BJ Linne Front Blunts to First
Heavenly Resort hosted a weekend full of sunny skies, killer contests and spring breakers looking to get wild. If you were in California from March 26-28 and didn’t make it to Stateline for the festivities, consider it a failure on your part!
The good folks at Heavenly hosted an industry ride day on Friday and Saturday, taking the opportunity to show off some of their world-class terrain parks and also using the chilly morning conditions for a chance to introduce some unfortunate onlookers to the white room. Luckily, temps warmed up quickly, and by midday the gondola topstation was hosting a pond skim.
Shortly after the lifts shut down, the weekend’s marquee event kicked off. Salomon’s Backyard Bang Rail Jam invited 30 of Tahoe’s top shredders to tackle a legit set up in the parking lot of the hip MontBleu Casino. The options included a down bar, kinked box, and ledge box, all weighing in a 30 feet long and sending riders at a log stall.
A thirty-minute jam session ensued, and the field was mowed down to the top ten that would get another shot to impress the judges and take home the cash monies. Crowd favorite and Heavenly Park Staff member Nick Taulberg seemed to jump out to an early lead, but then seemed to run out of tricks and fall short of the podium. Andrew Brewer definitely had the best style of the evening, but didn’t have the deepest bag of tricks, good enough for third place though. Taking home the runner-up check for a half-grand was Dakota Whittaker, who put down hammers on every single feature at the request of the judges. The evening’s big winner was BJ Linne, who combined smooth style and tech tricks to earn himself $1500.
After the winners were announced, the crowd headed into MontBleu for a viewing of the “I Am Snowboarding” art show and a performance by Kandi Coded. DJ Greyboy capped the night off by spinning a face-melting two-hour set at the Blu nightclub.
The weekend was a success and the weather was great, but the good news doesn’t stop there. This week’s forecast is calling for 3-4 feet of fresh in the Tahoe mountains, so load up and get down!
Salomon Backyard Bang Winners
I was there!! hehe