Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosSide Effect High Cascade Rail Jam competitor Ben Ferguson, 14, of Bend, does a boardslide across a rail in front of the crowd gathered Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of Side Effect Boardshop in Bend. Two truckloads of snow were brought down from the Mt. Bachelor parking lot for the event.
Photos by Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Any snow is good snow
A patch of snow trucked down from Mt. Bachelor called to snowboarders Saturday. While some may have been disappointed there wasn’t more, this is the beginning of the season, after all, and they were just thrilled to be out.
By Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
Published: November 15. 2009 4:00AM PSTAs winter draws closer, snowboarders will do almost anything to get in a few turns.
When several inches of snow fell in Bend on Oct. 4, 17-year-old Jesse Quimby, of Bend, headed up to Central Oregon Community College in search of a hill he could ride. More recently, he went to Hoodoo’s Sno-Park on Santiam Pass. And Saturday afternoon, he was in the parking lot of Side Effect Boardshop on Century Drive in Bend, riding a living room-sized patch of snow trucked in for the Side Effect High Cascade Rail Jam.
Quimby said he’d hoped organizers would be providing more snow, but he couldn’t complain.
“Having a great time, it’s fun,” Quimby said. “Any snow, it’s all worth it in the preseason.”
Organized by Side Effect Boardshop and the High Cascade Snowboard Camp, the Rail Jam was a fundraiser for Tyler Eklund, the 17-year-old Bend snowboarder who was paralyzed in an April 2007 crash during a competition. All proceeds from entry fees from the roughly two dozen competitors and raffle tickets sold to win donated equipment were given to the Eklund family, said Michele Schnake, of Bend, one of the organizers.
Schnake said some competitors were expecting more snow and bigger ramps like those seen at the rail jams held across the street at Skjersaa’s Ski and Snowboard Shop in past years, but that organizers consciously decided to keep Saturday’s event small.
“That’s a huge budget thing. This is just volunteers getting together to have some fun and kick off the season,” she said.
Rider Tyson Engel, 13, of Bend, said he’s been snowboarding since he was 6, but that Saturday was his first competition. He’s planning on entering several competitions this season, and he is looking to secure an equipment sponsorship by the end of the year to help defray some of the cost.
Jennifer Engel, Tyson’s mother, said she’s been impressed by the people she’s met in the local youth snowboarding community, and she is hopeful snowboarding will help to motivate Tyson in school.
“I’m looking at this as a partnership; I will support him in his snowboarding if he pulls his weight with his academics,” she said. “Right now, he’s more excited about snowboarding than school.”
Devyn Schnake, 15, Michele Schnake’s daughter and the only female competitor on Saturday, said she doesn’t know many girls willing to ride with her at the terrain parks at Mt. Bachelor. She ends up riding with a lot of boys, but said they’ve always treated her as an equal so long as she’s able to keep up.
“They don’t treat you like you’re special because you’re a girl,” she said. “Which is good, I hate that — ‘Ooh, you’re a girl, we have to treat you different.’”
Spectator Van Allen, 11, from Alfalfa, said he was a little discouraged he couldn’t participate in the competition. Allen said he broke his leg while skateboarding two weeks earlier, but was already looking forward to the day when his bright green cast will come off.
“They say I’ll be snowboarding in February, maybe January,” he said.
Scott Hammers can be reached at 541-383-0387 or at shammers@bendbulletin.com.
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