Words and photos: Sawyer Mahoney
Everyone’s stoke level has been quite high after a miracle March left a fresh dumping of snow in Tahoe with the following Spring like temperatures that has led to new park set ups and fun riding conditions. New snow and hot blue bird days set the scene perfectly for Neff Headwear’s annual Beach Bash contest held at Boreal Mountain.
A busy saturday brought over 80 signed-up riders eager to show off their sun tans and skills on the insanely creative and risky set up. Boreal and Woodward Tahoe’s Terrain park crew, led by Lane Knaack, did an amazing job.
The format was simple: utilize all of the features, have fun, and throw down! The judging panel assembled for the contest was full of legends and badasses! Stevie Bell, Mike Burton, and Curtis Hill had their work cut out for them. With $2000 dollars in cold hard cash on the line, riders’ motivation was there. Stevie was calling out tricks on different features ready and willing to make it rain on whoever stomped his request. First back rodeo off the spool feature and lip slide 450 out on the up rail gap were just a few to mention.
Rider, André Trofimov really stood out with what I gathered was something like a butter cork 720 off the spool and even a 270 onto the flat down flat to closeout! What! Jordan Nield spun something similar but his one footed kick out on the same feature looked legend! Renee Stein put in work on all the features, especially super steezy back 180s off the spool. Local riders, Jeff Sponzo and Dan Danzberger, killed it and deserve an honorable mention.
So many kids gave it their all, but this was the way it all cracked down.
Open
1st Andrey Trotimov
2nd Jordan Nield
3rd Matt Buseda
Grom
1st Caleb Bonneville
2nd Levi Brown
3rd Ozzy Chadwell
Ladies
1st Rene Stein
2nd Rebecca Bruce
3rd Ivika Jurgenson