Gnu’s first annual Greenhorn Games went off with a bang yesterday at Brighton. Heres a quick little recap from the event. For a complete write up check out the previous post.

Today Brighton hosted the Gnu Greenhorn Games. The Greenhorn games is an under 13 contest series sponsored by Gnu Snowboards that seeks to foster an atmosphere of friendship and camaraderie versus competition and the pressures that brings. This is the Greenhorn games fourth year and the first season that Gnu has taken the show on the road for tour stops across the U.S. Brighton was lucky enough to not only be one of the chosen few resorts on the Greenhorn Games tour but also to be the first stop outside of the normal venue of Summit at Snowqualmie. The ThinkThank crew, led by Jesse Burtner and including locals Ted Borland, Sean Black, and Brandon Hammid, were on hand to help “judge” the event and to serve as event emcees. The event was free to all participants and included lunch and t-shirts for all the kids and was a great time for all. After the awards and autograph signings I was able to catch up with Krush Kulesza of Snowboy Productions and Jesse Burtner of ThinkThank to get their take on how the games came to Brighton as well as the importance of the overall fun first, low pressure atmosphere of the event.

Brighton; So this is the first stop for the Gnu Greenhorn games tour, why Brighton?

Krush; Well it was the only choice for me. Even for someone like myself, this is the first time I’ve actually snowboarded in Utah, but everyone has known about the history of Brighton and how open they were and how much they’ve backed snowboarding . All my Bros that live in the area hang out here and the vibe was great and we got here and it was exactly what I was hoping for. It was rad this is THE spot.

Brighton; Tell us about the vibe of The Greenhorn Games, it’s a little different than most. There are so many contests and events now even for kids this young that are so high pressure and stress filled but The Greenhorn Games tries to get away from that. Can you tell us the mind-set behind that choice.

Krush; Yeah what we wanted to do with the Greenhorn Games is make something different. First off the idea is that at so many contests if you’re 6-12 or whatever you’re in there with the pro kids and there is just a lot of intimidation and anxiety stuff like that which could make people really uncomfortable with that experience. So what we wanted to do was take all of that out of it just make it about the kids, take “the rules” apart and just hang out. The whole idea is that the first thing we want is for kids to hang out and meet friends, and the second thing is if they can learn some new tricks that is killer and then we will hand out some awards. It’s more of an event not a contest I guess. So yeah it’s just real low key, we try to keep the soccer dad element out of it and just let the kids have fun hanging out together.

ThinkThank mastermind and Lib Tech Pro Snowboarder Jesse Burtner agrees and added.. ” Greenhorn Games is the raddest 13 and under contest ever. That’s the tag line and it’s pretty much true. It’s supersweet because you get a chance to create a sense of community at a young age for these guys. One of the best parts about it for me is to see them connecting with each other, like new friendships coming about. Or like how the kids will be hiking up and be like “you almost had that! You just have to land closer to your back foot. ” It’s just sick to be part of the future of all these scenes. Now that were doing it around the country we get to see it growing in all these different areas it’s great”

It was an amazing day to see these kids get out there and have a great time here at Brighton. Check out the pictures below from our Park Photographer Jesse Anderson and be sure to come back next season for another great time at the Gnu Greenhorn Games.

Write up by Daniel Cochrane with Slideshow Photos by Jesse Anderson

-
-
-
-
-

photos below by Meghan Kirk:

A few of Brighton’s local skiers tearing it up.

The other day I had the pleasure of taking a few laps with Chris Shields. Normally you can find this kid on the other side of the lens (http://cshields.tumblr.com/) or behind the 1′s and 2′s but that day he decided to set down the camera and share what he has to offer on the other side of the camera.

Today was the Milo demo day and the first of the seasons three Quad Wednesdays. We would like to thank all the vendors for coming out and letting us all test the product. Thanks to Electric, Niche, Arbor, Tech-Nine, Nitro, Flux, K2, 32, Vans, Capita, and of course Milosport. Also a special thanks to everyone that brought a toy for the USMC Toys for Tots drive, we hope you put your $20 lift ticket to good use! Remember next week’s Quad Wednesday will benefit The Road Home. Bring a coat, gloves, or pack of unopened socks and receive a $20 dollar day pass.

Registration at 2:30 in Brighton Center with the event beginning at 4:00.

Show your skills at this buttering competition that includes all.

Event is free to the first 125 signups.

The park crew here at Brighton has been hard at work getting things dialed and setting up new features daily.  This year we will be doing a series of episodes from Brighton for Snowboardermag.com.  Here are a few clips from the first few weeks at brighton while filming for our web series.  Get up here!

Mailbox Half-Minute from mia lambson on Vimeo.

Some leftover shots on Brighton’s mailbox setup.

Its no secret we need some snow, but while we wait Conner Brown, Jesse Gouveia and the 401 crew have been taking full advantage of the park days….

Brighton Must Be The Place from 401 on Vimeo.