EVENT CATEGORY

Looking to start an annual contest with room for growth, Windham Mountain, N.Y., started the Nightmare Before Christmas. Features used for the contest included a steel El Nino tombstone made from 1.5-inch steel pipe, a steel tube elbow, two-inch square tube for the base, and some scrap sheet metal from an old oil tank. The tombstone, which took five hours to build, was used as pole jam. Death’s Scythe up-up-up rail was constructed from a three-inch steel round pipe and required eight hours of building time. Meanwhile, Johnny O’Connor rolled up to the resort with the Christmas tree on the roof of his car. Given the lack of snow, the contest was held using a hike park and the setup was built to follow how the snow guns had shaped the terrain. In the end, close to 60 riders competed

Each Christmas, pro snowboarder Chris Grenier returns home to Wachusett Mountain, Mass., to host a contest for the locals. However, due to the lack of snow, the 2015 edition of Holiday Hammers was delayed until February. This fun, jam format contest pins 80 riders in a competition against a group of pros, as well as take part in a one-footed race. The course setup includes a few rail options, a jump and a hip. The overall signature feature is an eight-foot-tall hammer made from recycled plywood and corrugated piping. Using a Prinoth BR350, terrain park manager Andrew Roy and his team spent two nights getting everything ready. With a portion of each entry fee donated to Boarding for Breast Cancer, the event raised $750 for charity. Even Patriots quarterback Tom Brady made an appearance.

Since 2012-13, Roundtop Mountain, Pa., has hosted a grom event for skiers and snowboarders ages 6-to-12. However, after noticing a lack of encouragement for the younger generation, in 2014-15 the resort expanded its grom contest into an event series. Four grom-specific contests are held annually, traditionally on every other Saturday in January and February, with one event scheduled at night. The park crew builds a new park setup for each contest with a maximum of six features. Complete with a live DJ, photographer, and a one-hour coaching session before the contest kicks off, Roundtop has created a clever way to attract an underserved audience.

SAM’s November 2015 Bushwood Open cover boys are back at it again, this time with the Cacti Jam. The idea for this event came up when Arizona Snowbowl’s freestyle terrain supervisor Josh Heydon and Overthrow Clothing owner Andrew Reid wanted to create a contest that could showcase the unique environment of the resort, and tie-in some of the clothing brand’s core concepts. The second annual Cacti Jam, held on Feb. 27, 2016, featured more than 40 riders competing for $5,000 in cash and prizes. The centerpiece of the event, a giant 20-foot Saguaro Cactus made from a 12-inch diameter remnant snowmaking pipe, required 19 hours to complete. The cactus was used as a hitching post during the event, and it remained in the terrain park for the rest of the winter season.

In March, Snowboarder magazine and Okemo Mountain Resort, Vt., teamed up for the Adidas Over/Under event. Featuring two limbo stick setups, the end goal was pretty simple—see who could ollie the highest and limbo the lowest. More than 50 riders ollied up and over the bar, but in the end Ralph Kucharek was crowned the champ for reaching an impressive 3.5 feet. Following the ollie event, riders perfected their euro-carving skills by limboing underneath the stick. Given the lack of snow last season, this high-energy event didn’t require much setup aside from creating a start area and installing 100 feet of fencing.

Killington, Vt., is one of three resorts in the United States with a Neff Land terrain park. Given the outer space theme of the park, Killington and Neff joined forces to host the inaugural Neff Land Space Jam. With $2,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs, along with a Neff sponsorship for the top grom, more than 100 riders came out to play. Pro snowboarders Scotty Lago, Tim Humphrey and Ian Hart even served as guest judges. When competitors returned to earth, River Williams walked away with a new softgoods sponsor.

In 2011, the folks at Monster Energy concocted an idea for a new snowboarding event called Boarderstyle. Combining elements of snowboardcross and slopestyle, four riders simultaneously race head-to-head down a course with banked turns, berms, and a pond skim. However, before crossing the finish line, they must perform a mandatory rotation on the final feature, which is often a jump. In 2016, this fun and competitive contest stopped at Fernie Alpine Resort in British Columbia. Approximately 100 competitors showed up to test their speed through the course, and show off their skills on the 30-foot jump. Top honors for the men’s and lady’s categories went to Charles Reid and Jamie Warner, respectively.

As one of the longest running snowboard contests north of the border, 2016 marked the 19th edition of the Showcase Showdown at Whistler Blackcomb. While past editions of the event featured a big air, halfpipe, or slopestyle contest—or a mix of all three—the WB crew decided to reinvent the wheel once again. The 2016 edition was labeled as a family reunion jam for riders young, and young-at-heart. From a 50-foot step-over jump, to the grom zone with mini sized features for little rippers, and a hand-dug quarter pipe for the old dogs, there truly was something for everyone. It took four days to prepare the contest setup, and eight hours just to dig the pipe. Nearly 100 riders of all-ages showed up, so the effort was well worth it. Photo credit: Rich Glass.

In March, Red Bull sent a few of its world-renowned team riders to compete in the first NordiX event on North American soil at Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada. NordiX is essentially a ski cross contest where competitors wear cross-country skis. The 800-meter-long course, complete with drops, berms, rolls, and an uphill section, took five days to build. Slopes manager Bryan Kroker and his park crew used Prinoth snowcats, winch cats, and lots of hand shaping and raking to perfect the course.

Stevens Pass, Wash., extended its 2015-16 season for an extra weekend in April to host the 2nd annual Rhythm N’ Bruise contest. Working alongside one of RNB founders Zak Basher, the resort overhauled its terrain park to incorporate elements often found in mountain bike trails, such as a giant banked slalom and a pump track. Together, they also designed a toilet bowl feature that was a mix of a hip and a pole jam gap. Ten park staff members worked around the clock for four days using two PistenBully 400s to put everything in place.

In January, Stoneham, Quebec played host to the Empire Games presented by Burton. Empire Boardshop was looking to host a snowboard contest where two riders each had their own track and would ride a mirror version of the course. Working with Stoneham’s park consultant, Today’s Park, they created a unique setup complete with multiple tunnel bridges that riders could ride on top of or through. The tunnels were created using a combination of recycled and newly purchased tubes. Each tube was cut in half and screwed into a metal arch to hold it in place. A crew of five guys, including one cat operator and four shapers, spent three days constructing the event setup.

Thanks to Krush Kulesza at Snowboy Productions, Loon Mountain was the place to be in late-March 2016. With a handful of invited pro riders including Scott Stevens and Mike Ravelson, and a few key members of the press, everyone rolled into New Hampshire to take part in a three-day private shred session. The over-the-top park setup had six distinct zones featuring wall rides, a channel gap, and more obstacles than you could count. As photos from the exclusive event started getting leaked online, Loon decided to keep the park open for a fourth and final day and invited the general public to come out and play.

The team at Thredbo Parks sure knows how to throw a party. In August, the Australian resort hosted the third installment of the Transfer Banked Slalom, otherwise knows as the “Tournament of Turns.” The first turn of the course featured an over/under style toilet bowl, where riders had to do a full 270º rotation to exit through the “drain.” From here, riders made their way through a series of tight turns and a rhythm section where they were greeted with a wall ride. Following that was more hips, berms, a second rhythm section and a natural halfpipe. Constructing this monstrous course required six days of pushing snow, chain sawing tunnels and hand shaping features. As for the colorful mural designed by Andrew “Grassi” Kelaher, that took six hours to complete from start to finish.

Last winter, Minnesota’s Spirit Mountain hosted one of eight stops of the Tow Up, Thrown Down rail jam. This unique Midwest contest series is based on riding towropes. Even though Spirit Mountain doesn’t have a towrope, that didn’t stop it from hosting the event. With the help of three snowmobile drivers, riders were towed to top of the course in no time. The contest setup included four rails for riders to choose from, with one of them being a newly constructed 40-foot tube. The tube didn’t have any center support making it overly flexible. Spirit Mountain spent one week constructing the tube and preparing the course with the assistance of a PistenBully 400 Park Pro and several park crew members doing rake work