Event Coverage: Disco Inferno Dance Party Rail Jam!

It is irrelevant whether your mother was toe-tapping to KC and the Sunshine Band's latest vinal release at some posh Greenwich Village nightclub, or in the dirty Midwest donning black leather and KISS makeup, getting ready to hit the town hard. Which ever crew your mom ran with, thirty-some-odd years ago, Disco returned to Stevens Pass en force last Saturday night with the Disco Inferno Dance Party Rail Jam!

As storm after storm pounds the Pacific Northwest, dumping feet of snow atop Stevens Pass, regional jibbers turned out for this home-grown event put together by Stevens Pass and the Top Phlight Terrain Park. Marvin Pingera, one of our hard working Terrain Park employees and hucker extraordinaire, put a lot of time and effort into both networking with, and recruiting sponsors. If it weren't for Marvin's efforts, along with a couple of other key players up here at Stevens Pass, the event may not have gone down.

With final preparations made, features built and sponsors in place, the event was ready to go down. Four O'clock Saturday afternoon was the calm before the storm; literally. Five O'clock was the slated hour for event registration, and not only did spectators and participants arrive at this time, so did the storm! Snow began to blow every-which-way as supporting sponsors erected a small tent-city at the base of the contest venue. Sponsor support for this event came from Capita, Bataleon, Grass Roots Outdoors, Fuel TV, Vitalire Outerwear, Rome, Casual Industrees, POW Gloves, Stevens Pass Snowboard Shop, EVO, Steazy Riders, Forum, Mountain Junkie, Mountain Militia and Weatherhead Clothing. The Disco Inferno was also attended by R.I.D.E. Outreach, a regional non-profit aimed at getting kids outside and involved in extreme sports! This rad new non-profit held a fundraising raffle including donations from Stevens Pass.

When sponsor support is so extensive, so too are the reservoirs for potential prizes, so the 40+ competitors were playing for keeps. The evening's setup included two features: a stock A-frame rail and an innovative butterbox in a skate-style, gap-on/gap-off arrangement. Riders were skeptical of the butterbox at first, seemingly unsure of exactly how to hit it. However, as the night progressed, so too did the level of riding. As your parents favorite, or most hated, disco hits from the 1970's bumped into the stormy night, frontflips and backflips became mando tricks off the box to stay in the running.

 

Jordan Salcedo, of Marysville, hucked almost to flat with this BS Rodeo 540 off the butterbox and into the night. Photo: Keito Swan

Not only did our top contenders feed off of each other and push the level of riding going on, but budding local photographer Keito Swan was out there with a professional assortment of lights, flashes, tripods and other gizmos to capture the mayhem! Thanks to Keito for coming out!

Stevens' David Steele swingin' hammers with this hand-dragger 540. Congrats on the win David! Photo Cred: Keito Swan.

(Below, Right) Snowboarder Chad Mason, 15 of Burien, shows us whats up with the A-frame rail. Photo: Keito Swan.

After a couple hours of pretty heavy shredding, when all was said and done, Jordan Salcedo, of Marysville, took Mens 1st Place by going upside-down, and taking it deep into the night with a variety of backies, 90 rolls and BS Rodeos off the box. Dude was hucking so heavy that he broke his board! So naturally, we at Stevens Pass hooked him up with a new one. Stevens' own Max McIndoe finished up a very, very close 2nd place in the Mens Division with his butter-up switch BS 540's off the box. Christophe Renner rounded out the Men's podium by taking 3rd and was definitely the most vocal about how much fun he was having with our "pow landing jib setup!" Stevens Loc David "Powder" Steele took the Skier's top honors with a high-speed hand-drag 540 off the butterbox! Congrats to David on his latest conquest and being "the best skier on the mountain!"

Although they were the only two ladies to enter the contest, Olivia Kesterson, 16 of Malaga, and Shayla Hudkins, 17 of Bothell, didnt walk away with prizes for no reason. Olivia stuck just about every grab known to the snowboard universe off the box (A pretty steezyMethod too!), while Shayla eventually stomped her frontflip!

Congratulations to all of our winners, as well as a big thanks to the rest of our competitors, sponsors and spectators! We had a blast putting this on, and we hope everyone who attended can say the same. Thanks again for coming out, and if you missed out this time, we'd better see you soon up here at Stevens Pass!

As seen on RideStevensPass: http://ridestevenspass.com/news/2011/03/03/event-coverage-disco-inferno-dance-party-rail-jam