[by Nat Langmann]

These past four days have been a mixture of rad contests and crazy parties. Case in point: getting to the hill yesterday, while putting snowboard boots on, I realized I was wearing little pink ankle socks in lieu of snowboarding socks - this marathon of madness had run it's toll; thank gawd yesterday was the final shred contest. Rolling up to the 150m plus long, 22ft high, 22m coping-to-coping wide halfpipe, just skier's right of the Blackcomb Park, and seeing some old school shreds hiking off their hangovers, with other's just sending it like it was the good ol' days, hearing Daryl "Trini" Trinidad on the mic laughing and saying, "We've got Guillaume Morisset and David Melancon going off in the pipe...what year is it anyways," I knew then and there that I had a wide-on for this kind of day...22m to be exact.

Dustin Craven got in on his namesake contest. Hogue photo.

The great thing about Dustin Craven's FUN Halfpipe, and Monster Energy's Show in general, is that so many different shreds from so many different eras can get on the rider list, there is no entrance fee, and no matter if they were out all night at some party, you could still cruise up and drop into a pipe. Regardless if you were Rube Goldberg and hadn't ridden one in years, if you were Melancon and hadn't given much thought to riding one since early winter when it started dumping in Whistler, or if you were Morisset, who by being a contest judge at major contests like the X-Games and all the TTR stops gives him the added bonus of being able to drop in and ride the best pipes in the world, everyone had an equal shot.

Brad Martin. Hogue photo.

Shreds were given three hours to throw down their mastery of tricks, their different lines, and as many jibs as they could do in a jam format that was rider judged - judged to the point that if someone threw down something too whack, they would get tapped out. Unfortunately, nobody got tapped out. Rodeo was the theme; riders started their run at the top of the coral, and about 125m down the pipe were two jibs: a hitching-post log jib, followed by Dustin Craven's big cattle bell hanging six feet above the opposite wall. Capita dropped a total of $1500 for three different prizes: the best ringing of the bell (Morriset with an alleyoop 360), the best handplant on the hitching post (Kory Wright, with an impressive frontside invert), and best 360 (which could have easily gone too Craven for his backside allyoop three, but since this is his contest and you can't have your cake and eat it too, he gave the five-hundy to Charles White who was stomping front threes).

Melancon, who busted out a huge, classic Shaun White-styled, frontside five tailgrab off the first hit, was stoked on riding and being surrounded by his friends all day. "I rang the bell a few times, tail tapped the log once, but I was aiming for the big air," he says. "I was probably the oldest guy in the contest," he adds with a laugh.

Justin Lamoureux, tucking a knee. Hogue photo.

It was a bummer to see Travis Williams - who incidentally should probably get recognized as MVP of The Show for absolutely killing it in every contest - go down after hitting the wall just past where the bell was. He flew 10 ft up out of the pipe, busted out a huge straight method, and just popped off, his arms started flapping, and he went into the flats with a big impact. His knee took all the impact, and it's not certain if he broke the bone or just blew it up. With Williams down, they shut down the pipe and the winners were announced: Morisset won a sweet $5000 with the most consistency in his runs - switch alley-oop to a Michaelchuck and a front five Crippler just to name a few. Justin Lamoureux picked up $2000 for second (which he says is going straight to paying for his wedding), and Brad Martin took third with multiple front nines, tens and a twelve.

"Brad Martin, Kyle Thomas, Morisset, Jordan Phillips were all throwing down," says Lamoureux, "and Kory (Wright's) handplant on the log was sick. The hitching post was so hard to hit," explains Lamoureux, who alley-oop tail-tapped it on his first try and then just couldn't seem to get it again. "I also missed the bell by half an inch on an air to fakie, so I tried that a whole bunch of times, and got sick of it," he effuses, "so I just went back to just riding pipe. The pipe was really good - pipes have kind of sucked everywhere that I have gone to this year, so it was fun to do runs, do tricks, and land tricks."

Guillaume Morriset rings the bell for cool $500 on top of his first place finish. Hogue photo.

Morisset may have brought some of his old-school style back to the pipe in more ways than one: he rocked a red thrift-store jacket that he had picked up in Utah alongside some tight hipster-esque pants. "I got lucky," he says in regards to his penchant for shopping for such sweet threads. "I walked in this thrift store, and said, ‘that looks like Michael Jackson, I will take it.'" He explains that he spends his winters in California, so he doesn't need warm stuff. "I just wear these spandex and wool ski pants from the 70s, and if it's cold, I just put on some under-layers," he says. "I really like them; they are really good in powder." Morisset equates his fashion sense to him living his life like a hippy (minus smelling bad and listening to the Dead, he insists), especially since he was living in his van in Tahoe for the past year. "It was so warm; I had two sleeping bags, and I just zipped them together," he says, adding, "I loved living in it, but I would never do it again."

Guillaume Morriset's novelty check for a very real $5000. Hogue photo.