One Grand Finale, Two Big MVPs

The epic 2018 Vans Hi-Standard Series came to a stunning conclusion at Sierra-At-Tahoe on Saturday, March 17^th with both men and women walking away with MVP titles.

The final event brought together regional MVPs from nine stops around the world including Canada, South Korea, Finland and the US together with Tahoe locals to compete for the 2018 Vans Hi-Standard Series MVP title. 

All the action went down with tons of fresh snow in a custom skate-inspired setup that featured a big air jump, a huge wallride, a pine tree pole jam, and a rhythm section with several hips and transfer options leading into a rail garden.

Colorado’s Dylan Okurowski’s took the coveted Hi-Standard Series MVP victory for the men, and South Lake Tahoe local Alli Fox won the first-ever Vans Hi-Standard Series women’s MVP award. 

A humble Okurowski could barely contain how stoked he was on his MVP win.

“I came out here to have fun and the course was super rad, everyone crushed it,” he said. “Riding powder with the Vans snow team was so sick—icing on the cake for sure!”

But they weren't the only winners. The open jam session gave out more than $2,500 in five-dollar bills to competitors who got to ride under the watchful eyes of a star-studded Vans team of special guest judges: Pat Moore and Zac Marben, Parker Szumowski, Marcus Rand, Brian Skorupski, Dylan Gamache, not to mention, Chris Roach, Mike Ravelson and Lucas Baume aka “Yung Doli”. 

“Traveling with the Vans Hi-Standard Series has been an amazing opportunity for the Vans snow team to ride with local riders in places like South Korea, China and the grand finale here at Sierra-at-Tahoe,” said Pat Moore. “To be a part of snowboarding all over the world and riding with the local kids has been a blast.”

Soon after the main jam was over, everyone's attention turned to rail garden for the Van Doren Best Trick. Here, Saku Tiilikainen’s frontside 270 boardslide to 270 out on the down-flat-down rail earned him the $300 prize in the 16 and overs. Whitney Teague took home the first ever women’s division Van Doren Best Trick with a 50-50 boardslide to fakie on the same rail. Organizers decided to blend the 15 and unders with the 30 and overs into one men's division, which was won by Shaun Murphy. Jes Albary won the Women’s Rail Jam Best Trick for the 15 and unders. The Most Improved Rider was awarded to Devon Smead.

To cap off one of the best Hi-Standard Series grand finales to date, the day's competitors got to join the Vans team for a local premiere of Vans’ first-ever shred film, LANDLINE.

Over the course of its 2018 world tour, the Vans Hi-Standard series touched down in South Korea, China, France, Finland, Canada and the United States—and at every stop, registration, lift tickets and lunch was free to participants provided by Vans. 

For more info on the Vans Hi-Standard Series— where style is everything and no spins over a 720 count—go to vans.com/histandardseries. The summer stop of the Vans Hi-Standard Series is at Mount Hood's High Cascade Summer Camp on June 27th, 2018.