The Orage Masters lived up to its reputation of being one of the most fun comps of the season today in Blackcomb’s terrain park.

Eight teams set up shop in the base area: Surface, Dynastar, Line, Armada, 4FRNT, Volkl, Coreupt, K2. The teams went head-to-head in a jam-style format, sessioning the course as a team with creativity the priority.

Coreupt must have had a bit of a scheduling issue or something because TJ was the only one to show up for the start of their turn. Not wanting to let anyone down, Schmuck and Doug from Newschoolers jumped in to fill the space, skiing with TJ against K2. Colby showed up soon after and joined the fray. But the valiant wasn’t enough to beat out K2.

Advancing to the finals were Dynastar, Armada, Volkl and K2. Each team had its own theme: Dynastar had big afros and ’70s basketball-style clothing; Armada lit lots of fireworks; Volkl dressed up as Boy Scouts, even attempting to start a fire with their skis and ski poles, lost-in-the-woods-style; and K2 sprayed beer all over the place, wore gaper clothes and beat up their team manager as often as possible. Good times.

The costumes, plus the free-flowing beer, made for a massive party atmosphere in the base area. In my eyes, that’s why it’s the anti-comp. Although the skiing is top-level, it’s more about having a good time with your friends than doing the tech-est tricks. For instance, the moment I showed up at the venue, there was a beer shotgunning contest happening for a big beer tab. I don’t remember who won. I do remember a lot of people cheering like the contestants just landed a double cork 12.

The party atmosphere continued throughout the night as Orage, Freeskier and the festival put on a VIP party at the Savage Beagle. “You know, the story is only half written,” said Mike Nick before the party when I mentioned that I needed to post this story up. He was right: the Beagle party was an extension of the vibe from the day’s event. Pretty typical shenanigans. Things got wild, people poured beer on each other and all that fun stuff. You know, you should’ve been there. Photos from that portion are coming. Just got finish censoring them.

Round 1

Surface versus Dynastar – Dynastar wins
Line versus Armada – Armada wins
4FRNT versus Volkl – Volkl wins
CoreUPT versus K2 – K2 wins

Round 2

Dynastar versus Armada – Armada wins
Volkl versus K2 – Volkl wins

Final Results

1. Volkl (Ahmet Dadali, Tim Russell, Matt Phillipi, Anna Borgman)
2. Armada
3. K2
4. Dynastar

So with the sixth Orage Masters in the bag, we shift our attention to the last ski event of the week: the half pipe. Stay tuned for the scoop.