VASHON, WA (February 23, 2006) – Last night’s Snowboard Art IV Opening Reception proved to be the best in Ride’s four-year history of holding this graphic competition. Its first time in Seattle, Washington (after previously taking place in Steamboat Springs, Colorado) brought quite the crowd to The War Room on Capital Hill Wednesday night, including special guest Derek Muscat of Ontario Canada – Ride’s very first Snowboard Art “Best of Show” Winner who has gone on to work with Ride doing board graphics every year since. With the Top 50 entries hanging (of approximately 250 total), people sauntered around the improvised art gallery to the tunes of DJ Kid Hops, trying to pick their favorite and guess whom the winners were.

Just after 10:00pm and the raffling off of a couple Ride snowboards and a bunch of Cappel gear, the winners were announced by Styk, Ride’s Creative Director and main judge of the event, and Tara Miller, Ride’s Marketing Manager. So with that being said, the winners of Ride’s Snowboard Art IV Graphics Competition are … (drum roll please!)

Best of Show: Chad DeWilde of Troutdale, Oregon for Headhunting (left).

1st Runner Up: Peter Laszlo Szalay of Budapest, Hungary for SAKETWO

2nd Runner Up: Mark Curto of Brooklyn, New York for Fanta-z

3rd Runner Up: Martin Wittfooth of Toronto, Ontario Canada for Invasion

And Honorable Mention presented by artLink Steamboat goes to…

Shannon Toth of Grimsby, Ontario Canada for Octopus
Anthony Sutliff of Somerville, Massachusetts for SODAJERK
Chiara Capellini of Milano, Italy for Wood Ride Peckers

Prizes for the top 4 winners are as follows:

• Chad DeWilde gets $1000 and his very own limited edition Ride Snowboard featuring the winning “Headhunting” artwork

• Peter Laszlo Szalay gets $500 and a pair of Ride Bindings

• Mark Curto gets $300 and a pair of Ride Boots

• Martin Wittfooth get $200 and a Ride Jacket and Pants

• And each Honorable Mention Winner receives $100

Ride would like to thank each and every entrant of this year’s competition. Every year becomes more and more international, this year topping any other with entries from countries such as Russia, Hungary, Latvia, Italy, Finland and more, as well as all over the U.S. and Canada. It has been most exciting to say the least!

Ride's Tara Miller, Precilla and Styk.

Best of Show: Chad DeWilde of Troutdale, Oregon for Headhunting

Runner Ups.

Check the next issue of the Ride Chronicles coming out at the end of this month for full coverage of Ride’s SBA4 Opening Reception including lots of photos! If you’re unfamiliar with the Ride Chronicles, you can sign up at www.ridesnowboards.com to see for yourself what it’s all about. Thanks again to everyone who participated, and we hope to see you next year for Ride’s Snowboard Art V!