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For the first time the Ride Shakedown has come to the United States and landed at the Summit at Snoqualmie in Washington this past weekend.  I’ve heard of the event in Canada but never had the opportunity to make it out there for it so when I found out the Shakedown was coming west it finally worked out for attending.

I left Colorado on Friday and arrived at 1pm on Saturday just in time to watch the semi-finals and all the action for the evening.  The contest was held at Summit West right off I-90 so I was able to park, get in my gear and immediately run into people that I knew which is the best part about being back in the northwest, the vibe, scene and people are out to shred even if the weather/snow conditions don’t always cooperate.

The base area has a variety of sponsor tents set up and plenty of kids/adults were partaking in the free goodies and waxes that were being offered up.

Mini shreds enjoying some fun free time near the booths

Capita in full force, TJ and Joel on hand.

After dropping off my pack at the Evo tent, I headed to get in some turns with Erik from YES and some of his crew before the finals went down.  Summit West/Central is my home stomping grounds so it was fun to head back to get in some turns for the day.

We came back from riding just in time to watch the finishing of the semi-finals as the light outside was still good.  It had been snowing on and off throughout the day and not the best visibility for the conditions.  After being outside for riding all day and the contest at night, it meant going inside to stay warm during the downtimes.

Bud Light had the VIP/Media section for the event and I had two drink tickets to use up so headed up to the tent with Erik to enjoy the booze with a view.

Dustin from POW Gloves and his pup

Northwest favs:  Garvie, Bri and Erik

We headed up to the Timberwolf bar to watch it finish up.  The view from anywhere around the contest was good, every spot that I walked around to from the bar to the base area to the top of the jumps you were able to catch all the action.

Shot of me chilling inside that Jason took with my camera

Snoqualmie has the best fire pits for staying warm but when I walked outside I noticed that some of the people weren’t fully clothed so I snapped this shot of them.

Snowboard chick bloggers:  Girl gets board’s Bekah and myself at the Shakedown

Saturday night was the finals for the event which concluded of a big air jump and rails.  Riders had to call their tricks and stomp them to get the score or else it was worthless.  At the bottom they had a mixture of features to choose from, the spool to rails.

My favorite was the spools because each rider took to it with different style and a mix of fastplants to taps made it enjoyable to watch.

Rider coming in fast to the jump

Ride Snowboards Jusso Lavisto on the jump

Madison Ellsworth coming into the jump with a cab 1080

Austin Hironaka took home the win for the friday night rail jam of Shakedown and here’s him back on the rails Saturday night

Nick from Yobeat and myself

One of the perks of being back in the northwest is talking with some of the local blog readers, I met Adrienne at the Holy Oly and was able to snap a shot of her at Ride Shakedown with a friend.  It’s been such a fun trip to meet more people through the blog and hopefully someday ride with them.

YES rider Madison Ellsworth talking before the awards ceremony

The awards were handed out at the end of the evening and plenty of cash to make pros very happy and not poor for some time.  Props to all the riders who came out and threw down for the event and congrats to the big winners, Matts Kulisek and Megan Ginter!

I ended up skipping on the afterparty and drinking at a friends house for the evening.  After the long two days of road travel it was definitely a need for a good nights sleep.  Stoked I was able to make it out for the event and can’t wait to see more of Shakedown in the US.