1st Annual Goofy vs Regular Snow

On February 23, Bear Mountain was host to the first annual GvR Snow. The battle of stances has been fought in skate and surf and this weekend over 75 of the world’s top professional riders came out to settle the score in snow and compete for a purse of $50,000. With heavy hitters like Austin Smith, Louie Vito, and JP Walker hand picked to go straight to the finals, this would be a showdown of all showdowns. In addition to the action on hill Ghostface Killah was set to play the main stage and Bear Mountain was unveiling JP Walker’s signature jib.

Bear’s park staff had the GvR course dialed starting off with two big jumps, approximately 35 ft and 40 ft consecutively. This led to an option of either a 50 ft jump directly in front of the judges or an ollie up 10 stairs running into a 20 ft downrail. Next was a pole jam with a 20 ft gap to landing. Looming at the bottom of the run sat the biggest hip ever built in SoCal and ending it all off was JP Walker’s Signature wallride. Big thanks goes to Bear’s Clayton Shoemaker and Chris Winslow for building this course.

The action kicked off early Saturday morning with an open format jam qualifier where 32 riders from each stance threw down for a spot in the top 8. Riders wasted no time pulling out backside and frontside 7’s over the judges jump, using and abusing JP’s wallride and a few even launched straight over the hip. Scotty Vine qualified for the finals landing a double backflip over the 2nd jump. Other mentionables were youngster Keegan Valaika, Cory Cronk and Bear’s own Clayton Shoemaker. The top 8 from each qualifier, 2 wildcards and the pre-appointed starting five compiled the 15 person teams for the finals. FUEL TV’s director, John Stouffer and TWS’ Kurt Hoy would battle it out as team captains.

As the finals rolled in, the wind picked up and the real showdown began. Goofy team captain John Stouffer sent his riders down first and got the crowd on their feet and yelling. On each run Louie Vito made the course his personal playground hitting every jump and obstacle in his way. Louie threw a cab 5, BS 7, 50-50 on the polejam to FS 360 out and finished airing huge over the backside of the hip. Clayton Shoemaker proved to be the man of the day, not only building the course but also qualifying for the finals and landing solid 7’s all day. The little man from Mammoth, Tyler Flanagan impressed the judges stomping huge BS 7’s on the judges’ jump and wildcard Kimmy Fasani consistently put down backside 5’s over the judges booter.

In the end it was Kurt Hoy’s Regular foot army’s style and creativity that earned them the win. Despite the rapidly changing weather conditions, the regular team was up for the challenge. Juuso Laivisto made his way through the qualifiers and ended up taking home both first place and MVP honors. Juuso landed the high score with FS and BS 7s, to 50-50 on the polejam to 360 out. Dave Fortin was launching huge over the hip with FS 9’s nearly landing on Bear Mt.’s sundeck. Big Bear local Scotty Vine threw a few more double backflip attempts and Joey Sexton kept it classy on the kink rail. This paired with the consistency of Austin Smith, Stian Solberg and Keegan Valaika led the regular footers to win by more than 400 points.

As the competition wrapped up, Ghostface Killah took the stage to put on a show for all who came out in support of their stance. This past year the Regular footers took home the crown in both skate and surf and proved themselves for the first time in Snow. Enjoy your year of bragging rights regular footers.

Sponsors: Lost Energy Drink, ThirtyTwo, Etnies, Zumiez, New Era, Fuel

GvR Results:

Regular Team:

1. Team MVP Juuso Laivisto – $9,000
2. Keegan Valaika – $4,500
3. Stian Solberg – $2,000
4. Erich Dummer – $1,750
5. *Robbie Walker – $2,500
6. *Austin Smith – $2,000
7. Dave Fortin – $1,000
8. Scott Vine – $1,000
9. *Markku Koski – $2,000
10. Corey Cronk – $1,000
11. Corey Noble – $1,000
12. *JP Walker – $2,000
13. *Joe Sexton – $2,000
14. Beverly Vuilleumier – $1,000
15. Desiree Melachon – $1,000

Goofy Team:

1. *Louie Vito – $1,750
2. Forrest Bailey – $750
3. Clayton Shoemaker – $750
4. Tyler Flanagan – $750
5. Jonas Michelot – $750
6. *Nick Dirks – $1,750
7. *Simon Chamberlain – $1,750
8. Siguard Haga – $750
9. Alex Sherman – $750
10. Cody Boan – $750
11. Kimmy Fasani – $750
12. Harrison Gordon – $750
13. *Ryan Thompson – $1,750
14. Gabi Viteri – $750
15. Chris Bradshaw – $1,750

* - Riders selected by team captain for final team