Vegetate '99: Another One To Grow On
3/17/98
by Billy Miller

With a musical funk day, a punk day, four events (slopestyle, boardercross, halfpipe, and big air) and plenty of snow, Mt. Hood Meadows raised its singular Vegetate event from a kernel of environmental inspiration into a full-fleged, youth culture festival.

The weekend of March 26-29, 1999 marked the fourth annual Vegetate, an event that has produced close to $30,000 dollars for cultivating native wildflowers and plants on Mt. Hood.

Pairing riders in competition with sustaining our mountain playgrounds has produced a natural partnership. This year’s sponsors jumped at becoming involved not simply to hock their wares, "But because of snowboarders’ passion and excitement for the mountain and your sport," noted Marketing Director Dave Tragethon.

Competing riders didn’t disappoint. A mostly local Northwest field of riders worked their way through Thursday’s slopestyle, Friday’s halfpipe, Saturday’s boardercross and Sunday’s big air final.

With a base now over 200 inches, La Niña keeps pouring it on the Cascades, providing bountiful contest facilities and treating riders to a fresh eighteen inches by Saturday. Kevin Jones and Kim Bohnsack distinguished themselves early in the slopestyle. Lael Gregory boosted a return to halfpipe form over Jon Kramer and Chad Otterstrom, with Bohnsack cinching a second, and Todd Brooks and Mayumi Fukoda winning in boardercross.

But besides the music from local bands who played under a tent at the bottom of the course, it was the big air that became the series cornerstone, even in near white-out conditions and a with a landing that was rock solid. The hardest thing became making that decisive call, with variations on switch 720s and rodeo flips tech enough to instate an instant replay rule.

Snowboard camp mogul Tim Windell and writer/photographer Dave England were on hand to help, but it was local IJC (International Judging Commission) judge Josh Linn who had all the answers, jotting down each trick in shorthand while pilots reversed thrust in the runout.

Linn helped Vegetate the last three years and this year he presided over slopestyle and halfpipe. The secret to a confident ruling, he says, is, "Being at a similar level to those guys. If you know what the trick is and you can do it, you’re going to know what the harder trick is."

Things got plenty tricky with Jussi Oksannen’s non-grab 900 and Lucas Huffman stomping cab misty flips. But no one could top Kevin Jones’ patented "Sh-Kane," which Linn describes as a rodeo flip off the toes instead of the heels.

Sticking two of those sealed Jones the win. He collected his prize money like The Man With No Name in a spaghetti western, with this take on his signature move: "It’s just going to remain a mystery. It’s the mystery trick."

There was no mystery in the women’s division, when everyone but overall ruler Kim Bohnsack opted out of the finals. She dropped in on two runs just the same, the consummate pro.

With podium placement in all but one event, it was enough to secure Bohnsack the Mountain All-Star title, along with last year’s Vegetate winner Jesse Wright-Burtner. They received a Sony Playstation stocked with games for their trouble, but the real winner over the four days was Mt. Hood, who, after giving us so much this winter, will see some back come summer–if it ever does.

Said General Manager Dave Riley, "We do this for the riders and for the environment. That’s what it’s all about."

Slopestyle
Men  

1. Kevin Jones $1000
2. Tyler DeWilde 500
3. Jessie Wright-Burtner 100

Women    

1. Kim Bohnsack $750
2. Mica Fish 250
3. Snow Petersen 100     

Halfpipe
Men    

1. Lael Gregory $1000
2. Jon Kramer 500
3. Chad Otterstrom 100

Women    

1. Corrie Rudishauser $750
2. Kim Bohnsack 250
3. Snow Petersen 100   

Boardercross
Men    

1. Todd Brooks $2000
2. Josh King 1000
3. Forest Devore 500

Women    

1. Mayumi Fukuda $1250
2. Jacqui Berg 500
3. Allison Clark 250       

Big Air
Men  

1. Kevin Jones $2000
2. Jussi Oksanen 1000
3. Jessie Wright-Burtner 500

Women    

1. Kim Bohnsack $500