Words by Ben Amburgey and Casey Taylor

As this awful season on the east coast began to wind down in March, parks started to get smaller, local hills were closing, and people began to get ready for summer. In the mountains of western Maine however, something was brewing. At the small, volunteer run Titcomb Mountain in Farmington, one of three halfpipes on the East coast was taking shape, not for a private shoot or competition, but rather built for the by and for the local riders themselves. This project was the brainchild of graduating University of Maine at Farmington senior Andy P. Andy was conveniently doing his internship at the local hill and had some extra access to tools such as the groomer, and gator for moving stuff around. He had a vision of utilizing the small, local, and most importantly accessible mentality that Titcomb has, and make something truly rad out of it.

Thomas Marshall airs out of the pipe // Photo: Nolan Rogers

Once Andy cut the basic shape of the pipe with the kitty, the homies got to work. Titcomb is almost entirely volunteer run, and as a result there is no formal park crew, just 2 rakes, some rails, and a trail to put in whatever everyone agrees on. The process was similar for building the pipe. We had no pipe cutter so we used tools to hand shape it and add features wherever our hearts desired. The pipe consumed our thoughts and our personal lives for a span of about 3 days. Homie Dorian Robinson stayed on Casey Taylor’s couch in Farmington so he could be closer for the process. He lives at Sugarloaf in the winter and chose to ride the tiny hill and shape Pukwana rather than spinning laps up there for a couple days, which in a way reflects the mentality of this project. Everyone was in it, and about it one hundred percent of the time. This project had local kids from Farmington and the college alike coming out of the woodworks.

Mckinley Goozey tweaks the grab while Ben Amburgey gets the shot // Photo: Nolan Rogers

A solid 3-4 days of sessioning were had before some rain melted out the transitions too much. During that time the pipe was constantly evolving, with rails being added and moved around daily. The T-bars had closed for the season already but that didn’t stop anyone. Some favourite features included a large culvert on top of the deck, a flat bar right on the lip of the pipe, a channel cut into the wall for boosting to the transition on the back of the pipe, and a 50 foot pvc mega rail. Highlights of the daily sessions include Andy doing a fat frontside nose slide on the culvert, Casey Taylor flying 1/3 of the way down the whole pipe a couple times, Dorian with a smooth front 3 off the coping, Isaac Wright demolishing pretty much every rail we built, and Drew Bates kayaking down the pipe, hitting coping on one of the walls.

http://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/830719/Pukwana-Pipe?c=4

A short Re-cap edit by Ben Amburgey

Overall the whole experience was great, and really put a nice cap on top of a low tide season for Titcomb and most of the East Coast, as well as uniting local riders for and end of the season celebration. We hope to keep doing events like this for seasons to come, stay tuned and remember to always do cool shit with your friends!