A Recap from 10 Barrel with photos by Darcy Bacha…
The 2017 Hella Big Air went down at Mt. Bachelor this last weekend, where an 85 foot rocket launcher was ready for 40 riders and skiers to unleash their bag of tricks for a shot at a piece of the 30K prize purse. The day got off to a sunny start… but seeing as how Mt. Bachelor has been breaking snowfall records this year with 500″ already this season, it wasn’t surprising when the skies quickly switched to clouds with sporadic snow showers followed by pockets of sunshine. The riders kept the show rolling while chasing weather windows throwing down enough spins and flips to make you think you might have had one to many beers…
Meanwhile in front of the main lodge the “Snow Beach” style beer garden crowd rocked out to DJ Flip Flop while enjoying some 10 Barrel beers and playing lawn games. The upper beer garden right off the deck of the jump gave viewers a unique perspective as rider’s practically sent it over the cheering crowd that was enjoying beer poured from the new and improved Minipub!
During the short recess between qualifiers and finals a quick snow shower dropped enough flakes to slow down the drop in to the point that the jump was no longer safe to hit. It was a tough call to make, but riders safety comes first for us and it was decided to cancel finals and use the earlier runs to pick the winners. Luckily, Lyrics Born was down to party on stage early and jammed out tunes for the crowd as the sun set over the Oregon Cascades.
Justin Morgan threw down enough gnarly senders to take home $10,000 for the top prize for the snowboarder’s, and Nick Keefer’s stylish airs landed him on a nice 10k payday in the skiers division. Needless to say, they’ll be buying their friend’s beer for awhile!
From all of us here at 10 Barrel Brewing, we want to give a big ol’ Central Oregon sized thank you to the amazing athlete’s who came out to Bend and threw down, also the crowd for drinking hard and cheering even harder, Mt. Bachelor and the parks crew for building an epic jump, and everyone else who helped bring another Hella Big Air to life. Cheers!
Snowboard Finalists:
1st – Justin Morgan
2nd – Ryan Linnert
3rd – Dru Brownrigg