Words: T. Bird

Most years, the last day of Superpark is mellow; a farewell to friends that you may not reunite with until the flakes start flying. Not today. Up on Mt. Bachelor, Oregon, Superpark played host to some of the most progressive and innovative days of all-time.

It was a bit of a late start, what with it being the last day and the riders were starting to feel the fatigue that accompanies four straight days of intense park shredding, but it picked up...and fast. The Seven Springs bottom jump saw myriad riders lapping through chucking their meat in every direction. Personaly, my two highlights were Sebastian Toutant landing a backside 1080 triple cork (yeah, triple cork) and Brendan Gerard hitting the monster in a Speedo. You see, that's the beauty of Superpark. The juxtaposition in which a guy like Seb Toots can session a jump with a dude wearing an article of clothing no bigger than a hand towel.

Speaking of triple corks, have you ever heard of Mark Hoyt? Well, now you have, because Hoyt managed to land himself a frontside 1080 triple cork, placing himself in the elite ranks of riders like Toutant, Mark McMorris, Pat Burgener, and Torstein Horgmo, all Superpark attendees at some point in their career. Foreshadowing much?

Head to Snowboarder Mag to check out the rest of the recap and photos from Day 5.

Rider: Jake OE
Photo: Mike Yoshida

Recap: T. Bird
Captions: Pat Bridges

It's been a few long days on Mt. Bachelor, OR here at Superpark 16 Presented by Gatorade, but extended sessions are a staple of this event. Extended sessions also make it exponentially harder to wake up at four o'clock in the morning for a sunrise shoot (that's right, sunrise) on Loon Mountain, NH's premier feature, and seeing how well it went has us all at SNOWBOARDER considering making these early morning sessions a Superpark staple.

The Loon crew had their feature pristine and salted bright and early as Sam Taxwood, Hans and Nils Mindnich, Scotty Vine, Seth Hill, Nils Arvidsson, and Sebastién Toutant waited for the sun to poke through the trees and rise above the valley. Once it did, it was officially on, as the best session at Superpark 16 kicked off. Seth Hill killed it with every variation of five, seven, and nine known to man, while the brothers Mindnich applied their unique tweaks and impeccable style to the monster. Nils Arvidsson was arguab;y going the biggest, popping off his toes while spinning frontside and backside respectively. Sam Taxwood's back fives were incredible, and the same can be said for Sebastién's gigantic Cab double cork tens. However, it was Scotty Vine who unstrapped one foot to get the shot of the morning with a ridiculous one-foot frontside three. All of the riders got shots, and they're some of the best we've gotten since we arrived at Bachelor.

Head to SNOWBOARDER to read full recap and photo gallery.

Photo: Huggy Rider: Seth Hill

Recap: T. Bird
Captions: Pat Bridges

Though the weather was a bit more inclement than the previous two days, the action at Superpark 2012 was nothing short of phenomenal. This course consists of at least a dozen features, and that's not counting little side hits, bumps, rollers, and cut-ins that the riders have carved out since we started on Monday, and with so much terrain, there's almost too much going on at once to keep up with. Regardless, I'll try my best to recap what went down on day three, and forgive me if I miss any notable action. There's a lot going on up here.

In the morning there was a session on the bottom Seven Springs jump and the Bachelor kicker. A dozen or so dudes were lapping Bachelor's pad gap until some high uphill winds complicated the speed of the run-in and it was shut down. Still though, a handful of others sessioned it for a bit and they're most likely sure to session it again during the week. It's a big jump, and it is sure to produce some insane images.

On the Seven Springs jump, Sebastién Toutant, Scotty Vine, and some other standouts lapped the kicker for a few hours, accessing it via chairlift. Toutant pretty much shut it down when he stomped the hell out of a Cab 12 double cork toward the end of the session. The onlookers cheered as the remainders up top chucked their meat and moved on to the next zone.

Head to SNOWBOARDER for full recap of Day 3.

Recap: T. Bird
Captions: Pat Pridges

Thus far, Superpark 16 Presented by Gatorade is shaping up to be one of the best of all time. Day two started off with similar weather to day one. No wind. No clouds. Plenty of sunshine. Needless to say that without the 300-plus person registration process, the Superpark 2012 attendees got right to business.

From nine to noon, the Seven Springs features got sessioned hard. Their two jumps-one at the top and one at the bottom- went off, with twenty-plus riders hiking and hitting the seventy-footer. Once again, Hans and Nils Mindnich proved to be the standouts on the top kicker with a plethora of moves that not only kicked off the session, but kept it going until lunch. Meanwhile, the monster booter constructed by Joel Rerko and his diligent staff was being lapped by about forty riders, including, but not limited to Seth Hill, Sage Kotsenburg, Sam Hulbert, Brandon Cocard, and Brendan Gerard. While Brendan emerged as the star rider (to me, at least), that's not to take away from any of the other takers who pointed it at the behemoth. The photos from the jump may look fake, but the reality of the situation this morning can only conclude that snowboard park design and execution has hit an astronomical level.

Head to SNOWBOARDER for full recap.

Rider, Jaeger Bailey, Photo, Laura Austin

Kjersti Buaas straight up killed Snowboarder Magazine's 2012 Ms. Superpark at Squaw Valley. As the overall standout, Gatorade awarded Kjersti with their coveted "Driven From Within" award. Congratulations Kjersti!