12th annual Big Wave Challenge held at Mt. Bachelor, bringing people from all over to compete

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Snowboarders surfed their way down the slopes at Mt. Bachelor on Saturday for the Gerry Lopez Big Wave Challenge. Instead of catching the waves in Hawaii, hundreds signed up for the 12th annual event, having a blast doing on the mountain.

The sought-after event has brought people from all over. Kiana Putman came to the mountain all the way from Alaska.

 "The big waves are here," Putman said.

Big Wave surfer and Mt. Bachelor ambassador Gerry Lopez told us about the event.

"We make waves out of snow, and we're having a surf contest up here on the mountain," he said.

The event was inspired by Lopez's passion for surf and snow. Lopez became the State of Hawaii Junior Surfing Champion at the age of 14, and won the Master of Pipeline Award in 1972. 

He moved to Bend from Maui in the '90s and has since called Bachelor his home mountain. 

Putman said, "This is really cool, because it's freestyle. So you can kind of use your creative expression. It's a different judging format, and, I don't know -- it's something fun and different."

The Big Wave Challenge is a snowboard contest held on a custom-built course. It features a series of quarter pipes and banked corners, creating a series of wave-like features. 

Judges scored competitors on speed, power, overall performance and impression. 

Lopez said, " The unfortunate part of it is it's snowboard only. So we can't include the skiers, which doesn't really lend itself to the general feeling for our event, which is all about aloha, which is a feeling that, you know, comes from Hawaii but is very present here in Oregon."

The entry fee was $78, and all proceeds from registration will go toward Pat Malendoski. He's a local snowboarder diagnosed with a brain tumor.