The Park Project

As mentioned in my last post, I'm on a trip this weekend to Virginia. My parents decided to save some money and we drove out here. That means something like 15 hours in the car. This has given me plenty of time to catch up on some snowboarding reading. Last week’s TWSnow had an article called "DIY or Die." It looks into a new project off of I-80 East in California. The name: Kingvale. The mission: terrain park.


The story goes like this. Some guys get fed up working for resorts. They can't do what they really want there. These guys want to push riding to the next level, and they can't progress at these resorts. So 5 guys team up and decide to build a hill entirely for park riding. Don't worry though, they aren't just some loonies trying to break free. As Snowboard Magazine puts it, between them, they have more then 20 years experience building parks all over the world. Not to mention, one of them runs Railbuilder.com, the primary builder for park features throughout the world.

So how as it worked so far? Last season could be labeled a soft opening. Although it wasn’t open to the public yet, they saw something like 40 pros roll through. Kingvale is planned to open this winter to the public. With a handle-tow taking boarders to 25-30 features, this park has plenty of potential. The dream is to have a lift with five parks from the top to the bottom.

But seriously, these guys have to be having a blast. They can go out to the mountain and just build whatever they feel like. Well…maybe more like whatever they could afford. For now, they are “paying the bills” by running a small tubing hill during the weekends. Other than money, there aren’t really any restrictions to what can be done. They have everything from natural features, rocks and plenty of trees, to man made stuff, rails, scrapped cares, propane tanks, and any other junk they feel is rideable.

These guys are just looking to have some fun. And isn’t that really the point of snowboarding? I don’t know anyone who started snowboarding because they wanted to be an icon or get sponsored. You snowboard to have fun. And that is the mission of Kingvale. To have fun.