Fresh Dump – Burton Protest Occupies Mammoth Mountain

The Burton Pro-Test Series is the cleverly renamed replacement of last year’s Am Series, and the competition offers aspiring snowboarders a shot at the glory that is the US Open of Snowboarding. The first stop of the 2012 series rolled into Mammoth Mountain last weekend, and the crew at the Unbound Terrain Park put together a top-notch slopestyle course and hosted the halfpipe competition in their 22-foot beast.

Competitors woke up to a typical day at Mammoth’s South Park— perfect features and sunny skies. A quick rider’s meeting laid out the judging criteria and the kids proceeded to destroy the setup just like the Mayans predicted would happen in 2012. The top tier talent was separated by their ability— or lack thereof— to get a trick in on the upper rails and keep their speed for the first jump— the knuckle of which claimed several victims. Two jumps led into a 1,400-pound Mini shift knob, misleadingly named after the car company and having nothing to do with it’s size. Most avoided the looming feature, but Mammoth local Trevor Jacob fastplanted the giant bonk mid-run to take home best trick.

Sunday brought the jocks out to the Olympic-size halfpipe at Main Park, and again the weather couldn’t have been better. Boys and girls each got themselves an hour jam session to astound the judges, and while the tricks were all amazing, the most arresting thing about the day was witnessing three generations of professional snowboarding in the same contest­— legendary local Luke Wynen, contemporaries Greg Bretz and friends, and emerging talent like 11-year old Chloe Kim.

Next stop is Mt Hood this weekend, and its only ten bucks to sign up for the rail jam or slopestyle, and be sure to keep an eye out for the winners to make an appearance at Stratton this spring.

Mens Slopestyle

1-     Mark Reininga

2-     Brandon Davis

3-     Spencer Whiting

Womens Slopestyle

1-     Danika Duffy

2-     Elin Tortorice

3-     Chloe Kim

Best Trick: Trevor Jacob and Chloe Kim

Mens Halfpipe

1-     Greg Bretz

2-     Trevor Jacob

3-     Spencer Whiting

Womens Halfpipe

1-     Elena Hight

2-     Chloe Kim

3-     Summer Fenton

Best Trick: Trevor Jacob and Chloe Kim

Check out more events at burton.com.

Text by Eric Meyers