Cal Poly surpassed competition from 52 different colleges and universities to score first place in the fourth-annual Red Bull Snow Warz just before spring break.
“We were kind of unexpected to win; we were the farthest school from any snow. Also, some of the other teams have semi-pro guys,” said skier and construction management sophomore Matt Cerrina.
Nearly 300 snowboarders and skiers assembled for the competition at South Park Mammoth Mountain in Mammoth, Calif. March 14.
Cal Poly’s team was created specifically for Snow Warz and was made up of Cerrina, mechanical engineering junior Garrett Gibb, biology senior Daniel Jeffcoach, bio-chemistry sophomore Mike Wade and literature junior Doug Croney.
The Snow Warz course was slope-style with three jumps, boxes, rails and a wall ride at the finish.
Competition consisted of five heats, two teams from each heat advanced to the finals.
“I think we did pretty good. I was really the only rider who landed all of my tricks the first prelims. Then going into finals we felt pretty good. There were a few other teams that were probably a little better than us but we landed our tricks a little more consistently than they did,” Cerrina said.
Gibb and Cerrina competed for Cal Poly in the finals. Not only did the team win, but Cerrina took home the best skier award and a new pair of skis, to his surpise.
“There were some guys that were really doing well and throwing down; some guy threw a double front flip. I landed all my runs which really helped,” Cerrina said.
Red Bull’s Cal Poly brand manager, wine and viticulture sophomore Carter Hallman said weather conditions were warm and sunny the whole weekend but windy during the competition. “The jumps were a little bit smaller than everyone was used to so everyone kept on overshooting them and the wind was pushing them even further.”
Gibb, who drives to South Lake Tahoe on weekends to coach freestyle for the Heavenly snowboard team, got off to a rough start. “I was really inconsistent. I fell in both my prelim runs and then had a decent finals run. I was hoping for some bigger jumps. I don’t do too great on small jumps.”
The competition was scored based on style, magnitude and overall difficulty of trick. Pro snowboarder Zach Leach, 17-year-old pro snowboarder Forest Bailey and pro skier Omar Otte were judges.
Hallman assembled the team, which turned out to be a little more challenging than schools located near snow covered mountains.
“One of my roommates (Cerrina) is really good and I talked to him and I reached out to the ski club and asked if they had any good members. They didn’t really have any great skiers that wanted to compete,” Hallman said.
Gibb joined the team after hearing about it from a friend of a friend and said it worked out perfectly. “I didn’t know any of them going into it and didn’t know what to expect,” Gibb said. “But we all just kind of got to know each other on the drive to Mammoth.”
As for the future, Gibb has taken the quarter off from Cal Poly to snowboard. “I love snowboarding and I want it to take me places. I’m going to New Zealand in July so I figured I’d snowboard more and relax and live for a little while.”