There is no event anywhere like the Orage Masters, which is part of the reason it's always been billed as the "anti-comp."
The prizes are amazing, the terrain park features are real enough and the skiers are among the best in the world at what they do, yet it never feels all that serious. The word "stoked" gets thrown around a lot on the competition circuit, but this is one of those rare contests where the word has meaning.
And in the pouring rain no less.
The 2010 edition of the Orage Masters took place on Saturday, with eight factory teams each sending four athletes - three guys and a girl - to face off on a unique slopestyle course. This year the event moved down to the village, which was good for a couple of reasons; for one thing, it gave the general public a chance to take it all in and enjoy the spectacle of top skiers hucking themselves while wearing costumes. For another, it allowed the event to take place without any delays for fog, as would probably have happened further up the mountain.
Event director Mike Nick said it was too bad that the Orage Masters have had rain the past two out of three years, but in the end he said it didn't matter all that much.
"It was a horrible day, but we ended up with a big crowd at the bottom - and you can imagine if it was a sunny day it would have been 10 times that," he said.
"The teams have really taken this event on and made it their own - the costumes, the themes, the choreography, the skits. It's like some crazy play out there on a stage. And every year I say it can't get better and it just seems to get better."
There are no plans to change the format, where team members compete at the same time and then judge each other's runs out of 10.
"If it's not broken then don't fix it, and it's definitely not broken. Just the fact that we had the shittiest weather ever the last two year - it was so bad that if this event could have been broken it would have been, but it can't be broken. It can't."
The competition started out with eight teams - Volkl, Line, K2, Salomon, Surface, Armada, 4frnt and Amplid. Following the first elimination the teams that were knocked out of the contest each sent an athlete to compete in a fun Chinese downhill race down the course wearing short skis with the dins turned all the way down and snowman masks that made it impossible to see. Only one skier made it to the bottom, Banks Gilberti, winning $1,000 cash.
Only four teams were left in the running - Line, K2, Armada and 4frnt - for the second round, with only K2 and 4frnt moving into the final showdown. Each team had three runs to impress the judges, which were looking for a performance as much as good skiing.
K2 stepped up in every run, with Matt Margetts throwing bigger and crazier tricks on every run, Whistler's Sean Pettit going big on overside, reverse-cambre skis, and Sean Jordan and Anna Segal showing off on the rails.
4frnt answered back, but were marked down with crashes on every run that had more to do with going big than any lack of skill. In fact, 4frnt proved early on that they could get inverted off almost anything in the slopestyle setup, as long as it had some kind of a lip.
K2 became the only team other than Volkl to repeat as Orage Masters, having won in 2008 with the same team.
"I don't think any of us were serious at any point in time, I was just doing the tricks I know how to do and focusing on the fun parts," said Pettit, who hung out all day in a ripped shirt and makeup to go with his team's theme of '80s hard rock.
"Winning for the second time with pretty much the same team just shows we like to have the most fun, obviously. I don't know how to explain it but everyone at K2 has been killing it for us the whole time."
Pettit was the youngest competitor at just 17 years old, although he's been a big deal on the freeski circuit for more than seven years. His specialties are halfpipe competitions and events that combine big mountain skiing with park skills, recently winning the "Most Versatile and Best All-Around Skier" award at the Red Bull Cold Rush, and placing second at Red Bull Linecatcher.
Between contests and filming Pettit spends a lot of time on the road, but is looking forward to spending some time in Whistler this summer.
"I try to spend as much time as I can here (when I'm filming up north), but it's the end of the season now and filming is wrapping up. I'll hopefully be here for the summer," he said. "I do a bit of glacier skiing with Camp of Champions, and I might spend time on my skateboard too if I get a chance."
As for what it's like to be on the freeski circuit, Pettit can only shake his head.
"It's definitely a shocker for sure, but I try not to let it get to me," he said. "It's just me skiing as I would if I wasn't competing or wasn't filming. Anyone could do that if they really tried."
All the hard work and hard knocks have paid off, says Pettit.
"Everything has been paying off big time for me, it's working out just fine."
In addition to winning the Orage Masters white dinner jackets, the winners were also presented with MacBook Pro laptops and Countour HD Wearable Cameras.
4frnt didn't walk away empty handed, winning 15 days of cat skiing at Retallack resort outside of Nelson.
The Best Choreography award went to Amplid, which included Contour HD Wearable Cameras, Blackberry phones and $5,000 in cash.
The Best Team Theme/Spirit Award - Playstation 3s and Olympus cameras - went to Salomon, which dressed as woodland creatures, chased by a lumberjack.
You really had to be there.
