2008 World Quarters, Timber Ridge Don’t Go Changing!
Snowmobiles, mayhem, booze, fireballs, and the infamous Gauntlet: The World Quarter Pipe Championships have returned with a vengeance.
There used to be a sticker that would pop up every year at the US Open that read, “Don’t Piss off the Locals”. Well, Monday at the World Quarters those locals that the stickers were talking about came out to party and cheer on the World Quarters as only rowdy Vermonters can. When the idea began kicking around of reviving the infamous World Quarters, people started groaning things like: “No ski area will host it”, “No one can build it”, “Will anyone even show up?” The crew at Timber Ridge answered all of those questions this past Monday as the World Quarters came back with a bang.
With a little help from the Rome SDS, Red Bull, and Snowboarder Magazine, Chris Waker and Timber Ridge crew pulled off one of the funnest snowboard events to ever go down in the Stratton area of Vermont. Timber Ridge, a privately-owned, abandoned ski area became the scene for all that was wicked in Vermont. Calling on former US Open pipe builder “Lyle” to help shape the monstrous pile of snow that Waker had amassed for the event, shredders from all over were met with quite possibly the biggest privately built quarter pipe in Vermont.
The World Quarters returned as a riotous answer to the mundane contest circuit of late. No lame sponsors, no TV timeouts, there wasn’t even really any judging and there certainly wasn’t any pre-planned “poaching”. Poach this quarter pipe and you were seriously taking your life into your hands. Dubbing it a “sixth star” TTR event Snowboarder Magazine editor Pat Bridges started the day off by planting the wood log placed on top of the beast. From there on out the day went off, defending Quarterpipe champion Scotty Lago arrived on the scene and blasted some of the biggest airs of the day, and appeared to be the early favorite, but after a misfortunate fight with the flat bottom, Scotty was helped to the side and suddenly it was anyone’s game.
While crews of riders lapped the upper mountain shuttled to the top by the slew of sleds on hand, the action on the quarterpipe heated up. Roommates Shayne Pospisil and Rome’s Greg Bokenkamp raised the height bar higher and higher. Mountain owner and local favorite Chris Waker boosted and threw methods through the diesel flames ignited by his father. Luke Bonang, who helped shape the beast, and Rome’s warranty intern “Mattern” blasted some airs, while Bode Merrill, Nick Russel, Chris Baraford and some of the Think Thank crew attacked the log. There were countless other kids boosting airs but as the festivities began to kick in telling everyone apart became a little tricky. The heckling from the announcers barraged the riders with calls like “We’ve got GPS units if you’re having trouble finding the lip” and “Does your bank accept those checks”. When some kid landed 90 and skidded around he heard, “Obviously that guy de-tuned for this event”. The local crew of Vermont legends like Stevie Hayes, Adam Petraska, Hobie Chittendon, Ian Kirk, held it down in the crowd. Even Ross Powers showed up and did a couple airs at the end of the day. The snowboard-revolution.com crew was in the house with owner Johnny Centi doing one-footers and Joe Carter running around grabbing interviews.
As the day wore on, the thirsty crowd cheered on their favorite Hayes brother Ted Raw. While Teddy performed his backflips and tried his double backflips, the Gauntlet began to take shape. Wood was piled on, diesel fuel was poured on at a completely unsafe rate by none other than owner Tim Waker himself, and snow balls were packed. Riders began braving the Gauntlet and were bombarded with snowballs, beer, and huge balls of fire. The crowd cheered on as backflips were thrown, methods through flames were chucked, and even some burly crashes were stomped. Austen Granger got the bright idea to brave a massive transfer to roof ride off the side of the quarterpipe which quickly became a crowd favorite. VT Deathrider Tim Benasich joined Tim in the sketchy gap and after Austen survived a horrific crash both shredders landed it.
The final standings were announced at the end of the day. The junior ripper award went to Gabe McGovern, a young gun who had braved the Blue Hills event back in the day when he was a six-year old grom. For Gabe’s airs he was awarded a new guitar. Third place went to Greg Bokenkamp who flew out from filming for Now Correct Way to throw a few airs, and party a bit with the Rome crew in his hometown. Second place and a “quarter” of the Green Mountains’ finest export went to Arctic Challenge second place finisher Shayne Pospisil for his smooth airs and spins all day. The title of new World Quarter Pipe Champion, 1,000 dollar in quarters, and a brand new 50cc motorcycle went to Utah shredder Bode Merrill who ended the riding portion of the event with a frontside invert on the log extention while it was lit on fire.
The after party was held at the Magic Mountain Lodge where local band “Porno Tongue” played to a rowdy group of hooligans. In classic World Quarters fashion the night ended with a late night visit from local law enforcement to the hotel where everyone was staying. This event was awesome, and will certainly return next year bigger and gnarlier, Waker could already be heard yelling wait till next year’s quarter pipe. A big thanks are due to Red Bull, Rome, Snowboarder Magazine, Pat Bridges, Mark Sullivan, Ron Faverty, Luke Bonang, and especially Chris Waker and all of the Timber Ridge family. See you next year!
