Boarding for breasts, hucking for hooters, jibbing for jugs, tweaking for ...well, you get the idea. The fourth annual Boarding for Breast Cancer April 17 at Sierra-at-Tahoe was without a doubt the event's best year. With a handful of rocking bands, perfect blue skies, a fun jam session in the halfpipe, a soft big air jump, incredibly moving speeches from breast cancer survivors and swag galore coming out of every booth, and all of this costing spectators a mere 46 bucks for the all access to the event and mountain, it would've been hard for anyone to complain.

 

Tina B. winning the big air.

"I love this event, it's so great. I get to come here and just ride with my friends and not worry about competing," said one of the original supporting pros Shannon Dunn. Dunn along with her good friend Tina Basich became involved with the event in the first year through BBC co-founder Lisa Hudson. Hudson and a handful of other industry women like Kathleen Gasperini of WIG magazine had been friends with a woman named Monica Stewart who died of breast cancer at 27. Before passing away Stewart had told friends she really wanted to put on an event to help young people realize they too could be prone to breast cancer.

Over the years more and more riders have come to support the event because breast cancer is a disease which affects most peoples lives. One such example at this year's BBC was Mammoth pro Matt Kass who came to the event to dedicate his day and his unexpected podium spot to a friends aunt who had breast cancer.

"Really there is more to be here than just being at event," said Kass after taking a run through the pipe. "I wanted to come to support my friends Aunt because it could be anyone that gets breast cancer. It's not just someone else's problem, It's everyone's problem."

Another person at the April 17th event that was there for more than just a good time was Mike Franti, the lead singer of Spearhead. While he can't deny having a great day riding, "I got up here at 8 am and started riding," he said with a smile, "but really I am here, we are here because this is something that affects everyone, even young people. I think it's time young people get more serious about taking care of themselves and realize they could be prone to diseases like breast cancer as easily as someone older. My wife has breast cancer in her family and we have had scares before where we've found lumps in her breasts, but we've gotten it checked out and it turned out to be nothing."

 

Blink 182 and the kids of the BBC.

Spearhead played at the end of the day which was a bit disappointing because the crowd has somewhat dissipated since it was so late in the day. But they still gave the audience a great show. Blink 182 definitely got largest crowd of the day, coming on just before Spearhead. With San Diego ska/thrash style they belted out all of their top tunes like My Girlfriend, getting the crowd slamming and passing people overhead.

Those who weren't particularly thrilled with one band or another had plenty to do from feeling for lumps in silicon breasts to collecting scavenger hunt prizes like yo-yos from the Polo booth. And it seemed like nearly everyone had either purchased a BBC T-shirt or a Toughtitties shirt, both of which donated proceeds to breast cancer research. There was also a great hairstyling booth with a handful of girls twisting, dyeing and cutting hair for free. At various points in the day quite a line of anxious young event-goers formed, each person walking away from the booth with a different do. One competitor got his hair died bright purple, which really helped him stand out in the competition, however judges weren't giving out prizes for best hair, so he didn't quite make the cut for the top spots.

The competition was a simple jam format in the halfpipe with riders dropping one at a time, until people started getting impatient and just dropping everywhere. From lofty one hitters like Matt Kass was doing, to all-star follow-the-leader runs with Ross Powers, Shannon Dunn, Dave Downing, Jessica Delpiaz, Nicole Anglerath and whoever else followed them down the pipe, the jam session seemed to be a good time. Never mind that the pipe looked like a bad day at snowboard camp late in the summer, no one was really there for anything more than a good time, so they all made the best of it.

The big air jump was a little small and no inverted tricks were allowed, which took away some of the fun of big air, but that didn't stop some of the competitors from throwing a flip anyway. One guy with skis on and a green sweatshirt that read Hollywood, wowed the crowd with his perfect backflip, but obviously didn't win the hearts of the judges. In the end it was the brother and sister duo Tina and Mike Basich who rode away with the top prize for clean spins.

Overall the day seemed to pass without a hitch and if people left with nothing else, at least they left with a sunburn and a smile. What they left behind was a lot of money, a good portion of which will go to breast cancer research in hopes that one day there will be a cure for this disease.

RESULTS

Pro Halfpipe Winners

Male:
1. Kirk Warner - Nidecker, Peppers Eyewear, Thorlo Socks
2. Jef Billo - Limited, Wave Rave, Northwave, Drake
3. Mikko Jauhiainen - Duotone, Mission 6, Spy

Female:
1. Kyla Duffy - Airwalk, Duratech, 686 Enterprises
2. Kristie Elder-Ussher - Anarchy/Angel Eyewear, Vans, Dryve, Sierra
3. Lindsay Pugh - Ernesto, Burton, Nixon

Pro Big Air

Male :
1. Mike Basich -
2. Aaron Rains - Salomon, Bonfire
3. Cyrus Briggs - Nike, Flow Bindings, Anarchy, Reef Brazil

Female :
1. Tina Basich - Sims, Smith, Airwalk, Nixon
2. Lindsay Pugh - Ernesto, Burton, Nixon
3. Sally Szymaniak - Salomon, Bonfire, Excell Skates

Amateur Halfpipe

Male :
1. Ryan Kronenberg - Sims, Out of Bounds
2. Erik Jacobsen - Sims
3. Chris Wimbles - Burton

Female :
1. Holly Lyons - Elan, Angel/Anarchy, The Shop
2. Crystal Metzger - Excell Skates
3. Sheridan Alves - (none)

For more info on the BBC please click here:

Boarding For Breast Cancer

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