| Hood Erupts With The Bonfire Pipe To Pipe | ||||
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By Forrest Davis Mon, Jul 11 2011 9:30 pm | 3708 views | 3 Comments Let the good times roll. PHOTO: Darcy Bacha Words: Gerhard Gross The Pipe To Pipe went off on Sunday. Salomon TM and event MC, Java Fernandez, joked that the last time he saw this much action, “It was pitch black and I had to smell my way back to safety.” We’ll leave it to your imagination to decide what Java was up too, but needless to say, the contest held at Windells summer camp on Mt. Hood, Oregon was hype. Over 135 participants signed up in the men’s and women’s Am and Pro categories to session the side-by-side mini pipes lined with boxes and rails. Chaos ruled in the jam format with everyone from six-year old kids to 30-year old men randomly dropping in. The result was often near disaster as two or more riders approached obstacles at the same time without being able to see each other. Getting inverted was strongly encouraged and runs were filled with every variation of handplant, frontflip, and backflip. Miraculously, no one was injured, but it made for plenty of Oohs and Awws from the crowd and the esteemed panel of judges including Chris Grenier, Harrison Gordon, Bode Merrill, Jess Kimura, and Cameron Weeg. Grenier was loving every moment, shouting encouraging slogans from the judges tent—“It was really hard to judge,” he said, “because everyone was dropping hammers.” As the longest running summer snowboard event, the Pipe To Pipe was conceived 14 years ago by Tim Windell as a way to promote camaraderie between the many camps that existed at Hood at the time. He also wanted to allow the public into the camp so they wouldn’t have to poach (for one day at least). The contest has continued for so long, says Tim, “as a way to bring everyone together as community—we’re all in it for the same reason…fun.” In that spirit of inclusion an Industry Optional category was added this year to encourage desk jockeys to temporarily swap their keyboards for snowboards. The new category brought out the likes of Northwest Rep extraordinaire Dustin Anderson, Pow Gloves’ John Kaiser, Arnette’s Robbie Sell, Volcom’s Alex Lopez, and graphic designer Dave Doman. After the snow portion of the event wrapped, the crowd headed down the hill to Windells base camp. The day ended with a serious display of the Northwest’s best skating in Windells vast concrete park. Whether snowboarding or skateboarding was the highlight of the day is tough to call—but it there’s no doubt it was a damn good time. SNOW Ladies Am 1. Noelle Edwards Ladies Pro Men’s Am Men’s Pro Honorable Mention: Spencer Shubert Spirit Award (2012 Session 1 at Windells): Caleb Stockwell Industry Optional SKATE Ladies Am Under 15 Am Over 15 Pro 1. Willie Kimbel ($500) Best Trick: Rion Linderman for a 540 and teeth loss ($100)
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