IAN WALSH WINS AT MT. BACHELOR GERRY LOPEZ BIG WAVE CHALLENGE

Recapping the fourth annual "surfing on snow" event in Oregon

By Gerry Lopez

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• Ian Walsh, slashing a G-Land lip en route to winning the Pro Surfer division in an event where the snow functions are modeled after surf spots. Photo: Andy Tullis
  

  Iasked Tom Sims about Mt. Bachelor one time when I was learning to snowboard. He said I would love the place because it had more snow waves than anywhere else he had ever been, and being one of snowboarding’s pioneers, he had seen a lot of mountains.

This was over 20 years ago; I was a snowboard kook and didn’t really understand him. But figured it out quickly once I got there. The windy conditions in Oregon make for exceptional windsurfing, kiting and downwind SUPing in the summer. In the wintertime, especially on Mt. Bachelor, the winds blow the falling snow into wave shapes as beautiful as one would find on any ocean.

The idea for the Mt. Bachelor Big Wave Challenge came from these natural snow waves that abound in the ski area. It became a reality when the marketing director, Andy Goggins, himself a surfer, heard that I was naming a lot of these features after surf spots. It wasn’t feasible to use the natural features, but there was no reason we couldn’t build snow waves of our own. 2014 marks the fourth annual Big Wave Challenge and each year the surf keeps coming up bigger and better. Pat Malendowski, with his long background of building snow features, has been the genius behind the ongoing evolution of the surf at the BWC. This year, with the assistance of the Mt. Bachelor terrain park crew, the waves were up and the course more fun, challenging and surf-like than ever.

The event got underway mid-morning on Saturday, April 26th after a few hours of practice runs. This was the first time the course was open but like with surfing, once the riders saw the waves and began to ride them, they quickly dialed in their lines. While surfing and snowboarding have many similarities, the biggest difference is that the mountain holds still for the ride. Also there is no paddling on the mountain, the chairlifts do all that work. And where a swell may only last a few days, when the snow falls, it lasts as long as it stays cold and can be ridden over and over again. This may be why snowboarding holds such appeal for surfers. It works the other way, too, as many snowboarders have turned to surfing for a summer alternative.

The Mt. Bachelor Big Wave Challenge is judged like a surf contest except each feature has its own judge who only scores each rider’s performance on that particular wave. Style, speed and power are critiqued through the variety of maneuvers and their degree of difficulty. A rider’s score is the accumulative total of all the features, and the single best run score from either of two runs determines who wins. James Jackson heads up the judging panel of top snowboarders, most of whom surf, and a few top surfers who snowboard. The features are named after some of my favorite surf spots: G-Land, J-Bay, Rocky Point Lefts, Rocky Point Rights, Uluwatu, Sunset Beach and the Pipeline.

The [snow] features are named after some of my favorite surf spots: G-Land, J-Bay, Rocky Point Lefts, Rocky Point Rights, Uluwatu, Sunset Beach and the Pipeline.

-- Gerry Lopez

The snow-surf riding under the first sunny skies of the entire week was inspired and exceptional, making the judges' work a monumental task. Keiki’s [16 years old and under] started, followed by the Wahines, then the Makule class [40 and over]. The Pro Surfers have their own division and every year I reach out to all those I know who like to ride snow. Sometimes the surf conspires against me and a big swell somewhere in the world takes them away. This year, Ian Walsh, his brother DK, Shane Dorian, Joe Curren and Chris Christenson stoked out all the snow surfers, me especially, by showing up. The whacky Oregon weather dumped a couple of feet of new, cold snow just before they arrived, so some serious pow turns were in order before anything else. As it would be with surfers, with good waves out of the contest area, they all missed their heat. No sweat, we ran the Kanes [Open Men’s] next, that being our largest group, giving the surfers plenty of time to get to the start. The Kanes ripped it apart and the Pro Surfers did likewise. Then we ran the whole thing again to give everyone a good chance to do better on the second run.

When it was all said and done, we tallied the scores while my dear friend Bill Keale played his special Hawaiian music and mainland-style luau food was enjoyed. The Kanes’ winners were all Mt. Bachelor locals: Ben Ferguson, Max Warbington and Josh Dirksen, in that order. The Wahines were Desiree Melancon, Colleen Quigley and Macy Price. The Makule class was won by Pat Malendowski (who might have had a small advantage since he built the course) followed by JP Martin and Gordon Boehm. The Keikis were Duder Jacobsen, Jared Elston and Luciano A. Bilello. Ian Walsh took out the Pro Surfers, with Chris Christenson and Shane Dorian closely behind.

And in the end, the Oregon thing happened; it began to snow really hard. The surf was coming up once again on Mt. Bachelor.

Special thanks to Patagonia, Volcom, Billabong, Maui Jim, Rainbow Sandals, Da Kine, Lib Tech, GoPro, Hydroflask, Wend Wax, Sun Country Tours, Revd, Kialoa Paddles, Frequency Magazine, Koma Koa, the Turtle Bay Resort, Planks and Firefox.