As with any trendy activity, there are a lot of fake things in snowboarding. People who say one thing and do another, pretend to be something they’re not or otherwise put on an act to sell product. But not the Drink Water guys! In fact, these guys are so serious about only drinking water, that I actually got scolded for drinking a beer at the 2014 Rat Race on July 12th at Mt. Hood. Sure, the race was held at kids camp and apparently everyone signed a paper saying there was no alcohol allowed, but beer was highly necessary for the following reasons:
1. The course was fucked up gnarly. It started with a series of banks separated by spines before rolling into three doubles. Now, the doubles were small and you didn’t even have to go that fast to clear them, but the salt and wind trajectory has turned them into rounded ice cubes. If you made it through that, there was some up hill hips and a ring of fire (which was sadly just made of paper) before the second half of the course event started. There was no way I was making it down this thing with out some liquid courage.
As a Washingtonian, Lucas Debari knows Rainier is the only way go to when you need a cold one.
2. There was no water provided. Ironic, seeing as it was sponsored by a company promoting the consumption of water, but if you didn’t bring your own you were shit out of luck. Don’t worry, it was only about 90 on the glacier that day.
3. 170 racers showed up - Nearly every snowboard brand sent its pro team for the occasion, but there were no divisions when it came to dropping order. This made for a never ending line up that unless you wanted to be an asshole and cut everyone, or happened to be bros with the event organizers, you we’re pretty much stuck in for hours. I needed the entertainment.
Colin “the Panther” Langlois enjoys a nice cold Rolling Rock. So refreshing!
4. There were no kids there. Unless you count the kids of the pros, like Cannon Cummins. I specifically asked if he’d seen people drinking beer before. He said he had and confirmed that it neither offended him, nor made him want to drink himself.
5. Austin Smith told me not to. Fuck that.
Coors Light is an excellent day beer.
In the end I only took two runs through the course – a low speed one in practice and one timed run. In my timed run I fell first on the doubles and so dramatically that I didn’t even have speed to make it through the ring of fire, forcing me to DQ. Convinced I would do better on my second run I took the opportunity to try and get the second half of the course dialed. It didn’t work, and in the end, Johnny Brady ended up lapping me. In other words, pretty sure I won. Other winners included Water.org, which the race earned some cash for, and everyone who made it down the course in one piece!
Results
Men
1. Nicolas Muller
2. Curtis Ciszek
3. Harry Kearney
Women
1. Spencer O’Brien
2. Elena Hight
3. Tori Koski