming down. Snowboarder magazine's Tom Monterosso was hoping his 5am flight the next morning would get canceled so he could rip a pow day. I was just hoping all the roads between here and home would be open and drivable. The blizzard warnings were still in effect as my phone kept alerting me, but the ride home proved uneventful if long. Nighttime winter mountain roads always make the end of a trip feel fully final. They also make it feel like turning a snowboard back and forth through a gully. Snow closing the field of vision. Nothing on your mind but the here and now. High fives at the end. Cold beer and hot cocoa.

Dirksen Derby Time!

Get aerodynamic

Subject to change

Bring your short board and your A-game for the tight banks. Also, if you have any inclination to splitboard, the Splitboard Race at the Derby is the funnest race to watch in all of racing. You can't even imagine it without being there. Thinking about it doesn't do it justice. They have a board demo going on Saturday, too, so you have extra reason to get out there and something to pass the time while you're waiting for your run if you don't want to mess up you precious race wax job. Because I know you're serious like that. Personally, I'll be lucky to even register on-time. I'll see you there anyway.

The Northwest Awakens

Thanksgiving was especially apt for the northwest snowboard scene this year. Riders from Washington and Oregon are giving thanks for the start of the winter season as resorts from Mt. Baker to Stevens Pass to Mt. Bachelor all opened this week. On Mt. Hood, Meadows fired up the chairs and Timberline opened some lower-mountain terrain, too.

Word from Meadows is that it was as good as an opening day can be. And that's not just the company line, even Yobeat agrees.

Bachelor dropped a quick opening day edit, too. Cameos from Austin Smith and Curtis Ciszek at the end. Looks like they got it good.

Baker, to the surprise of no one, is claiming the deepest base on the continent. They have all of their lifts firing.

Yes, folks, happy days are here again. Get out there and get it, but remember to ease into it. Remember how to drive in winter conditions. Remember that rocks, stumps and small woodland animals lurk just under the shallow fall base. And remember, if you play your cards right, you could have a long and happy winter. Check your landings and start your winter beards. Let the good times roll.

This Ain't No Stadium Cheer

2nd Annual Big Wave Challenge Barrels Mt. Bachelor

The surf was firing at Mt. Bachelor this weekend for Gerry Lopez's 2nd Big Wave Challenge. Bachelor Parks staff were putting in serious work with Superpark just finishing up and now an ocean full of berms, hips and snake lines constructed for this event. They even had to bring in an excavator for the over-vert cradle at the bottom of the hill.

Mystery rider just getting shacked

Contestants were ripping the course from every possible angle. Big methods and bigger slashes were popping every other hit. The judges - Bend resident Austin Smith among them - were were under constant fire as one 'wave' was right under their chairs. I'm not sure if spraying the judges helped or hurt scores. I bet it felt good either way. A big middle finger to the man. Contestants and public alike sessioned the course until long after the event was over. Curtis Woodman was ripping all day. After his first run, he exclaimed, "That was the awesome-est run of my life!"

The line-up

Some kook

Bjorn Leines taking a big drop.

Leis and Hawaiian shirts were in full effect all day. Board shorts, too, as the temp broke 50. The sweet sounds of Hawaiian musician Bill Keale kept everyone feeling the aloha into the night. Well, that plus the drink specials.

Men

1st - Gus Warbington

2nd - Forest Devore

3rd - Josh Dirksen

Women

1st - Ashley Thornton

2nd - Desiree Melancon

3rd - Jess Kimura

Old Dogs

1st - Mike Newcomb

2nd - Matt Montage

3rd - William Weaver

Groms

1st - Gus Ferguson

2nd - Alder Butsch

3rd - Lui Bilello-Lewis

Show them what they win.

Nice little fin plaque

Custom Gerry Lopez board for the real deal.

Superpark 16: Go Ahead and Tell 'Em

Snowboarder Magazine's Superpark 16 presented by Gatorade, Prinoth and Sunriver Resort (should have been presented by Drink Water or Boneyard Brewing) is officially over. I think some ski contest is desecrating using their jumps now. Mt. Bachelor saw some heavies over the week and it all got critical on the final day.

I didn't witness any of them, but I sure heard the cheers and stories about three triple corks that went down. Two out of three (ain't bad) of them are on the day 5 video (don't miss the frontside 5 to tripod and Big Mike spitting hot fire - shirtless, natch - on the top Boreal feature).  I never did hear who pulled off the third triple cork, but Pat Bridges himself was trying to hunt down video of it as late as the wrap party.

Speaking of the editor of Snowboarder Magazine, he knocked off his 68th different handplant location at Superpark 16. I think he goes by event because he also said he planted three different features at Superpark. What's up, Pat? What's the plant count and criteria? 

Back to the day at hand. The first thing I did on the last day was peep that weird Mt. Bachelor feature:

Not that weird.

All that and a pole jam on the backside. No homo.

Dudes were handplanting and jibbing. No weird simultaneous air/jib/plant action. I hope someone did that though. That feature had more angles than the Missouri River. Wait, maybe that's 'anglers.' Either way, fools were reeling in the transition like walleye.

Handplant-tastic

Wyatt Caldwell jibbin'

After that, I rolled down to this multi-purpose structure you may remember from Thursday:

All about choices. Some of the lines cut in this thing were straight confusing.

Just in time to see this gang mobbing through:

My snowboard for a video camera, STAT!

The resultant Chinese downhill plus innovative slope feature was the best thing I saw all trip. Nothing but homies popping up and disappearing, over and over. Like being in an Airblaster movie.

Not even close to doing it justice. So much fun.

I ended the day and the event at the Boreal feature up top. I didn't really think that thing was ever going to get finished or look good or get hit if it did get finished. Proven wrong once again. It looked like a shred BBQ when I got there. Fools just camped out drinkin', smokin', straight west coastin' and all that. 

Some more interested than others.

Pat Bridges, interested; photog, not.

Jake Olson-Elm with the drop after creeper crawling across the top of the wall.

Bjorn Leines, frontside 5 tail tap, shadows looming.

Fo' real

At the end of it all, riders descended on Bend's Astro Lounge like ants on a forgotten deviled egg. Wes Makepeace rocked a set and Pat Bridges gave some of that Gatorade money to Seth Hill for the Driven from Within award. Said he had to kick Seth off the hill at 7pm multiple times. Said Seth broke a board at the sunrise shoot before most riders were awake. Probably a safe bet it was before some of them were asleep. A member of Bachelor's park staff confirmed it. Said Seth was dropping twice to most others' once. Look for this young Sims rider on the come-up.

Look for me not snowboarding again for a while. Unless it's at Timberline just getting my slush slash fix. Actually look for the Big Wave Challenge recap coming up quick. In a word: awesomefunsurftastic. Hashtag that twerps. 

Superpark 16: Eyes Wide, Shut Up and Sit Down

I feel like I should be riding around this place with a bag of Reese's Pieces and a bucket of popcorn. Maybe some Junior Mints and a Pepsi. Between all the tech rail wizardry and aerial acrobatics performed without harness or net I'm in a constant state of astonishment. I know, I shouldn't give in. I should remain fully with-it and detached. 'He wheelied a little on the landing of that switch backside 12. I wouldn't even use it in the edit.' That should be me. With the cappuccino in the shade. I'm not that guy. Hope I never am. We'll leave that to jaded team manager dude. I just close my eyes and shake my head. Take for example Jaeger Bailey. Watch this video all the way through and tell me what you think of the ender - his second edit-ender, by the way. Did he really just do that? Close eyes. Shake head. Usually I'll talk about someone doing a late front flip as a way of saying he fell on his face. Guess I'll have to come up with a new one. Plenty of guys doing tweaked out shifties and slo-mo spins on these uber-booters, too. Chris Bradshaw's style. Andrew Brewer's backflips. A double cork over here. A handplant on a tree over yonder.

That's the only problem with Superpark. It's too big. You never know where - or when - the epicness is going to go down. Two things to look for are the big inflatable Gatorade bottle and Pat Bridges. One of those usually oversees all things earth-shattering. Pat, being more mobile, is the better bet. But he's also smaller and harder to pin down. Here's a rundown of the shred rad that I managed to witness on this day.

Knut Eliassen, Robbie Sell and Cory Grove among a crew checking the upper Seven Springs jump.

He could tuck the knee more, but the style arm is right there. That's as jaded as I get.

To the hills.

Oh, we got rails, too. I'll get a better shot of this feature. Too much rad for one shot.

Speaking of rails, the Boreal rail feature was one of those 'right places' last night. Niko Cioffi blasted a wallride across the whole thing, Sage Kotsenburg gapped the whole feature and Halldor Helgason did a sick nose stall to backside boardslide to shut the place down.

As close as you're going to get to a sequence from me...

...because this one's from a non-make anyway. Halldor Helgason

Aaaand here's how to miss the shot. Niko Cioffi with the full-pull wallride.

I've got one more day of Superparking left, so prepare to be astonished just a little more. Bangers and hammers. None of that 'He came off the rail a little early,' bull. Close your eyes. Shake your head. 

Superpark 16: Seeing Ghosts

Snowboarder Magazine's Superpark 16 is such a mindjob. So many riders are cruising around and they're all so good. I had never heard of half these kids before I got here and they're all just out of control. Jaeger Bailey sounds like some college-kid drink. Turns out it is a person and he rips. Check out the shin-bang front flip he does to end this video. 

Plenty of old-school shreds are representing as well. Dale Rehberg, Dave Lee, Russell Winfield and Wes Makepeace were cruising. Winfield was riding on '93 rules, "Nothing over a 360 and if you don't poke it, you gotta go home." Chris Brunkhart was even capturing it all on Super 8.

How to give a cop a heart attack. Rider: Brandon Reis, Graffiti: Avert Guldemond

So much fun, even I took a run through.

The mountain in the back is Broken Top, the rider is hoping not to get broken off.

At one point, Austin Hironaka came up short on this burly step-up, sending the photographers on the deck scrambling. Everyone was OK, but it prompted a brief shutdown to reshape the takeoff and change underwear. The photo below shows the deck, photogs and I supposed we might as well put a feature there, too.

Josh Dirksen practicing for this weekend's Big Wave Challenge

Pouncing on the cat

Peter Line, still a big deal. The Burtners know what's up.

Keep checking back. Features are still being built, if you can believe that. Boreal was still working on an even bigger wall when I left last night. Of course, check out Snowboarder Magazine for all the best. It being their event and all. Now go chug a Gatorade and buy a Prinoth! Energy! Snow pushing!!

Superpark 16: This is Not a Contest

Superpark 16. It's all there in the name. It's just like your resort's park, only super-sized. Just like the dudes who ride there, only super-pros. Just like the bloggers who cover it, only, well actually the bloggers are the same. The other photogs and filmers are super, though. The number 16 represents the number of years Snowboarder Magazine has been running Superpark. I'm glad they didn't go with the easy 'Sweet Sixteen' theme and opted instead for a gameshow motif.

You're the next contestant on Superpark 16

Props go out to Gatorade for sponsoring the event and hooking everyone up with liquid sugar. They also have some 'energy chew' candies this year that are basically gummy bears for vegetarians. Wait, do vegetarians eat gummy bears? No? The gelatin, eh? Also on the sponsor tip, Prinoth. Never heard of 'em? They make snowcats, which are important to this event. Look for lots of them parked in the channels and on the decks of jumps. You know, to provide context and texture.

Prinoth: pushing pow for prime pop

Just in case you forgot who was paying for the show

Mt. Bachelor is hosting the proceedings on the Sunrise Lodge side of the mountain, the Sunrise and ultra-slow Rainbow lifts shuttling riders. Park builders from Boreal, Loon and Seven Springs joined the Bachy crew to turn what's left of the snow into features fit for freestyle fantasy.

Keeping the Mongols at bay

Look for some jumps to really start going off tomorrow. Speed should be checked. Conditions should be prime. Corks should be multiplied. Dudes gettin dizzy. 'Til then, this.

Get To Meadows While You Can!

This is the last weekend of the season at Mt. Hood Meadows! Get your Cinco de Mayo shred on today and your, well, Seis de Mayo shred tomorrow. Sunday is looking like the nicer weather day with sun and upper 40s. Either way, once the lifts stop running Sunday at 3pm, they won't start up again 'til next season.

Coming next season, RFID gates like at Mt. Bachelor...

Board Exam: 2011/2012 Lib Tech Travis Rice Limited Edition Snowboard Review

What the rep said: All-mountain freestyle; mellow magnetraction; C2 power banana for better edge hold, stability and pop; true twin shape

Stats/Setup: I checked in at 6'1" (1.85m) and 170 pounds (77.3kg) when I rode the Travis Rice Limited Edition in a 157 with Salomon Dialogue Boots (size 9.5) and some old Technine MFM Pro bindings at Mt. Bachelor, Oregon. Count the prepositions in that sentence.

Conditions: Hardpack, ice, some slush

Check out Lib-Tech's site for the goods

First impression: Dig that limited edition Art of Flight graphic by Mike Parillo

The Ride: A nice deep sidecut has the T.Rice going edge-to-edge like a tweaker standing on a rocking chair. When the turns open up, the mellow magnetraction shines. It's not as aggressive as the MTX found on some of Mervin's other boards, but it will hold on even when you're carving like a Euro hardbooter. I don't know exactly which boards have which version of magnetraction, but my guess is the deeper the sidecut the less need for a deep magnetraction. It works for this board anyway. It charges hard and holds on tight.

Another shining area is the stability. Even at 157 when I'm used to something longer, I was comfortable at speed, through chop and falling off stumps and jumps. This is a damp board that likes speed and likes a challenge.

The pop was pretty good. I've found Lib's C2 poppier than full rocker (or their earlier BTX), but not as poppy as full camber. This is to be expected as it has rocker between the feet, but camber to the contact points. The C2 does give you that little bit of buttery flex advantage over camber, though, for those who like to get your press on.

Bottom Line: It's not going to get you into a helicopter followed by a helicopter all by itself, but it can do everything else. In general, a hell of a lot of fun to ride. I wish I could've ridden the 161 and ridden it in a wider variety of conditions because this seems like a great all-mountain freestyle board.

Similar Boards: My Never Summer SL-R

Bonus Package: As a bonus to the Limited Edition board, the LE package includes The Art of Flight book, DVD and Blu-Ray all in a collector's edition box. It's a rad little package that I paid $80 for. Check it.

The art of book, Field Notes for scale

What's inside

The collector's edition, pop-up box