Westbound Boarder

Ryan Paul takes home the $10,000 prize purse. Photo by Peter Parra.

This past Saturday, pro riders from all around the nation headed to Mammoth Mountain for the West Coast Invitational, which included two big events this year: The inaugural Eddie Wall Ride Invitational and the ninth annual Mammoth Rail Jam.  Competing riders included pros such as US Olympic team rider Greg Bretz, Eddie Wall, Luke Mitrani, Peter Line, Dan Brisse, and Tyler Flanagan (and I even saw some old pros like JP on the hill).

During the Eddie Wall Ride Invitational, riders competed on a course of, well, you guessed it - wall rides.  The course was pretty insaine, and rider Tim Humphrys took home the $5,000 prize after a three-hour session on the course.  Apple iPads were also awarded for best trick, one going to Peter Line for a backside 540 on the wall and one going to Scott Blum for a backside invert on top of the wall.

But the real fun began once the sun went down.  The folks at Mammoth set up a rail park in the village which consisted of three jib hits - a C rail, a kinked rail, and a down skate rail - and riders vied for the WCI title during an hour-long rail jam session.  Most competing riders were under the age of 21, so it was cool to see the next generation of pros taking the industry up a notch.

Throughout the course of the West Coast Invitational event, riders attempted to throw down their best tricks in hopes to take home the popular vote and, ultimately, a $10,000 prize purse.  Though the event started out a little slow, it quickly turned into a “if you can clear the kinked rail, you’re set.”

But it was Ryan Paul who quickly emerged as the rising star, throwing a front flip 50-50 onto the down rail with a 180 off, cinching his victory (see the video below… unreal!) The crowd went wild, and though the competition continued, victory was already in the bag for Ryan.

Ryan Paul’s $10,000 trick Mammoth WCI from Adam Cogley on Vimeo.

Though Ryan threw down some awesome tricks throughout the evening, my personal favorite rider was Mammoth local Tyler Flanagan.  Though he didn’t really bring a ton of progressive tricks to his set, he was definitely the most consistent rider.  Had Ryan not pulled out his awe-inspiring front flip, I think Tyler would have given him a good run for his money.  It was also really cool to see US Olympic team member Greg Bretz compete in the rail jam, and though his rail-etiquette wasn’t anything to scream about, he was still pretty legit on the course.  And this event really showed his versatility.  Though we all know he kills it in the pipe, as proved during the 2010 winter Olympics (which the announcers would never let him forget) it was neat to see him also dominate the rails.

Check out some photos from the event from our WbB photographer friend, Peter Parra: