Words: Tegan White
Images: Noah Regan
In case you missed, Tess Coady took over Thredbo for the second annual Bush Doof on Saturday. Tess is a legend, so naturally Tess has a few pals, which meant this year’s line up was STACKED.
Alongside the mob of pros, Billy Cockrell, Lane Weaver and local, Paige Jones, qualified on Friday for the main event.
With a beast of a set up thanks to the man, Charles Beckinsale, the jam was kicked off by Freddy Perry with a super clean back 1 on the waterfall, only to up it a few laps later with a switch back 1 on.
It wasn’t too long before everyone was getting upside down. Finn Finestone got in early with a back rodeo 7, grabbing tail off the cannon. Sven then laid out a huge backie and Zoi followed with a wildcat. Gus Bald then went all or nothing with a double underflip. There was a bunch of rodeo variations but in all honestly, couldn’t keep track of them.
Sven also got inverted on the quarter and made Michalchuk proud. Freddy threw in a crippler and a mctwist, Tess dropped a hand plant and Truth Smith gave us an underflip off the boomgate.
The girls absolutely threw down. Georgia Austin put down front board Pretz first try, Lolo Derminio killed it with a fifty to front board on the picnic table feature. Tess dropped a banger with a front 2 on, 450 off the flat bar.
Tess and Georgia also put down a couple of damn beautiful nose presses on the down rail.
Mia Brookes linked it up with a switch up on the down rail, straight into a front 1, 3 off the flat tube. She also grabbed herself best trick with a front blunt 270 off the boomgate (I should mention here that the drop of that thing looked mental).
When time started ticking down, the lads turned it on. Troy Sturrock put together a big back 3 off the boomgate, straight to tapping the big green ball mid front 3. Tiarn Collins gave us a gap 270 on the DFD. Billy Cockrell is a psycho and gapped the picnic table for a hardway 450 on the down.
Andy James took it down to the very last drop with a back 1, switch back 1 off the DFD. Although we were impressed, pretty sure he was going for a 3 off. We’ve got to save something for next year, Andy.
This year there was a big red letterbox feature that Andy almost sent himself straight through the middle of. Josh Vagne was a highlight with a front blunt to fakie and Rene Rinnekangas sent a front board off the rail, literally off the end into the abyss.
Patrick Hoffman pulled out best trick for the men’s with a foot plant to one foot front board 270 on the down rail. He also took best fit with some iridescent pink pants – sorry duckhunter/swamp guy.
It was Livia Tanno and Liam Brearley however, that showed us consistency is key, showing up all day, all over the course, taking out the overall Win.
After the event, LDRU took over the Alpine Hotel where Tess was frothing on how the day went, “I’m stoked on it! I feel like it went off, the course was so fun and we had such a good turn out of people so can’t really ask for much more”.
Big ups to Thredbo and Monster for putting on the event. It’s super cool to see a female rider getting the support to not only have her own event but have a damn good one that brings in the big dogs. With two in a row, here’s hoping we get to see this event year on year.
