For seven years, Louie Vito has hosted a charity Rail Jam at his home mountain, Mad River Mountain, in Belefountaine, Ohio. Despite unfavorable conditions, this year's event was the biggest to date as tons of shredders from across the country made the trek for the contest.

Words: Mad River Moutain

The Louie Vito Rail Jam is the official beginning to the freestyle contest season at Mad River Mountain. It's really a reunion for the entire Ohio Scene. You get a chance to catch up with the guys who moved away, talk about the good 'ol Mad river days in The Loft with the OG shreds turned dads, and watch some of the best rail riding on this side of the tracks.

As everyone knows, snow has been an issue everywhere this season. That didn't stop The Capital Park Crew from producing another quality contest venue. The set-up featured four mid sized down rails centered by a perfectly pitched 30' down rail that saw more back lips than the Hollywood 16.

The weather was not favorable for a snow competition at all. 50+ degrees wasn't looking too bad compared to three seasons ago LVRJ's balmy 72 degree contest temperature. Then the rain started. The dedicated riders spent the better part of the two hour practice session getting absolutely soaked. As final preparations were under way for the event, the clouds parted and the sun shinned through the heavy rain creating one of the most amazing rainbows ever. In true storybook fashion, the end of the rainbow landed directly on the slopes, marking the beginning of a four hour window of dry weather for the contest. Just as the contest ended, the skies once again unleashed forcing the crowd inside The Loft for the party.

This contest and its award ceremony is unlike most. Annually The Vito Family and Mad River Mountain pull out all the stops providing prizes and live entertainment not found at most Resorts this size.

Inside the Lodge, the judges prepared the results while the Skratchmatik Crew displayed their signature turntablism, highlighted with the lyrical genius of fellow snowboarder- MC Many Styles freestyle flow. The event's cache of prizes featured 15 snowboards, 50 helmets, top dollar watches, quality sound equipment, and hundreds of beanies, t-shirts and other various items of clothing. For anyone who has never attended a LVRJ, you just might want to next year. Not only is there entertainment for all ages, there are more prizes than competitors, which means you have a good chance at the product toss!

Prior to announcing the winners of the event, the entire town was treated to a firework display that rocked the Valley. The fifteen minute display provided a timely segway for the bib raffle and awards, setting the stage for the highlight of the night, a show by Olympic Snowboarder Trevor Andrew's band Trouble Andrew. As the winners of the 8th annual Louie Vito Rail Jam were crowned and the lucky winner of the all expenses paid trip to Windells Summer Snowboard camp was drawn, thousands of dollars in products showered the crowd. This is the Vito Families way of giving a little back to the community. The product toss worked as a smoke and mirrors trick. It distracted the crowd long enough for Trouble Andrew to rush the stage unnoticed. They delivered an end all set that had both Lou(dad) and Louie (son) Vito enjoying Louie's true talent, dancing.

Mad River Mountain and The Vito Family would like to thank The St Vincent DePaul of Bellefontaine, Windells, Ryan Andreas Photography, Neff, Spy, 686, Kicker, Red Bull, Capix, Nike 6.0, G Shock, C Mag, Lost Nation, Shooby, Lantis Fireworks, Rob Knight, Trevor Andrew, the weather, and Most of all everyone who attended the event.



â¨LVRJ 2011 Final Results

Snowboard 10 - 13 1st Eli Spires 2nd Brandon Bishoff 3rd Oliver Kroker
Snowboard 14 - 17 1st Dominic Palarchio 2nd Hayden Dillon 3rd Davis Church
Snowboard 18+ 1st Ethan Weatherbyâ¨2nd Cody Hines 3rd Oliver Dixon 4th Dylan Chrismer
Snowboard Top Female Jen Cusick
Ski 14 - 17 1st Will Givens 2nd Kyle Kaparos 3rd Axel Rudling
Ski 18+ 1st Matt Heffernan 2nd Brian Kiss 3rd Brian Fitzgerald

Grand Prize Winner- Windells Trip William Noble