The level of riding at the Olympic Heritage Rail Jam was impressive. Northstar’s park crew once again put together a perfect set up. To ensure perfection Nothstar brought out a groomer before the start of finals to groom the course. Northstar at Tahoe is on top of their park game. With some heavy hitters throwing down to win some cash brought out Cody Boan, Andrew Brewer, Dylan Lynch, Johny Brady, Ryan Kittredge, Ben Rice, Alex Hereford and many others to compete.
Check out the footage: Olympic Heritage Rail Jam 2010
Results
Men
1st Place Johnny Brady
2nd Place Cody Boan
3rd Place Andrew Brewer
Women
1st Place Danyale Patterson
2nd Place Fancy Rutherford
3rd Place Bella Rodriquez
Words: Taylor Murray
Photos: Darcy Bacha
For the full photo gallery click HERE!
The Arizona desert is a weird place. Maybe it’s the 700 year-old cacti, the awkward co-existence of frat boys and gypsies, or the fact that it just snowed more in Flagstaff than anywhere else in the country. Regardless, the crew from the Campus Rail Jam Tour was stoked to explore Tucson and feed their appetite for the bizarre. Check the first Weekly Update video below to see what went down before the event.
With an amazing debut in Tucson last February, the Tour is no stranger to the University of Arizona. The crew was welcomed with open arms as they skated through campus spreading the stoke and making friends with every attractive girl to walk by. Tucson may not be the breeding ground for the next LNP or Tom Wallisch, but the locals sure do love snow. That being said, the crew was psyched to add their own blend of bizarre to the desert and swap sand for snow in the middle of campus.
If there’s one thing learned from last year, it’s that Arizona locals love to skate. So when students walked out from classes to the sight of snow and a brand new mini ramp, it was like Christmas came early to the UA campus.
When the event kicked off at noon, classrooms must have been emptier than a box of doughnuts in a cop car, because over 3,000 kids were on-site enjoying the snow and skate. The UA students must have liked what they saw last year, because over two times as many people applied to ride in the contest. Not bad for a place where most people have never even seen snow! Snow-hungry co-eds flooded the sponsor booths, making custom t-shirts at the Cricket Wireless tent, and entering to win the FordDrivesU Ultimate Snowboard Getaway.
Only two female snowboarders came out to play in the big snowcone pile, and both walked away with more product than they could carry! Kristin Swanson was all smiles and took home second place along with a limited edition snowboard from Ford. Tour veteran, Emily Astiz started things off with mellow slides on the rainbox-down box but soon started eyeballing the 10-foot gap box. With the crowd roaring, Emily flawlessly floated the gap and powered through the box. Needless to say, Emily landed in first place with and new banana traction board from Roxy snowboards.
Emily pushes over the rainbow
(L-R) 1st place – Emily Astiz, 2nd place – Kristin Swanson
For many of the male shreds, the three rails on the new setup were bigger than anything they’ve hit all season. However size didn’t seem to concern the AZ rippers as they attempted to pull out everything in their bag of tricks to impress the judges. Colin Ofloy went into the finals dropping hammers with 270s and 360s onto the gap box. Judges awarded Colin third place and a full kit from Bonfire Outerwear. Second place went to Tempe local, Loren Brinton for his proper 5-0s and frontboards on the kink. At the end of the day it was David Biner in first for his buttery combos and smooth style. David slayed all three rails and was hooked up with a new board from Salomon Snowboards for his effort.
270 to frontboard by Loren Brinton
(L-R) 2nd place – Loren Brinton, 1st place – David Biner (3rd place – Colin Ofloy not pictured)
Skier Alex Gaynor came out on top for the two plankers and walked away with a fresh pair of Coreupt Skis after throwing down stylie 270s on the gap box . Andrew Salter followed closely in second and was rewarded for his efforts with some sick new Bonfire Outerwear. Last year’s winner, Nate Johnson rounded out the pack in third scooping up the Neff x CRJT collabo hat and some other goodies.
pushing two planks through two kinks
(L-R) 2nd place – Andrew Salter, 1st place – Alex Gaynor, 3rd place – Nate Johnson
With the first event in the books, the Galvanic crew packed up the semi, waved goodbye to new amigos and is headed towards Tempe for the second event of the Campus Rail Jam Tour to take place at Arizona State University. The rail jam will be the main attraction of “Devilpalooza” this Friday the 19th. Be sure to hit up www.campusrailjamtour.com to apply to ride and for more info on the tour.
I hope you all out there have had as good as time as I over the last couple weeks. In Tahoe it was practically summer, which was a nice break from what we got in the last month… but alas it is winter and she is gonna return with a vengeance next week. Ya ya… Got a chance to shoot with Jake and Tresten today, really weird weather but sick riding going down.
As all of the televised capable world knows, Shaun White was stellar yesterday and got a very deserved gold… Ad another million or so to his pile.. Congrats for the insane run.. Imagine if Kevin Pierce was there, it may have been a USA dominated podium.. Heal up Kevin..
Been shooting a bunch and lemme say things are on blast. I really look forward to the return of winter because there is mad potential for amazing backcountry potential. I scouted areas that are literally in my backyard and for some reason, I never looked at. Lemme me know where’s it going down, what’s going on. I will keep you posted on what I know and where things may be headed. Keep looking out for the premiere of our Photo Gallery it is going to be amazing, we got some heavy hitting photogs getting ready to bring some eye candy your way… Ciao for now. Stay tuned.
REELcomp is stoked to be sending DC Contest winner Celia Miller on an all expense paid trip to the DC Mountain Lab! The contest, judged by DC Snow Team Rider Kimmy Fasani, was a call to women snowboarders everywhere. Riders had from January 11 to February 16 to submit a short video of their best trick on a park or backcountry jump. The winners came from across North America, from California to Canada.
This was REELcomp’s first women’s contest and we were happy to get such sweet footage from these ladies. These girls ride hard and I’m sure have guys staring in awe as they cruise by. The winner, Celia Miller, goes bigger than most girls (and guys for that matter), and tears it up in the backcountry! She is sponsored by Bolle Goggles, Bula Hats, Evo Energy Drink, Keystone Resort, Betty Rides, Pow gloves, Ogio, and K2 Snowboards.
CHECK OUT THE WINNING BEST TRICK SNOWBOARD VIDEOS:
Celia Miller of Breckenridge, Colorado stomped a HUGE backside 360 in some backcountry powder, by SixEleven Productions:
First runner-up, Charlotte Trundle from Quebec, Canada, shows her spinning skills with this video:
And second runner-up, Fancy Rutherford from Kings Beach, California, showcases her skills at the resort and through the trees:
Want to see more videos of these ladies shredding?
The goods just keep coming… It has snowed for the better part of three weeks and it looks as if more is on it’s way. Three weeks ago my son (9 years old) was able to participate in 2 day private lesson at the Burton academy at Northstar @ Tahoe.. Needless to say he was stoked but beyond that he learned a grip of techniques and tricks. The Burton academy is one of a kind thus far and dedicates itself to one on one or very small group instruction. For more info check out Burton’s website and go to Learn to Ride, I highly recommend it for any one wanting to improve their shred skills.
The next two weeks it proceeded to dump and super shreds from all over the globe poured into Tahoe. Got to have some freshies with Mads Jonsson and EJack. Marius Otterstad came rolling through for a brief warm up before he heads out to India then Turkey.. Stay tuned on that one as I will be receiving updates on how that mission is going. Marius of course of broke it off in the Donner backcountry and didn’t bounce before he stomped the trick of the season, dbl cork 10.. Funny thing about that trick,, don’t forget it was David Benedek who was the first to stomp that thang over 5 years ago, now its the trick to know if you have any aspirations of going anywhere in snowboarding. Progression is a funny thing.. Oh yeah and Freddy Kalbermatten was the first I saw stomp it off a straight jump some 5 seasons ago. Back to the future, I guess.
This week brings more snow, more fun and more SHOTS… Speaking of shots, stay tuned for the introduction of REELcomps PHOTO GALLERY.. Ya heard? I’ve recruited some of my photog friends to join me in building a eye-candy photo filled section on these lovely cyberpages… In the works now and it will be nothing short of awesome. This just in, 2ft at lake level over the next few days… If your in the area drop a line. Be stoked to hear from you.. Stay tuned for the winner of out DC mountain lab contest and also details on the Take the Lake contest coming in march.. BIG THINGS in the WORKS.. STAY SAFE and have FUN!!
