Stage 1’s SuperUnkown is Crossing Freeski Generations

Featured Picture: Josh Bishop | Skier: Keegan Kilbride | Phrases: Jordan Grant-Krenz

THE STOUT, white bus was touring rapidly by the arid panorama of the Basin and Vary province. Identified for its drastic elevation swings and a surreal sense of desolation, this geographical marvel stretches from Southern Oregon, all the best way right down to Mexico. However we have been nowhere close to both of these locations. We have been in Southwestern Nevada, approaching the California border after being picked up at a peculiar on line casino often known as the Reno-Tahoe Airport, en path to the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The bus, adorned with a recent Stage 1 decal, was carrying one journalist, three movie producers and a worldwide mishmash of up-and-coming skiers that had been chosen as finalists for one of many best occasions in all of snowboarding; Stage 1’s SuperUnknown.

Reminiscing on it now, this voyage appears akin to that of Hunter S. Thompson heading out to the Mint 400. However with fewer medication and infinitely extra athletic prowess, myself not included. We’d shortly be arriving at Mammoth Mountain to begin the twenty-first version of Stage 1’s iconic occasion… that’s, if our chariot might maintain collectively for the 170-mile journey. “We purchased it from an ‘Airport Church’ in Texas, no matter that’s,” Stage 1 Advertising and marketing Supervisor Conner Frank stated with a smile. We continued buzzing alongside at 60 miles per hour and, fortunately, ascended from the desert to our remaining vacation spot.

Very like this former automobile-of-thealmighty, SuperUnknown has been by many iterations in its life, however the core construction stays the identical: younger skiers seeking to get forward within the trade submit a two-minute compilation of their finest ski video clips. Finalists are then chosen by a panel of judges and flown out to compete for the title of SuperUnknown Champion. There are not any factors and no matchups; only a week of pure freestyle driving, capped off by a peer vote that decides who’s worthy of the coveted title and accompanying prize cash.

When you think about what number of occasions have come and gone on the planet of snowboarding and motion sports activities, it’s nearly stunning that SuperUnknown has sustained this lengthy. Beloved contests and invitationals have pale into the pages of historical past however Stage 1 has poured blood, sweat and tears into bringing SuperUnknown to life yearly since 2004. Many people have contributed to its longevity, however there’s no mistaking the person behind all of it: Stage 1 founder Josh Berman.

“Again within the early 2000s… there weren’t many paths that an aspiring professional skier might take to get acknowledged,” he explains. “That’s what impressed SuperUnknown. I wished to create an alternate path for all of the skiers on the come-up that I knew had one thing particular to supply. There have been no video contests, expertise searches or different open-format alternatives for [amateurs], so I made my very own.” Berman had began Stage 1 Productions 5 years earlier than SuperUnknown was conceived, in an effort to doc the rising craft of freeskiing. Since then, he’s been one of the influential folks within the sport, bringing new names into the highlight and punctiliously capturing the tradition from behind the lens.

Whereas the core construction of SuperUnknown has remained intact over the previous 20 years, the occasion has concurrently been in a relentless state of evolution. A rotating solid of resorts have performed host to the annual gathering, which noticed the addition of a girls’s finalist class in 2018—an effort to help a brand new era of feminine park skiers in a male-dominant section of the game.

In 2023, Stage 1 additionally started inviting professionals from all over the world, bringing an invitational taste to the week, a la Kimbo Periods. Names like Parker White, Taylor Brooke Lundquist, Beau-James Wells, and previous winners Jonah Williams, Skye Clarke, Keegan Kilbride and Mat Dufresne, are just some of the various that have been in attendance this 12 months. The truth that these athletes use valuable sponsor budgets and even their private funds to make the journey occur is a testomony to the worth the freeski group locations on SuperUnknown.

At its outset, the competition was a means for Berman and crew to maintain a finger on the heartbeat and get a primary have a look at who was actually developing within the sport. At present, social media negates the necessity for a one-off expertise search competitors. Manufacturing corporations and trade manufacturers can discover new expertise by scanning YouTube, Instagram or any of the opposite plentiful content material platforms. This highlights the truth that SuperUnknown has advanced into one thing extra in freeski tradition. With sponsorship {dollars} being scarce in some years, ardour for the occasion has not and SuperUnknown carries on due to the tenacity of Berman and his crew.

Informal followers would possibly take the annual occasion as a right however Stage 1 Producer Conor Smith definitely doesn’t. “Freeskiing wants establishments,” he says. “Individuals and crews and media and manufacturing corporations and contests, all of them come and go. Freeskiing wants anchors. Issues that defy traits and moments, which have endurance unto themselves. These establishments give every era a basis to construct upon as they work to go away their very own mark on the game.” What we’re left with is a nexus in freeski tradition; a gathering the place youthful riders and skilled professionals, filmmakers, photographers and multi-talented creators come collectively and, deliberately or not, craft the zeitgeist of freeskiing that everyone knows and love.

There’s an odd paradox hidden in right here that goes far past snowboarding. The concept an present construction might help facilitate change is odd however not unusual. Freeskiing has gone in lots of instructions over time and SuperUnknown will certainly proceed to be one of many pillars that facilitates this evolution; a multi-generational assembly of passionate skiers and creators. The occasion itself will inevitably evolve, however that doesn’t concern Berman. “There’s no cause why it may well’t proceed indefinitely in some kind or one other,” he mused after the conclusion of SuperUnknown 21. “We simply should maintain getting artistic to make sure that it stays recent and related as instances proceed to alter – that’s the true problem.”

This story initially appeared in FREESKIER Journal Quantity 27 Challenge 2. Click on right here to subscribe to FREESKIER and have print copies (sure, actual print magazines!) delivered proper to your door.