The 2013 Bode Merrill Mini Pipe Invitational
Methods are like the ultimate trick. No matter the size or shape of the hit, a good one looks good. Brandon Cocard.
When you’re as big time as Bode Merrill, you can more or less snap your fingers and get a bunch of the best snowboarders new and old to shlep their asses to Hood and ride in your contest. It doesn’t hurt that the contest is held in one of High Cascade’s most fun features to snowboard on – the mini pipe. Now, a little bit of history, halfpipes all used to be mini pipes. Then they started adding vert and height and pretty soon we ended up with 22 foot behemoths no normal person would ever want to ride. But everyone can have fun in a mini pipe.
Riding a mini pipe is almost as fun as having Aaron Blatt feed you string cheese.
The field was stacked with the dudes — Grendys, Jaegar Bailey, Forrest Bailey, Alek Ostreng, Ted Borland, Ben Biloq and Scott Blum to name a few and one chick (Desiree Melancon). Bode also made sure to add some “classics” like Pat Bridges, Colin Langlois, Nate Farrell and Russell Winfield in the mix. To add to the 90s flavor, DJ Matty Mo was spinning classics from NoFX, Lagwagon and Offspring and the degrees spun topped out at 720. Between his runs, Bridges joined Castro on the mike to make jokes about 90s riders, Justin Hostynek filmed with film and wore what appeared to be the first Vans boots ever made and nostalgia was alive and well.
Some dudes may or may not have been tripping, but Cory Rosenthal was definitely tweaking.
Since a mini pipe doesn’t really lend itself to amplitude and technicality, this contest is really about style. That didn’t stop some shit from going down. Enough cripplers were tossed to make Gretchen Bleiler swoon, Cody Rosenthal stomped an alley-oop backside rodeo I assume in honor of Peter Line, and Worm was tossing huge 720s, unfortunately forgetting mini pipes only have a few feet of tranny. Bode made a valiant effort to win his own contest, but a faceplant in his run didn’t really do it for the judges. Scott Blum’s second run was a definitely crowd favorite — consisting of some highly technical lip tricks linked together with his undeniable style.
Johnny Brady went higher than I thought he would.
The eager crowd had to wait patiently for the official results, announced by Bode-man himself on the High Cascade street course. What this actually means is I went back to Portland, but as you may know, Stan is living in Gov’y in a van, so I’ll let him take this from here.
OFFICIAL RESULTS:
Honorable Mentions: J-Rob and Ben Bilocq
Best Hand Plant: Scott Blum.
Apparently the trick is called the T-bag. All I know is, it’s potentially never been done before in a hand plant, and he twisted himself in some crazy ways. In part I feel as though I helped him out because he borrowed my Airblaster leg bag before his run. I can only assume he is buying me drinks tonight.
Crab Grab Award: Cody Rosenthal for THEE most proper suitcase grabs anyone ever saw.
Sick Flip: Brandon Cocard
Best Crash: Bode Merrill If you are following my live feed on twitter, you would know that I called that.
So I should go to Instagram for the video and the website for pictures, right? #erectionplant
Hostynek. Where is his hump day?
Pretty sure that photo captioned Ben Bilocq is actually Johnny Brady
What’s up with Rosenthal? Seriously one of the sickest shredders for such a long time. Why won’t somebody give that kid a chance to film a proper part?
I gotta move outta CO. All the cool shit happens in the PNW. I can’t even get Loveland to put on a banked slalom for fucks sake.
@LovelandLocal Your problem is that you live in Loveland. That was a mistake.