Words/Photos: Rome SDS

Session 4 was different from all the others; there was a different type of excitement in the air. Yeah sure the Abominal Snow Jam was happening that week, but no one was ready for the mayhem that went down. Campers in session 4 were the first to experience the first annual Gorilla Games here at Windells. The Gorilla Games is a Windells event sponsored by Rome. There were no giant stacks of cash, or cars for the winners of the Gorilla Games. This wasn’t a pro contest, but a contest for the campers and anyone who wanted to bring the fun back in snowboarding. Two Rome decks were given away along with tons of other Rome schwag, remote control cars and fake Rolex watches.

The first day of the Gorilla Games we started off with a spin to win contest. It was held on the 10 foot jump and to win this comp you had to….well, spin to win. You didn’t have to land it, and it was much more fun to just have people spinning. We had a DJ and MC up on hill providing music and announcing our contest, at quite a considerable volume. Some people didn’t like that too much, and some mountain staff and the company that hosted the snow jam let us know it. Once the giant 40 foot gorilla was inflated everyone proceeded to hit the wall ride were a basketball hoop had been mounted on top for the best dunk contest. Kids were stoked to snowboard and dunk at the same time even the littlest guys were going balls out. Now jerseys on the hill made more sense.

That night at camp was Rome night mixed with the Gorilla Games. A banana was tied to a string over the foam pit and campers had to jump off the tramp to grab it before they exploded into the foam pit, where all the other kids took aim with the foam cubes and let loose.

The next day there was a high ollie contest and a one hitter comp, best one hit in the pipe. Kids were pumped to ollie a high stick and boost out of the half pipe. In the ollie contest we had so many kids that could ollie one of the highest level on the stick that we made the top three contenders do it switch. The One hit comp went off with a variety of tail blocks from Sean Anderson and a couple different spins from Lucy Anne, Amanda and the winner of the comp a 13 year old girl named Shayne Aaronson.

The last day off the Gorilla Games was the trick twister comp. We made a twister board with a couple different spins grabs and either regular or switch. We spun the red dial and it landed on the trick kids had to do on the jump. The winning trick was a front seven melon. That night at disorientation, the campers spotted a gorilla in the woods and were given a sling shot with a couple boxes of bananas to shoot at the gorilla. Bananas flew and the gorilla went down a good couple times.

This session was definitely unique and the Gorilla Games did exactly what they were intended to do and that is to bring the fun back. Kids had a chance to remember what snowboarding really means and why they first started shredding. The whole scene definitely stoked a lot of people out.

View more photos at www.romesnowboards.com