Breck showcases “Then and Now” snowboarding Saturday

Breckenridge Ski Resort is celebrating one of its final 50th Anniversary season weekends with a nod to the resort’s good old days when florescent pink onesies and neon zinc mingled on the slopes with stick-straight skis and stonewash denim.

The inaugural Rockstar Throwback Throwdown Pipe Competition will take place Saturday, April 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Peak 8. Pro-athletes will take on the massive Freeway Super Pipe, the longest in the world, and then execute old-school tricks in a specially constructed mini-pipe that is an exact replica of the first ever halfpipe built at Breck in 1985.

Part of Breck’s month-long Spring Fever party, the competition celebrates the progression of snowboarding. Breckenridge became Colorado’s first major resort to allow snowboarding in 1984. Snowboards were so unheard of they garnered the same sideways glances as Marty McFly’s hoverboard in Back to the Future.

In 1985, Breck hosted the first ever Swatch World Snowboarding Championships. On Saturday, some of the best riders in the world will throw down for a $10,000 prize purse, going big on the 22-foot walls of the Olympic-sized Super Pipe and then getting creative with tricks from the early years (think alley oops, huge slow spins, and hand plants) in the 60-foot-wide hand-dug pipe.

Keeping it old school, the event limits riders to spins no more than 540 degrees of rotation in the 150-foot-long mini-pipe. Each event will be scored individually and totaled together for a final score. Awards will be given for best successful trick and best unsuccessful wipeout.

Participating athletes include: Breckenridge Team Riders, Zack Black, Brett Esser, Jake Black, Steve Fisher, Mike Campbell, Silvia Mittermuller, Leslie Glenn, and Rebecca Torr.

Breck has over 1,800 acres of terrain still open and tons of Spring Fever Events to come. Don’t miss the 10,000-Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday beginning at 8:30 a.m. Treat-filled eggs will be scattered around the mountain and some will contain grand prizes. Easter Sunday also includes a sunrise service and delicious brunch options.

For the full list of Spring Fever events, visit breckspringfever.com.

— Lisa Pogue