Wintersports
Snowboarding
Red Bull Recharged Catalyzes Terrain Park Progression in Mammoth
Legendary builder Frank Wells and world-renowned Red Bull athlete Ben Ferguson team up to create one of the most innovative terrain parks to date.
Part of this story
Competitive snowboarding has reached a tipping point. It needs a refresh, especially in the world of slopestyle snowboarding. Rail, rail, rail, jump, jump, jump and so on and so forth. As spectacular as the riding that goes down on prototypical courses is these days, they fail to provide the riders with the main ingredient to freestyle snowboarding: Creativity.
Enter Red Bull Recharged.
Ben Ferguson had an idea. Assemble the top slopestyle and video part riders on the planet, team up with a legacy park builder, and host a week-long experience. The stacked field would then be cut down to only the “finalists.” These riders would then have three tries to get a full pull on, arguably, the longest slopestyle course ever built. And calling it a “slopestyle course” is a stretch.
The course was filled with every type of terrain park feature that one could imagine. Rail islands flanked by quarterpipe-cut transitions, stepover style kickers, quarterpipe takeoffs to jump landings, two offset quarters going down the fall line toward the bottom and a hip into a jump. And that’s if the riders aimed to hit everything straight and not from other angles. Spanning almost a full mile in distance from top-to-bottom, it was the length of a big mountain Alaska line peppered with freestyle features. When the riders got their eyes on it for the first time, the energy was through the roof in anticipation to drop in and send it.
One of the most important aspects of Red Bull Recharged was the conversation between the field of riders and Frank Wells to dial in the course. After the first day of practice, Wells approached the riders, asking for feedback, and after a few requested more vert on the transition takeoff jumps, the legendary course designer (with the Mammoth Unbound crew) went to work late that night. The next day, the riders were hyped on the changes.
2 min
Jamie Anderson | Red Bull Recharged 2021 Run
The format was simple. 16 men and 5 women. The first three days were straight-up sessions in which every single trick, tweak, slide and poke was documented by a world-renowned field of filmers like Justin Eeles, Sean Aaron, Joe Carlino, Malachi Gerard and John Cavan. Three judges dictated to the field that the contest would come down to Creativity and Style, Difficulty and Variety, meaning that creativity was paramount in riding this course, followed closely by the difficulty of the tricks the riders were doing. Lastly, variety described the different array of tricks and approaches that the riders were doing and taking. After the first three days, the field was cut down to 8 men and 3 women and on “Finals Day,” they would each be given three top-to-bottom attempts that were filmed as full runs.
Each rider would then pick their favorite of the three runs, and a grip of video editors pulled those runs to be played to the entire event that evening. The riders would then cast anonymous ballots for who should take the top three spots.
The first three days were ballistic. The energy, electricity and the amount of riding was ridiculous, as the sessions on-hill went all day long. At the end of the third day, however, the judges had to make a nearly impossible decision. Cutting 16 to 8 and 5 to 3, after every rider slayed it all week long and truly, everyone deserved to be in the finals. However, after pouring over all of the footage from the first three days, they had made their decision, and in no particular order, this is how finals was going to play out.
For the men, it was:
For the women, it was:
2 min
Dusty Henricksen | Red Bull Recharged 2021 Run
On finals day, the energy changed to a sense of nervousness at the top. It was finally time to crown a champion. As the first rider dropped, everyone at the start gate watched the top rail section and the first quarterpipe jump and then silence fell over the crowd. The rest of the course was totally blind from the start area. It was officially on, and no one would know until that evening who landed what until the final runs were submitted for judging that night. Poaching during the finals was encouraged so all of the riders who didn’t get a chance to put down an official finals run still got to session in between runs and the photo shoot vibe of the entire event continued on for the remainder of the afternoon. When it was all said and done, the entire event crew gathered at the bottom, Gave their thanks and appreciation to the epic riding that took place, and headed back to their spots to prep for the evening event.
The winners!
© PM
In Mammoth’s Clocktower Conference Room, the edits were unveiled for all of the finalists and all of the event staff and riders were erupting in cheers and applause for each edit. It was akin to being at a snowboard video premiere, and the atmosphere was electric. When all was said and done, the votes were tallied and the winners were announced.
On the women’s side, it was Anderson who took the top spot, followed by Langland and Beck in second and third, while for the men, Mammoth local Henricksen took first, while Katayama and Winkelmann rounded out the podium in second and third place.
The winners!
© PM
Red Bull Recharged was unlike anything that the snowboard world has ever seen. Creativity, style, progression, and innovation all rolled into a snowboard contest. This event will continue to evolve and push the level of the progression of freestyle snowboarding inbounds, which is quite frankly what we need at this very moment in time.
Part of this story
