The whole Drink Water project sets the tone perfectly. A snowboarding business that promotes the key concept of simply drinking water (rather than energy drinks) and donates a portion of its proceeds to bene t people who fundamentally need access to clean drinking water. You got it!
Mt Hood, the ideal mountain it seems. It’s pretty much the centre of snowboarding in the summer season. If you avoid the instagram pictures of powder slashes in the southern hemisphere at least. Besides the fact that clean water flows endlessly here, the setup is perfect up on the glacier. Freestyle snowboarding at its best. And with the Timberline crew letting these crazy minds create the craziest course, well you have the perfect set up. Oh, and it is probably the gnarliest bank slalom you’ll ever witness in your life if you have a chance to come.
Tight corners, steep turns, slots, little rat holes, jumps here and there, curbs to jump, whoops by millions. You go in there without a minimum of board control or just slightly out of focus, you’re a dead man. The word radical suits it pretty good. You could easily be capable of sliding the steepest street rail, jump the longest jump or the highest cliff and very well not be able to finish the course... Those who end up the finish line charging all the way are the ones who can make a tight turn just after passing a board-sized slot and then inhale an army of whoops. And this over and over again from start to finish.
Okay so once you have all that, what you need the most is the crazy ass snowboard community!!! Whether it’s the people who donated, the brands that believed in the project, the volunteers, the family barbecuing, the crowd here cheering all day or the riders risking their life in the race, I think we are touching the core value here. Seriously I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed so many people helping to build a set-up for a snowboarding event. Very cool. About the actual race, well, the fastest man of the day was the legendary Terje Haakonsen, of course.
Film and Edit by Justin Dutilh