Snowboarder Magazine Superpark 12: The Son of Berserker
Photos & Words: Andrew Miller

First and foremost I would like say the biggest thanks to Pat Bridges.  Bridges is the man straight up. The only way that this was possible for us going into to Superpark was because of him.  I was stoked to just go back there and watch everything let alone being able to shoot was even better! Right now if you look at all the snowboard internet sites Snowrev.com, Snowboardermag.com and others are all kind of doing the similar thing.... Interviews, event coverage, videos, photos etc... Even though the Revolution is small you could (and I'm sure some people do) look at us as competition.  So for Bridges and the Snowboarder Magazine crew letting us into their own private event to cover it was pretty sick and a great gesture... I'm mean how many other publications do you see getting let into Superpark?...none.  So again a big thanks to everybody over at Snowboarder Magazine: Bridges, Evan and all the senior photographers for being some real cool dudes....

Here is a quick break down of Superpark 12.  Tons and tons of action when down during these four days so I'm going to keep short and sweet with the set up, highlights and leave the rest to the photos and captions.

The Super Set up:
The Mammoth crew put in some late hours to push around a lot of snow and nestled six zone/features on the backside of the mountain with lift access via chair 14. Starting from the top, right off the cat track was the right to left and left to right transfer jumps followed by the huge run in for the monster 80-90 foot step down, that led right into the combo transfer/channel gap jump. This feature had many options from a lippy 30 ft booter on the right, 50-60ft table in the middle with the option to transfer left over the gap. To the left of that was the big 100ft lip gap over everything sided with a sideways lip that nobody hit.  Right after this slurry of lips and gaps was another confusing feature, the multi lipped quarter pipe that didn't see to much action. Right across the way in the next gully sat the giant hip that rivaled the hip built for the MDP crew a few years previous.  Both of these runs funneled down into the multi sided quarterpipe leading into the backside deck lodge filled with bean bags, drinks and food or another lap on the chair. I'm sure that was all pretty confusing that why I'll start the post out will just pictures of each feature.

Hightlights and Riding:
If some one were to ask me about Superpark 12 there is only one person that comes to my mind right away....  Lonnie Kauk.  Now I might be a little bias since Lonnie is my homie but with out a doubt Lonnie rode the hardest, longest, spun every single way off everything and straight up demolished everything in his path.  We would roll up to the mountain together, myself, Lonnie and Johnny Centi around 11 ish and Lonnie would not stop riding until 7 or 8pm for all four days of Superpark.  Everybody would ask how many laps do you think Lonnie has taken each day? So I stretched my brain to do some mathematical calculations and I would say each lap took maybe 10-15 min so like around 4 to 5 laps an hour which is around 35 to 40 laps a day for fours day which is around 140-160 lap for total of four days give or take.  So think about that 150-160 laps hitting some big ass shit and maybe falling under 4 times. Makes sense to me... This is Lonnie's home and training ground what did you expect? The warrior sharpened his blade extra for this and butchered Superpark 12. Lonnie is superhuman for sure.
As far as other people who really stood out to me were Pat Moore, Scotty Vine, Scotty Lago, Dan Brisse, Chelone Miller, the Canadians... Hardingham, Cravan, toots and a few others. Some fast highlights were Scotty Vine's double backflip first try on the 85ft step down. Pat Moore's front nine over the channel and Lonnie's perfect backside 540 over the 100ft big transfer gap.  Travis Rice and his heli camera came in on the last day filming for his two year project "Thats is Thats all" and were filming Lago, Pat and Lonnie so that was pretty sick to watch.  I could write a whole mid term paper on what went down but this is already getting long enough so I'm going to wrap it up. 

This was my first Superpark and I going to say this is one the best events for Snowboarders out there.  Snowboarder mag sets the stage for a ton of people to up the ante, make a name for themselves and its definitely the ultimate proving grounds.  For as many people who showed up for the crowded and chaotic first day only a handful were left standing on last. So Superpark really separates men from the boys and weeds out all the bullshit of attitudes, fashion, complaining and egos. Here the riding is what really stands out in the end, which is how snowboarding should be.
I'm going to let the photos take over for telling the rest of the story of Superpark 12. I had a great time so hope you enjoy!

Check out the Superpark 12 Video Below:

- This is the first thing you see right off the cat track, The double transfer.




- View from the lift of the 85ft step down in to the combo transfer/channel gap jump and hip.




- Another angle of the step down and transfer/channel gap jump.




- ohhh ok now this makes sense. Tons of options on this bad boy. R-L small, medium, large and retarded.




- Here is the quaterpipe feature.  This thing was only really sessioned for one day.




- Scotty Vine testing out the Monster hip.




- Nick Russell had a good little session on the multi sided quarterpipe at the bottom.




- Day one of Superpark was kind of a cluster fuck. Everything was closed expect the top double transfer jumps and everybody was sessioning there.  Lonnie didn't even want to fuck with those and kept yelling "open the gates!!!! Open the gates!!!" People were looking at him like he was crazy but all he wanted to do was hit the big stuff.





- - Lonnie already probably 25 laps deep on the first day.  The sunset set and lighting from 5pm on was the best out of the whole week.  I was most stoked on the way day ones evening session photos turned out.




- The warrior Lonnie Kauk.




- Wyatt Caldwell pokes one over the first transfer jump on day one.




- Thisisfrends.com Scotty Lago is a pretty hilarious guy. Go to the Frends site and watch the Protein video... funny shit.




- I'm not to hip on all the crazy grab names... Canadain Bacon, English Nanny, Taipans etc.... So I have no clue wft this grab Lonnie Kauk is doing.  I should of asked Bridges.




- Travis Rice sending the channel transfer with a huge backfive.  He later did a huge rodeo seven that turned into a nine and overshot the jump, broke his board and I think tweaked his back a little. After that Travis just started following caming and coordinated and told people when to drop once the heli came.




- Sammy Luebke rocking a pretty sweet Valdez, AK tie die sweatshirt. He is from Alaska but I forget which town.




- This is a bad picture with shitty light and I normally wouldn't post this, But its evidence of SNOWREV owner Johnny Centi sending a deep front side three over the monster jump.  This was right before they shut down the park due to flat light and shitty weather. Lonnie and Johnny were the only guys lapping through the double line. This was pretty sick....  Johnny linked up a sick backside 540 over the gap jump right after this.  My boss fucking rips!




- Nick Russell linking the transfer




- Charles Reid was one of the few hitting this huge gap for the first session.  This thing was a 100ft from the lip to knuckle so everybody was sending this about 110-120 feet.




- Dan Brisse truckdriving his way over the step down.  What a nice backdrop.




- Another view of the jump with the Gondi building in the background. This gives a good look at the run in for the step down. You can see a group of people right after the top transfers. That is where you point it straight to the lip.




- Torstein Horgmo was killing at Day one. Unfortunately he took an insanely hard slam on a switch backside 1080 on the step down. He was down for a bit but fought through the pain and hit the jump again. A really motivated trooper.




- Torstein Horgmo has some serious pop.




- I really looking forward to seeing Lonnie's part in the new Standard flick this summer. I have seen some photos of what he got into in Terrace, B.C. and it was some pretty heavy shit. Should be real good!



- Austin Smith was around for a day.




- Andreas Wiig hiked the hip for two solid hours trying to get this frontside three as perfect as he could.




- I'm sure Pat Moore is feeling the rotor wash of the Heli on this nine.




- Louie Vito back seven transfer. You couldn't tell how crowded it was on day one from this angle. If i turned around and took a picture you would see million people around.




- Nick Russell getting "Corky Romano" as he would say over the gap jump. Back seven Japan. You think there is enough people standing around the jump?




- Marc Swoboda killed during this evening session on the first day. Switch back seven japan.




- Cody Rosenthal with his almost signature method.  We did a day in the life with Cody right before Superpark and it should be up soon. Stay tuned for that Video and photos..its going to be pretty sick.




- Lonnie getting a sled ride back up by Oren




-  Lonnie high in the sky with some great fluffy clouds




- Crazy clouds make your pictures way cooler. Lurkers in the corner do not. Scotty Lago Day one transfer jumps.




- Peter Benchetler is another guy shredding on home turf.




- I like how Peter does his back one Japans




- Nick Russell tweaking some air time on the bottom quarterpipe.




- Gabe Taylor has my favorite backside 540 ever. I remember I used to have a old planet earth ad sequence of him doing one on my wall in middle school. So clean and perfect.




- Chelone Miller is a pretty rad guy. We were actually at breakfast this day and he was explaining to Lonnie how he does his rodeos and how they are pretty easy. Here Chili is doing a 100 plus foot rodeo... no big deal.




- Pat Moore is also a rad guy...




- Pat had a solo session on the transfer gap on day three. He laid down a couple tricks and a great scorpion on the knuckle. Check out the video his brother made on Snowboardermag.com to catch it!




- brraaap brappp back up for more




- I think this was Pat's front nine.. I was spying down from hemlocks.. Pretty nice view of everything from up there.




- Final Day final hours... Nick Russell really wanted to get a shot on the hip but it was pretty rutted out with a huge bump on the transition. So him and Andreas Wiig shoveled for about a good hour to smooth this bitch out. Here Nick is waiting for a rake.  Thanks to Curley for letting me us his Tilt shift!




- The shoveling and waiting paid off. Right as Nick starting hitting this thing the light was perfect for a great silhouette shot. I was stoked and so was Nick. He hit this thing solo for about 30min to make sure he got a sick shot.  Nick has some super unique style, great attitude and some serious skills.... Be on the watch for this kid!




- Slaughter fest Lonnie switch frontside 1080 stomp.




- Lonnie Heli follow cam. I was talking with Tim Zimmerman who has been shooting photos for Travis Rice's "That's it That's all" movie for the past two years and he said this trip to Mammoth was the final hoorah for filming the movie. They have something like over 400 hours of footage. I wonder how many photos Zimmerman has.. Hopefully Lonnie is able to get a few shots in movie!




- No better way to end the action that with this. Lonnie mid pefect backside five over the 100ft plus transfer gap.  Later than night Pat Moore told Lonnie this was the sickest thing he has seen all season. Thats pretty huge coming from the crew he rolls with.  Lonnie earned and deserves Superpark standout and I sure hope he gets it.... We will see what happens when the Superpark Issue drops next season. Looking forward to it, definitely is going to be pretty sick!




- End to a truly epic day and week. Hopefully see you next year!

What I tried to deliver here is an overview of Superpark.  If you want a day by day play by play coverage stop by SNOWBOARDERMAG.COM where they have updates and photos galleries specifically from each of the four days from the bohemith park on backside of Mammoth.  Each day has a story and a different senior photographer gallery so its pretty rad check it out.

Snowboarder Magazine Superpark 12: Son of Berserker
Day: 1 Story | Photo Gallery by Aaron Dodds
Day: 2 Story | Photo Gallery by Espen Lystad
Day: 3 Story | Photo Gallery by E-Stone
Day: 4 Story | Photo Gallery by Oli Gagnon

Superpark 12: T.Bird Exclusive VIDEO
Superpark 12: Exclusive VIDEO by Chris Moore
Superpark 12: Snowboarder Staff Perspective Photo Gallery by Bryan Crosscup

When your done checking all that out take a look at a special Sunday Sequence | Superpark Edition Featuring Lonnie Kauk.

Monday, May 19th 2008 @ 12:16 AM.
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