April 9, 2008

Heavenly Mountain Resort's Spring Loaded 2008 ends with the Jackpot Rail Jam Finals hosted by MontBleu and the South Shore Soldiers. The Soldiers will be holding a Rail Assault Demo Saturday, April 12, 2008 at 5 p.m. in the MontBleu parking lot.

The JackPot Rail Jam Finals will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. and will mark the unveiling of the Mobile Rail Assault feature, a triple feature jib trailer built by On Course Events’ Rob Guistina.

The JackPot Finals is an invite-only event bringing the top finishers from the previous three JackPot Rail Jam events held on Heavenly’s World Cup run earlier this season. The event will feature a tent village including a Heavenly High Roller Team tent, VonZipper, Bern, Stepchild, Omatic and Skullcandy; there will also be a beer garden for those over 21 years old.

Cash will be awarded to the best-of-the-best in an awards ceremony taking place immediately following the event; also, one lucky competitor will be chosen to receive a one-year contract with Soldiers brand clothing and a photo incentive. Heavenly High Roller Team manager Aimi X. will also announce an addition to the High Roller Team.

“The JackPot Finals are a big deal for Tahoe’s local competitors,” said Heavenly Terrain Park Manager Michael Thomas. “The SouthShore Soldiers are doing it up right by bringing in this awesome feature, tons of sponsors and the beer garden.”

Highlighting the event is the unveiling of the Mobile Rail Assault feature, a 30-foot triple-feature jib trailer that has a 30-foot down rail in the center, seven foot gaps on both sides of the rail with a down-flat-down box on one side and a double-ledge box on the other. The Mobile Rail Assault feature is an aggressive pro set-up built mostly of steal by On Course Events’ Rob Guistina. The feature will be covered in snow harvested from Heavenly Mountain Resort, totaling approximately 100 yards of snow.

“I have envisioned this feature for a long time and am amped to see it come to life,” said designer and builder Rob Guistina. “I am excited to see the athletes session it and watch the creative tricks flow. This event is for families with children of all ages; they will be amazed."

The feature will be driven to MontBleu on Friday evening where the crew will begin placing the snow. Guistina anticipates the set-up of the feature and the snow will take about three hours. Maintenance during the event will be performed by the Heavenly Terrain Park Crew.

Four judges will be present at the event including two skiers, two snowboarders and a head judge. They will be judging on overall impression; looking for creativity of tricks, style and use of the feature, consistency, execution, difficulty and solid landings. The event will feature DJ Kronic on the turntables as well as hundreds of visiting college students from Northern California and Nevada wrapping up their spring break.

The event will continue at 8 p.m. with a snowskate demonstration led by Rahlston Snowskates, a huge raffle of sponsor’s gear and the JackPot awards ceremony. Immediately following the awards will be the Soldiers Rail Assault Demo held from 8:30 to 10 p.m. featuring pro athletes, the SouthShore Soldiers Team and the Heavenly Terrain Park Crew including Nick “Pooch” Poohachoff, Sal Rubio, Ben Schmidt, Rich Marlowe, Danny Rein, Jimi Tomer and many others.

“This is the kick-off of the Soldiers Rail Assault Tour,” said owner Jimmy Halopoff. “We are planning to travel around with this feature to promote our athletes and our Soldiers brand clothing line. We appreciate all the support from our sponsors and are really out to have a good time and stoke out the people who come out for the tour.”

SouthShore Soldiers is planning to tour with the Soldiers Rail Assault Demo to college campuses and shops supporting their 2008-09 Soldiers clothing line. Visit www.southshoresoldiers.com for more information.