What happens when you bring talented and creative park builders, pro riders and media together in one place? A park riders dream full of park pleasure for the taking. This year marks the 16th year of Superpark and plenty of talent are in the house at Mt Bachelor to stomp tricks, make videos and get the shots.
Thanks to Pat Bridges, I’m here at Superpark for my first year to watch, take pics and blog about the event (hopefully up to his standards). And really it’s the event that you want to be at; It’s the best riders, in a perfect park, ready to throw down. Just sitting on the sidelines watching run after run, cork, spin, tweaked grab…is endless fun.
These massive features were created and built by four different parks around the US: Boreal, CA, Loon Mountain, NH, Mt Bachelor, OR and Seven Springs, PA. The result is a dream park for the invited pros, a park where every feature is perfection. Creativity is unleashed in the feature designs and pros are hungry for the chance to prove themselves. And certainly when you have Pat Bridges looking over your riding, you better be riding your best.
The morning started with riding around to get a feel for the features and terrain possibilities. Mt Bachelor has two lifts running for the event so it’s easy to get your shred laps in. After a couple runs, I found a feature and put down the pack to watch the show. The weather has been beautiful, sun shining and warm temps.
Few girl pro riders get invited to Superpark but the ones that do are worth watching. Capita rider Jess Kimura was making filming laps through the park.
It’s easy to spend the whole day outside in the sun but lunch is waiting indoors. It was good to sit down and relax with Basher for lunch before heading out on the snow.
For the afternoon, a session began on the Loon/Gatorade hip for riders wanting to get in a flow, get some shots and try to get high off the hip.
Probably one of the funniest parts of the day is hearing the sounds of riders while standing on top of the hip. Occasionally you’ll get the “oh fuck” or the animal groan…but Austin took the cake with a welcoming hi to his filmer on his big hit.
The bar was set with Austin Sweetin. He not only went big but decided to hit the hip with a switch method and went bigger than some riders who weren’t riding switch. That was the ender on the hip.
After watching the hip session, we headed down to the lodge for chill time before heading down for the night. I’ve been camping out this week and was moving my tent to join in another camping group for the rest of Superpark. Definitely fun to be out in the woods, on the river with rad people. But it means limited internet and power, so sorry on any delays this week!