Hot Dawgz And Handrails 2009

Words: Joe Carter
Photos: Joe Carter

Now is about the time for everybody to start getting real excited, because with Hot Dawgz and Handrails kicking off the year it will be soon be snowing before you know it. With typical Southern California weather sunny skies and a cool breeze made it ideal for the riders to strap back onto their boards and see how it feels for the first time in a while. As always Bear mixed things up with two different options for many of the worlds best rail riders to pick which run they wanted to take. On the riders left side you had a tricky kink/elbow rail that many riders had trouble with, but the ones that were making it through did some sick shit. Then you come in hot to a new feature bear has made with a box on the top of a uphill pyramid. That will be a blast this winter when it’s on hill. Your other options on the other side consisted of a 6 foot drop, to a granite skate style ledge. Going into more options after that. To the left a jump into a slanted wall ride. Or if you made a right at the fork you would get into a long C-rail. Then to finish it off one more feature at the end that could be hit on either side. Leave it to Bear Mountain to make the most wild pre season rail set-up ever.

As for the riding there were a lot of standout riders that might not have made it to the top three but they killed everything. Johnnie Paxson came out firing after just having the last part in MFM Technine’s “Hard To Earn” video on every feature the Bear park staff could put in front of him. Kyle Lopiccolo rode well after not seeing snow all summer hauling ass all over the place and going for in classic Lopiccolo style. Ryan Paul is a kid from Minnesota who was at Hood all summer and it showed this weekend turing the heads of the crowd on every feature, look out for that kid. Dylan Alito was busting allver the place in his summer rail jam attire opting to not wear pants while hiking around in the heat. Then there is Tahoe’s Brandon Cocard and Johnny Lazz who made it down to show the crowd some amazing moves. Making their way out from Vermont were Forest Bailey and Yale Cousino who were some of the only ones to make it through the curved kinked rail with front boards. Ted Borland, Cam Pierce, Chris Brewster, Brandon Hammond and more came out from Utah and rode impressive. Jed Anderson will blow your mind anytime you see him on a board. Rails, pipe, jumps, doesn’t matter. The list goes on and on.

So check all the photos and see what you might have missed from this season’s kickoff event from Big Bear. Thanks to Clayton Shoemaker, Brad Farmer, The Park Staff, riders, fans that came out, and everyone that made this event another great one at Bear Mountain.

Results
1. Scott Vine
2. Jed Anderson
3. Zak Hale
4. Jake Kuzyk
5. Ryan Tarbell

Best Trick: Ted Borland

- The RV getting prime parking status. Makes the walk to the car for a beer break, maybe even a safety meeting, a lot easier

- Two different lines to pick your path of destruction

- With a little teamwork, this guys does not seem to have any problem getting his load of the white stuff out

- This is where kids as well as adults will do anything for some free product, and I mean anything

- Creepy Cyle getting kids psyched over at Electric
- More activities at the Electric tent

- Not only was Bridges announcing the contest with none other than Todd Richards, he was getting the shot all day too

- Keegan Vilaika

- Ryan Paul giving the kinked elbow rail a go

- Matty Mo was the first one to really start getting after the wall ride. Buttery frontside 270 in

- JP Walker judging the wall feature

- Brandon Hammond switch frontside 180 tailpress down the new ledge feature

- Johnnie Paxson slays everything in his path

- Johnnie getting wild, corked out back 540 into the wall

- Textbook frontboard with plenty of speed to launch off the end

- You know you see that sticker. Dylan Alito down for snowrev

- Dylan blasting a back 3 wallride in his best summer attire

- Ryan Tarbell getting some speed off the bomb drop

- Johnny Lazz gets into a switch nosepress for the mob of people

- Kyle Lopiccolo tweaking out a roast beef on the wall

- Kyle again, this time grabbing stalefish blasting way up the wall

- Lopiccolo backside 180 press, half cab out

- Kory Klouser watches Kyle fly off the end after a solid front board, then holding it till he stomps in the flat

- Jonah Owen made the trip down from Oregon to put down some of the best moves seen all day on the wall

- Bear loc Johnny Miller handles the long c-rail with a frontside boardslide

- Ben Rice turning it up a notch on the ledge, backside 270

- Riceman navigating thorugh the kink

- Forest Bailey frontboards the shit out of the turning kink rail

- Brandon Cocard is down

- One of the most wild moves done all day on this feature. Brandon sliding 50-50 up, then frontside 3 onto the corner of the lower section of the box.

- Ted Borland looking like he just smelled a fart

- Ted holding a very technical tailpress all the way through

- Bundy locking it in, then popping it out to the bank

- Bundy again, this time nosepressing through it

- Ted pretty much biting Jamie Lynn’s style right here. Not that there is anything wrong with that

- Bundy with sick moves on everything. Backside boardslide pretzel out

- Ben Bilocq fully locked onto the corner of the granite ledge

- Yale Cousino making his way from Vermont to be another one of the standout riders of the day

-Mayor of Bear Chris Bradshaw

- Louif Paradis frontside lipslides the C

- Videograss filmer, editor, and great dude. Justin Meyer

- The chosen one. Jed Anderson

- Jed is too good. As seen here, handling a textbook front lip through the kink/elbow coming off the end perfectly square
- Jed getting inverted on the wall. Backflip wall bash

- I don’t remember if Cam Pierce made it all the way to the end on this one, but a backlip through this things is pretty bonkers

- 2009 HDHR Winner Scott Vine gives the wallride a backside rodeo

- This dude getting some fresh stickers on his new board. Good Looking out

- It would not be Hot Dawgs and Handrails without a bunch of people getting hammered drunk on the sundeck

- This guy got a little too hammered and decided he needed to be a badass and fight. Welcome to the 909

- Notice the blood all over the wall. Don’t fuck with Big Bear cops

- Yeah Bundy, free drinks on you

- Scott Vine 1st, Jed Anderson 2nd, Zack Hale 3rd

Kingvale Kingstock 4/20 2009
Words: Joe Carter
Photos: Joe Carter

- Finally after a long drive from SLC we made it to the party

- You know when your first action shot is a doobie pass first run.

- Word traveled fast since they only planned this two weeks ago.

- Mason Aguirre came out with his party boots on to get sideways.

- Cornell and Binky while he looks important texting.

- Jimmy Tomer and Pat Lee getting some new lounge chairs

- This kid’s fucked up right here. Kyle Earl Miller Flip over the big barrell

- Curtis Woodman, not only good at riding snowboards

- Mitch and Joseph getting vertical at Kingvale while Rory rolls up in the back.

- Ride team manager Matt Sickels getting frontside very high on the hill.

- No hiking to the top for these guys

- Pick your poison

- Partying

- Not too much riding for Danny today but he had just as much fun as everyone else.

- Yancy Caldwell tweaking some tail

- Kyle was hammered the whole way from Salt Lake to Tahoe. Today he just made sure he got real high and basted out some nuclears too.

- Nate Farell sends his pickel over the nicely trimmed lip

- Kyle giving his best Terje impersonation

- Tahoe’s John Foy getting high on his homegrown turf

- Nate signature, the Heinous Chuck

- Pat Lee snatched some knows on an air fakie

- Binky on the camera now too. Who says potheads can’t be productive.

-Curtis won the one of a kind Kingstock board as his trophy for sending it on the quarterpipe.

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April Pow At Brighton
Photos: Joe Carter
Words: Joe Carter

Most of the time when you think of snowboarding in April you have slush, sun, dirt patches, and maybe even a few beers on a sun deck. However if you were lucky enough to be in Utah last week you experienced none of that. Everywhere at Brighton had knee deep pow for a few days with that light snow this place is known for. This day we headed up with Kyle Lopiccolo, Joseph Arguello, and met up with Matt Piaseki to ride the Milly lift for another day of late season powder. Brighton will be open till the 19th so make sure you get up here, since there is definitely no shortage of snow as you’ll be able to see in the photos.

- We got a little bit of a late start, but with snow coming down all day nothing was tracked.

- (L to R) Kyle, Joseph, and myself. You know your having a good time with snow in the goggles.

- Joseph laying into some of that late season blower pow.

- Matt Piaseki hauls ass through some tight trees to poke out an indy on the house jump into a fresh landing between the pine trees.

- Kyle hauls ass down that runway do his best Ben Hinkley impression.

- Joseph pops off over some rocks on his way to the whiteroom.

- Matt, another indy off a cliff in a different done.

- Same drop, different run.

- Kyle coming down with some speed and consequence if he made a wrond turn to the right.

- Plenty more snow coming.

- April in Utah looks more like full blown winter

Finally, Kyle turns the big two one. So we pile two cars full of our friends and make another trip from Salt Lake City to Mammoth. Once we got on the road the fun began. Kyle was making fucked up bagged mixes of whatever he could find in the car, and piss, to throw at Mac and Sam Spedale’s car. In Nevada we gambled at gas stations. Then we made it and the party began. Our first night started out at our old house where Mitch Richmond now resides for a warm up before heading to the bars at Midnight for Kyle’s first time legally in the bar. That next morning all of us somehow made it up to the mountain for a sick pow day, with about half the time spending it at the Main Lodge bar. Slamming white Russians until we got kicked out for Kyle puking all the floor. After the hill we made a mandatory stop at 5 Boroughs in the village for some pizza. You might think at this point we might slow down. Wrong. We kept the party going all through the night for Matty Mo being the DJ at Whiskey Creek that none of us remember, but I’m sure we had a good time.

- A mellow 8 our drive from SLC with 10 people

- Kyle’s ammo consists of wheat thins, cheez whiz, Rice Krispies and of course, piss.

- Joseph hoping to find gold from the slot machine and his nose.

- Night one of partying and Mitch is getting a little bit tipsy

- We got some shredding in while it was puking snow and a few drinks deep.

- Capko making a suprise appearance to watch this little guy play human pinball at the bars.

- Three out of the four people here don’t remember this picture at all. I bet you can pick who.

- Raging

- A few more wasted runs as the snow is shitting on us

- These guys are hammered drunk

- Kyle puking for the first time as a 21 year old.

-Toadsback ending up in his back after a few too many dudarinos.

- I didn’t know you can get kicked out of the bar at Main Lodge, but I guess they frown upon throwing up on the carpet.

Brighton January Pow and Free Avalanche Clinics

By: Joe Carter
Photos: Joe Carter

Brighton for the past week has been amazing. With all the new snow we have had a few days of solid weather in to get in some sick powder days. To make it even better the Millicent lift is now open making endless pow days after a storm. With that new snow the avalanche conditions have been pretty sketchy. Two lucky kids found that out the hard way after one of them cruised down a huge face after a huge slide. The kid ended up walking out of the mess, somehow. The next day both kids were at the free avalanche awareness clinic held at the Brighton lodge. For those of you that missed out on the opportunity you have two more chances this year to get some new knowledge, or even just to brush up a little. The dates are February 5th and March 5th at 5:00 PM. So put that date on your calender now.

- Andrew Miller and Mark Dangler not making turns to bring you the first Brighton Bunch Episode.

- No shortage of people to shred with on the Millicent traverse.

- If you want to ride pow a few days after a storm Brighton is the place to get your fix, while everything else is tracked.

- One of the many awesome zones that has countless natural terrain features. Mark and Andrew getting ready for Josh Jarvis to send it for the Brighton Bunch.

- Kyle Lopiccolo looking like he’s storing nuts for winter in that cheek. Check out the Kyle Lopiccolo vs. Tranny Finder to see how he broke some of his face.

- Insane slide on Pioneer Ridge. It’s insane that the kid caught in that walked out of it.

- Here is the kid’s board that got caught up avalanche. Luckily it was the only thing that got split in two after hitting a tree.

- Good attendance at the avalanche clinic. It’s really cool that Brighton does that for free. Check out the Know Before You Go blog lower on the page. Then make sure you come to the next one if you didn’t make it.

Day At Brighton
By Joe Carter

Finally were back in Utah after a crazy trip to Mammoth. To make it even better there is some new snow in the forecast. We headed up to Brighton to meet up with some people to ride all day and I took the camera out every once in a while to snap a few photos.

- Starting off the day on the top of Crest with some much needed snow starting to come down.

- Eric Fernandez showing you some of that base, half cab pressing backside 180 out.

- Milly area starting to fill in a little bit more.

- Cryptkeeper, Joseph and Kyle hot lapping all day.

- Look out for Bode Merrill’s interview coming soon on snowrev.

- Bode showing you the right way to do a nosepress.

- Eric Fernandez, Cody Comrie, Joseph and Kyle Lopiccolo.

- Kyle locks into a frontboard cruising through the park.

- Joseph puts down a screaming toeside turn leaving a solid rooster tail behind him.

- Nick Russell and Bode Merrill with snow starting to come down harder.

- After a mellow 5 minute hike we are about to get some good turns at the top of crest.

- Jared Hadi reaping the benefits of moving to Utah getting an early season pow slash.

- More snow heading in

- Heading back down to canyon for a long night ahead.

- Tuesday’s at Ribio’s is the spot in Sugarhouse with dollar fish tacos.

- Amazing way to end a solid day of shredding and to kick the night off.

Tags: Bode Merrill, brighton, Eric Fernandez, Jared Hadi, Kyle Lopiccolo