[br]We had the opportunity to make it down to Mt. Bachelor, Oregon for the Dirksen Derby this year. The Dirksen Derby is one of the first snowboard events of the season, so lots of industry folks make it to the event. It was pretty cool to race against some of the best riders in the world like Terje Haakonsen and Temple Cummins. Needless to say, I did not win…

[br]Josh Dirksen has been putting this event on for six years. The Derby is a great event with a great cause, all proceeds go to cover medical expenses for his friend Tyler Eklund and to help promote sit-skis for disabled skiers. We helped sponsor the event and provided bindings to the winner of the Splitboard event.

Before the event Josh leaked some pictures of his new split set up, a custom Salomon Derby 147 split with Karakoram SL splitboard bindings.

[br]Over all it was a great event, especially seeing Ralph Backstrom and Forrest Burki rocking their Karakoram splitboard bindings to first and second place in the splitboard division. The splitboard race started with a change over from ride to tour mode and then a sprint up the red course of the bank slalom, then a change over at the top and finally a ride down the green course.

[br]Racing up the Red Course. Ralph was in 3rd on the way up and Forrest was in 4th. Russell, Karakoram’s Communication andRelationship Manager, in 7th place on the way up. Russell was first out of the gates with the fastest changeover, but the previous two days of non-stop powder riding slowed him down on the skin up.

[br]Change over, Ralph takes the lead making up three places.

[br]Forrest Burki racing light with a Pancho and no ski poles.

[br]Off to the races, Ralph and Forrest are the first out of the change over.

[br]Ralph Backstrom comes in first.

[br]While standing down at the finish line we saw Terje throwing down some one-footers, and some others hucking little wildcats and fronside corks off a little booter. It looked like way too much fun to pass up so we joined in.

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[br] Pete with a nice little method.
[br] No trip to Bachelor is complete with out a high speed low flying method off Tyler and my favorite little booter on Northwest Express.