Hot Dawgs and Handrails 2009 Recap

Photos: Mitch Allen - Words: Trevor Hennings

That itch for all of us to snowboard is there. It's been there all summer and this coming winter can't seem to arrive fast enough. For a few lucky shreds though, the season kicked off a little early thanks to Bear Mountain and their staff putting on the sixth annual Hot Dawgs and Handrails this last Saturday, September 19th. The party was on with music, a full bar, plenty of underage socal cuties, glimpses of pros like Chris Dufficy and LNP in the crowd, and plenty of next level boardin' to top it all off. Southern California's favorite mountain truly became the assemblage of all things snowboarding for one day as 5,000 spectators came to witness 40+ of the industry's best rail riders go at it for a total of $15,000 in cash giveaways.

A course was constructed with two lanes looking like a horseshoe from the bottom with which riders had to pick their poison with each run they took within hour long heats. From the drop-in, to rider's left was a right-curved down-flat-down elbow kink rail that led to a 30 foot long four sided bank box with another flat box elevated on top in the middle. To rider's right, contenders had the choice of either starting with a 5 foot, scaffolding bomb drop to get speed for a 20 foot granite down ledge or just rolling into to the ledge from below that structure. This then came to a fork in the road where going left would send riders airing into a giant wooden wallride and the path to the right would take them around it to a 30' left-curved c-rail with both finally ending at a pryamid spine.

The two favored features ended up being the wallride, getting slayed with whirly-bird spins and flips, and the "Hellbow" kink presenting most with the mere challenge of getting down the entire rail. Tech-nine's Johnnie Paxson was lighting up the wall with cork fives into it while Matty Mo laid out textbook front fives into it all throughout the first heat. Scotty Vine threw his fair share of inverted manuevers at it to help seal his title. Levitation Project rider Ted Borland took the road less traveled and chose to give a simple trick new justice by stomping a squeaky-clean death method into it. The elbow kinked rail was put to shame as riders such as Yale Cousino locked in a perfect front board as well as Jed Anderson, landing a few front lip 270 same-ways amongst other combos he had up his sleeve. Ted Borland also rode away after nosepressing down it and tailpressing through the kink for best trick.

The event was MC'd by the one and only Todd Richards with his X-games-caliber humor and antics, as well as Snowboarder Mag's Editor in Chief, Pat Bridges. Other riders in attendance included Louif Paradis, Jake Kuczyk, Ryan Tarbell, Ben Bilocq, Austin Hironaka, Chris Brewster, Cam Pierce, Brandon Hammid, Parker Duke, Chris Bradshaw, Sean Black, Zak Hale, Johnny Miller, and many more. In the end, judges JP Walker, Seth Huot, Joe Sexton, Simon Chamberlain, and Keegan Valaika put Scotty Vine, Jed Anderson, and Zak Hale on the podium and gave best trick to Ted Borland for his tailpress on the curved kink. The event capped off with the premieres of Big Bear's "Parkumentary" documenting the progression of freestyling riding at Bear over the years and "This Video Sucks", the Stepchild team video.

Bear Mountain couldn't have done a better job in, yet again, putting on a stellar pre-season event. A big thanks is deserving of the Bear park crew and staff as well as all of the other sponsors. Check below for more photos of the event and the festivities that went down.

FINAL RESULTS: 1st place $7,500 - Scotty Vine, 2nd place $4,000 - Jed Anderson, 3rd place $2,500 - Zak Hale, Best Trick $1,000 - Ted Borland