I recently spent a whole Saturday watching a bunch of snow bros and gals pulling out all their tricks and flips to compete for plastic body pieces. Yep. That would be the 2012 Dawn of the Shred SLUG games hosted by Brighton Resort.The set up was too much fun. The whole Slug and Brighton crew that put together the park really had a blast as we could tell from the front and center tomb stone jib painted by Mark Murdoch.
Speaking of having a blast, we all did. Lauren and I left our house at 6:30am (eek) and after a quick Egg McMuffin Breakfast (when was the last time you were up early enough for that amazingness?) we headed up to B-town. The fact that it was a clear day was bittersweet considering our love of snow and love of not having to drive in it up the canyon. We finally got up there and we were greeted by the amazing SLUG crew who generously hauled our gear and Asses up the mountain (Lauren’s first evvveerrr snow mobile ride) AND set up our tent. Soon to follow were some of the amazing other sponsors and DJ Matty Mo with the much needed tunage.
My street cred on the slopes isn’t exactly up to par. I learned to ski up on the nicely groomed slopes of Deer Valley when I was 2.. yeah buddy! My dad worked in the race dept. at good ol DV for 20 years and thats where I grew up skiing. I learned how to snowboard through a school program when I was like... 12 maybe? So obviously my rough and tumble backcountry reputation doesn’t really precede me. Now, based on my 'coloring in the lines' past, there was definitely a time a few years back when I would have spent forever thinking about what exactly I was going to wear up to Brighton to not look like a total ‘poser’.
Well, who am I kidding - of course I spent time thinking about what I was going to wear to the Slug Games. The recent trends of throw back, bright colors and anything that can play music from random holes didn’t fit anywhere in my wardrobe so I ended up failing anyways even after all the time spent debating the 'look hot-stay warm-while it's cold' options. So I went with my dad's Sorels and the snowboarding jacket I've had for 5 years. BUT WAIT - had to throw in my Deagle brand hat to rep a little local gear... that makes me cool right? COUGHPOSERCOUGH* It is too funny to watch the fashion show that is Utah winters on the mountain, I'll never be able to fully distinguish between the kids who are trying to look like they aren’t trying and the kids that aren’t trying. It seems like every other bro you meet is sponsored by someone or something anyways and has enough gear to fill the back of his/her Nissan Xterra. I'm not by any means trying to cast a shadow on those trying (or not trying) to look fly in the winter time, mostly because I am one of you and I drive a Rav4 with a ski rack (mostly because it looks cool) - but, my hell.. wear a helmet while you're at it or else you wont have a precious little head to stick those top-of-the-line (or maybe they were your dad's vintage eh?) goggles and neck gator on anyway.
OKAY back to the games… as the riders were registering down in the lodge, we had a behind the scenes look into all the hard work that goes on to set up the Slug games- ALL the hours of actually setting up the course, and the sweat and err… smoke… that goes into making sure everyone from the riders to the audience have the best day ever really amazed us. The actual heat thirties and finals were truly impressing and we loved the 17 and under kids that showed us that skill has not a lot to do with age when you can ride that hard. Every one of the contestants, MCs, judges and fans showed us mad love and we were just as happy as clams… umm cold-really have to pee-wish we brought sunscreen-clams. Obstacles with wind (that threw a tent at Mike Brown’s face) and figuring out how and where we were going to pee for 8 hours… were worth the amazing time we had at the 2012 SLUG GAMES.
Something we can walk away from this knowing for certain is that I am indeed a poser and the snow culture that SLUG MAG set a stage for includes some of the most amazing and passionate men and women in Utah and we can’t wait to participate in ‘2012 Shred the Park After Dark’ coming to PCMR on March 10th. Many came, many saw – but only a select few proved that they could indeed ‘shred with the undead.’
By Sydney Phillips
