Words & Photos: Laura Austin

Rail jams in cities are awesome. When you bring snowboarding to an urban environment the crowd usually is more diverse, the nightlife tends to be better, people who happen to be walking by could be turned onto the sport, and for those of us who have to travel to snowboard events all year it is a refreshing contrast to the mountain towns we normally frequent during the winter. These are just some of the things that make the Downtown Throwdown in Seattle so great.

The northwest is known for its rain, but thankfully precipitation was not a factor on October 8th in Seattle, leaving us with sunny skies and perfect weather for the event. The course, situated in the middle of Pioneer Square, consisted of a scaffolding drop in to a choice of a down rail, a pole jam, or down-flat-down box. Those three features led you into a flat butterbox with a wallride at the end of the course.

The 25 riders took full advantage of what this setup had to offer. Scott Stevens unstrapped a boot and threw down one-footers off the pole jam and fastplants on the wallride. Dylan Alito was able to consistently link lines, making the most out of every feature in each lap. Stefan Krumm, a rider who made it in through The Feeders! qualifiers was a definitely crowd pleaser flipping of the pole jam and showing that he deserved to be there. Young Spencer Schubert was getting technical with a back 360 50-50 180 out on the down rail and a gap 270 straight to the flat of the down-flat-down box and managing to ride through. Dylan Thompson decided he needed to pull out something crazy in the end when he attempted a front flip off the flat of the down-flat-down and riding out 50-50 which he eventually landed. The high speed jam style format lent itself to constant entertainment.

In case you missed this event, try to make it out to the new San Francisco stop on October 29th. Big thanks to Lib Tech and Snowboy Productions for putting on another great Throwdown.

Results:
1st: Brandon Hobush
2nd: Dylan Thompson
3rd: Ryan Paul
4th: Dylan Alito
5th: Scott Stevens

Destroyer Award: Stefan Krumm