Timmy Sullivan, textbook Andrecht at Loon Mountain’s Last Call. Being that he gets 100 days a year at Gunstock, it only makes sense that Tyler’s hip jam takes place in his backyard. There aren’t many hip contests anymore, which is a shame. Hips allow creative riders to get weird, technical riders to land tricks, and crazy people to go huge. “Everyone hits rails, everyone hits jumps, but you have to be a decent snowboarder with good edge control to ride a well-made hip,” Davis says. “Growing up watching Subjekt Haakonsen , I was obsessed with all the hips in that movie, and still am.” A few warmup laps and icy butt-checks had the small-but-dedicated crowd of riders dipping into their beer bags earlier than usual. When Ty-ler announced the contest had started, young Reid Smith from New Jer-sey dropped about 50 feet higher than anyone in the lineup and blasted a backside 720 off the hip takeoff up and over the entire deck to the back-side of the landing. It made most reevaluate their purpose on hill that day. “Who the hell is going to follow that up!” someone shouted. To which Officer Learned, local police officer and ripping snow-boarder, tossed an overhead Michalchuk and stomped on the ice-block landing. Brendon Hart took it a step further and stole the show with his first-ever double Michalchuck, only landing it after numerous at-tempts with pounding slams that would have left most sitting on a donut cushion for a week. Brendan took the win but missed awards because he had to leave early to work a shift at his family’s turkey res-taurant down the road. He accepted the prestigious hip jam champion title via FaceTime. LAST CALL Eastern Boarder is among a few core snowboard shops left on the East Coast. It has raised and supported many of the folks in attendance at all three events—basically the entire snowboard community there. Eastern Boarder has been putting on Last Call at Loon Mountain for the past 17 years, and it stands strong as the most renowned event in the east these days. Loon is a hub for the New Hampshire and Massa-chusetts snowboard community. It’s where you can just show up and head to the Paul Bunyan Room to find a familiar face—which could be due to Loon’s perfectly manicured park under any weather condi-tions, or the fact that the bar overlooks the halfpipe and serves a mean rum punch. Back when the US Open was based in Vermont, Last Call would take place right after the Open to get some of the heavy hit-ters to participate in the pro/am event. While the big names may not always attend these days, the riding still represents the best of the east. Andy Bubnowicz, aka “EB Bub,” is a longtime manager for Eastern Boarder and he collaborates with Loon Mountain’s terrain park crew to make Last Call a reality year after year. “Last Call was born more out of the idea of getting our friends, team, reps and customers together for a season-ender party, event and to say thank you,” Bub says. Unlike the homey vibe of the previous two events, Last Call is a spot for East Coast kids to get noticed, and a $4,000 cash purse is on the line. The event started with the jump features, and while many went for the traditional up-and-over routes, some of the more techni-cal boarders took off from the quarter-pipe side hits. Within 10 min-utes there was a handful of double chucks, some with a hefty flail in the middle. After an hour-long jam format, Zach Normandin proved to be top dog with his creative lines and trick combinations. The left-hand hip was next and, despite a proper tombstone takeoff, a lengthy deck created mandatory airtime that kept uncertain riders hanging around the coolers. Vermont native Tucker Speer displayed the combination of proper edge control and guts to take home the cash for that portion of the contest. Then after everyone slammed a hotdog, rail-jam shenanigans began on endless lines of intertwined rails, walls and other metal objects. Landing a trick is one thing, but connecting multiple features was what judges were looking for, and the number of riders on course at one time kept only the most aware rippers at the front of the pack. River Richer had the bag of tricks, board control and willingness to collide with others needed to walk away with the rail jam top spot, while Ryan Kittredge took down the overall for the men, and Laura Tamposi cashed the big check for the ladies. Although Last Call proved New Hampshire is still home to a strong group of young riders, attendance by heroes of years past showed the snowboard scene there is alive and well. It’s a fitting final stop on a Live Free or Die trifecta that welcomes all into its fold. Just sharpen your edges, consider a helmet, prepare to scare yourself, bring beer and, screw it, stop at Dunkin’ on your way there. NEW HAMPSHIRE 069
The Snowboarder's Journal frequency 15.2: Page 69
