Alas, Rock N Ride 2012 has come and gone, and despite a very uncooperative Mother Nature, the event was as awesome as ever. This was one of those weekends that made me proud to be a Midwest snowboarder. With the conditions we were handed, riders from any other region would have called off the event and sat in the hot tub. But not in the Midwest. We took what we were given and absolutely made the best of it. Rain or shine, snow or sleet, this event was going to happen – and it was going to rock.
In classic Windward style, we arrive just in time to get the party started on Friday night at the Catalina Wine Mixer. Chicago party crew Team Bayside High rocked the Avalanche Lodge and kept the party people dancing all night long. We enjoyed the evening, caught up with all the Wisconsin snow homies and prepared ourselves for the longest day of the year – Saturday at Rock N Ride.
Saturday morning we woke up to rain. This was devastating, but we stayed positive and did our best to keep everyone hyped on the Best Trick Contest that we were throwing that afternoon. We did a bloody mary breakfast and next thing we knew, the rain had passed and it was time for some snowboarding. This was the part of the day that totally made my weekend. Again, conditions were less than desirable but it definitely did not stop anyone from sending it during the comp. This is whats great about midwest snowboarders – we make the best out of any terrain. We saw some repeat offenders from last years comp and some new faces too. This year, local shredder Ray Rohi took home the $100 Windward gift card thanks to his big, fast gap 180 to switch tail press. (Video recap coming soon!)
Ski Patrol DQ’ed this guy for Inverted Aerial’s :p
Ater the best trick contest everyone headed inside for the annual raffle. Every year there are so many insane prizes and this year was no different. Windward sent up 2 jackets and a pair of pants and there were a ton of other awesome prizes from our good friends at The Wax House, Bern, Candy Grind, Rome and more. Everybody seemed super excited about their winnings. We finished up the raffle and it was officially time to start the party.
This year, Chicagoland cover band extraordinaire, He Said She Said, took to the stage on Saturday night and kept the crowd moving for hours. What the crowd didn’t know was the Windward crew had a big announcement to make that night as well. For the past year, we’ve been planning to start a shop team and we were finally ready to make the big announcement that we added our first two team riders. Local Chicagoland shredders Jessi Huege and Max Bednarski were welcomed into the Windward family and we were super excited to make the big announcement in front of the Rock N Ride crowd. (stay tuned for more excited happenings from the Windward team…)
Before we knew it was Sunday morning and time to hit the road and head back to the Chi. Luckily, we all survived and have already been hearing chatter about the ultimate season ender, Snowfest. Big huge thank you to event host Tim aka Kor Snow, our filmer / photographer of the weekend Lee Larkins (Team Everclear) and all the sponsors and riders who turned a rainy Wisconsin weekend into 48 hours of snowboarding and good times. See you all at Midwest Snowfest.