Red Bull Super Hit

Words by Cory McGrath
Photos courtesy of Sunday River

Sunday River hosted one of the final two Red Bull Super Hit events on Saturday, February 26th. The previous day’s snowstorm gave way to a beautiful bluebird Saturday as competitors and spectators migrated towards the carefully crafted park feature. Sculpted by the Sunday River Park Crew, the feature involved a perfect 65-foot table with two creative rail features on either side. With Lift 1 directly overhead, the jump became the center of attention and proved to be the perfect spot for the event to go down.

With DJ Treatz from Burlington, Vermont’s Bonjour-Hi bumping tunes and Jimmy “The Steak” Catlin getting everyone stoked on the microphone, the competition got underway around noon. The competitors hiked up and started calling their drops for the 45-minute jam session. From stylish cork threes to some big switch tens, all competitors were throwing down in hopes of winning some sick prizes from Red Bull, Nike 6.0, Oakley, Empire, and Lib Tech NAS. Above all, however, they wanted to throw the biggest, best trick and get the all-expenses-paid trip back for the third annual Dumont Cup. The event offered a great opportunity for up and coming local riders to show off their skills and gain exposure in the sport.

As the jam session counted down the final few minutes, the competitors were charging the jump trying to make the most out of their last few hits, making it difficult for the judges to narrow it down to six finalists. Some gnarly crashes were inevitable, but the competitors were motivated by each other, the spectators and shouts from the lift above. The positive vibes and grassroots nature of the event showed what the Red Bull Super Hit was all about.

The six competitors in finals, though exhausted from hiking Rocking Chair and dealing with some spurts of wind, closed out the event hard. The tight competition forced skiers to pull out some new tricks and the crowd saw more big spills and some technical stomped tricks that put three skiers on the podium. Third place went to local skier Curtis Bolduc with a switch ten mute. Bolduc nearly got switch twelve around but crashed on the landing. Second place was grabbed by Graham Cartwright, who was throwing real stylish corked out spins all day. Cartwright’s trick of the day was a real nice switch cork nine blunt. Hucking hard all day and winning the event was Matthew Maillous, who got himself an invite to Dumont Cup with a huge switch misty ten mute grab, stomping it well down the landing. Maillous had a scary crash when he floated a zero spin too far down the landing, but fortunately, he managed to get a couple more hits in to pick up the win.

Matthew Maillous picks up the win and an invite to the Dumont Cup.

Also important to mention are Jonathan Steltzer and Luke Elliot, who took home some prizes after being recognized for creativity and sending it hard all day. Steltzer got a double rodeo to his feet several times and was just a slight rotation away from landing it clean. Elliot showed a little different style from the rest, landing a double backflip, truck driver backflip, and a nice layed out front flip. Congratulations to all of the winners who showed off their banger tricks at the Red Bull Super Hit Series. The day couldn’t have gone much better, as we even got to ski some new pow before it was all over. See you at Dumont Cup.