Last Call at Loon Mtn!

Wednesday marked the 7th annual Eastern Boarder Last Call contest held at Loon Mountain. We headed up early to check out the course and were thoroughly impressed. The Loon park staff did an amazing job of putting together a unique and fun course for the riders. With over $4,000 to give away and a grip of prizes, the riders were ready to drop when Bub from Eastern Boarder made the call, and it was on.

The first feature was a rhythm section. Now if any of you don’t know what this is, it’s a jump line consisting of true gaps, the kind that have no middle, so it’s either make the landing perfectly, or land dead flat. This was the sketchiest set-up I have ever seen at a contest, but it did it’s job as a contest feature; it separated the really good riders from the rest of the pack. Avert Guldemond gave the crowd a scare when he hit the second jump on his heels with way too much speed, landing flat on his back. He spit up some blood for a while, but was seen snowboarding just hours later. Scrum is a trooper, for sure.

After a few more sketchy situations like the latter, the riders started getting the hang of it. Magical Go-Go riders Scotty Stevens, Austin Granger and Chris Beresford took to the course the quickest, with some new and innovative tricks that had the crowd yelping. With Scotty airing to boardslides on curbs of snow, Beresford’s inverts and double pokes and Granger’s switch back 5’s to front 3’s, there was a serious session going on, and these kids got it going. Shaun Thomas stood out early, throwing down a frontside rodeo 7 over the last jump, and smooth front 3 shifties. Thomas was just getting started on the day.

Watervillers Sam Hulbert and Brandon Reis were doubling things up on the course with inverts and spins that had irises jolting all afternoon. Red beard Chris Carr was spinning over the section jumps the long way, and making everyone around him laugh, which aside from snowboarding, is what he does best. Ian Thorley took things to the next level with a backside rodeo to switch backside rodeo. That’s right, holy crap. It was so rad. Bryan Biederman was stomping some clean cab 5’s as kids were dropping super close to one another, and things were getting sketchy. Chas Guldemond, coming straight from the US Open killed the entire set-up with cab 5’s to backside 5’s and eventually his soon to be signature backside rodeo. Chas does that trick with more style than almost any other rider. We grabbed some lunch and headed to the wallride.

At the wallride, things got heated right off the bat when Pat “the eYe” Bridges handplanted the shit out of the wall. The riders realized that if he can do it, they should step up their game, and indeed they did. Austin Granger got off to a great start with some super pressed stalls to revert, and friend Scotty Stevens started fast-planting the wall with no remorse. Again, Chris Carr got some hoots and hollers as he and Mike Gonsalves, who was riding with one lung throughout the day (no joke), tried to get inverted and use their hands to grope the coping. Handplants must be the cool new thing, because Shaun Murphy threw a few down in his assault on the wall. Hands were planted and afterwards, high-fived for their efforts.

Chris Beresford aired, bonked, stalled and planted the wallride all day, showing that he was one of the most consistent riders of the afternoon. Check the results and you’ll see what I mean. Tahoe transplants Tanner Pendleton and Cameron Egan were going huge on the wallride with some plants and big airs that got some people going. People started to get tapped out by Oakley’s Nelson “the Worm” Wormstead and Eastern Boarders Jason “Hondo” Newman, and it was a battle to get best trick. In my non-professional opinion, it was DC franchise boy Chas Guldemond taking home the best trick on the wallride. Chas had been killing this feature all afternoon, but on his last hit, he put down a backside 50-50 to backside 450 out. The riders went nuts and the session dwindled out. It was time for the rails.

The rail set-up at Loon was unreal. I can’t explain it due to its intricacy, so just check the pictures, cause you do know they are worth a thousand words. On the lower level feature, a weird box with a raised middle, Stevens and Beresford went to town with tricks more pressed than an accountant’s collar on Monday. I can’t go into the tricks they were trying, because the box was at least 50 feet long, and the combos it would allow were ludicrous. One trick I think everyone remembers was Chas Guldemond’s tail press to frontflip off. How could you forget such a display? Rhode Island ripper Brendan Rego was riding super well on the lower level box until he was dished a grendel crushing punch from the box that would’ve taken down Tyson in his hey-day. Nonetheless, seeing anyone take a hit to the taint is humorous, and we all had a good laugh. Ian Keay was riding strong on that feature as well, as I noted with some wacky spins onto and off of the box.

A few ladies showed up to session the box as well, as Amber Marsh and Colleen Quigley dropped a few times before heading back up to the upper level features. All day, Amber and Colleen were head and shoulders above the rest of the women’s field, but all in all, most of the ladies rode strong. Colleen had the best women’s trick on the down rail with a frontside 180 to switch 50-50. Sick. Reis and Hulbert were again killing it, following each other through the course mimicking tricks and more importantly, stomping all of them. Shaun Murphy toughed it out and got some tricks under his feet. Other notables on the rails are Graham Hoffman, Ian Thorley, Mike Parnell young Merrick Joyce and too many others to mention. There were so many kids killing it and I apologize if I didn’t call you out, but you know who you are.

I felt bad for the judges, because when it all came down to the wire, there were just too many kids slaughtering it. The results are below, but SNOWBOARDER Magazine would like to extend a huge thank you to Nelson from Oakley, Hondo from everywhere, Mike Bettera, the entire SPT crew, Fun Bags Norton, Jay Scambio and the entire Loon Mountain Park Staff (most importantly Jesse Beaton), for putting together and maintaining such a sick course. Most importantly, a huge thank you is in order for Bub, Herb, Fisk, Tabor and all of the Eastern Boarder crew who continues to put together the best East Coast contest of the season every year. Thanks to all of the kids who made it out this year and rode hard all day. Check the results, and we’ll see you nest year at Eastern Boarder’s Last Call.

Results:

Women:

1. Colleen Quigley, $1,000
2. Amber Marsh, $600
3. Taylor Owen, $400

Men:

1. Chas Guldemond, $1,000
2. Chris Beresford, $600
3. Shaun Murphy, $400

Standout Riders/Features:

Rhythm Section: Shaun Murphy (Winning a Lib Tech snowboard)
Wallride: Chas Guldemond (Winning a GNU snowboard)
Rails: Chris Beresford (Winning and Ogio backpack)

Overall Best Trick, or shall I say tricks was given to Scotty Stevens for keeping his lines and tricks unique and stylish all day. One of my favorite riders out there today, Scotty killed it and was handed a $1,200 Oakley watch for his slaying. Congratulations to Scotty and all of the other riders. Until next time…….