Interview: Alastair Spriggs. Photos: Liam Glass @glass.photo

After a year of waiting impatiently, snowboarding’s greatest event is now fast approaching. Today Krush Kulesza and his team at Snowboy Productions descend on Timberline Ski and Snowboard Area, Oregon to start the build. The 6th annual Holy Bowly brings together 250 invited boarders of all disciplines and members of the media to shred the world’s largest transitional playground to pieces. It's a week-long event that runs from May 7th to the 12th, then opens to the public on May 13th. The Snowboy Productions team have pushed the limits of park design and creation to bring forth a transitional masterpiece year after year. Past courses have yielded toilet bowls, quarter pipes, hips, gaps, snake tracks, boobs, bumps, and jumps. This year, we’re expecting nothing less from Krush and his crew.

We recently had the chance to chat with Krush about the bowls, the riders, and what to expect at the 2018 Holy Bowly.

Skate-style bowls, unlimited transition. What inspires you to do what you do?

To build shit that you don't see anywhere else...but you wish you saw everywhere else...and see what some of the best styles ever are able to do on it.

I heard rumours about this year’s Holy Bowly going back to Japan. Why did you and your team decide on Timberline?

The resorts we were trying to work with in Japan fell through...Hood was always on our dream list and the folks at Timberline were stoked for the opportunity.

The Holy Bowly is known for hosting some of the most creative and innovative transitional features ever created on snow. What do planning and prep look like? How do you even start to imagine a course of this calibre?

It starts with sketches that my crew and I have compiled over the winter of individual features. We pick one feature to start the build with and then just build down the hill from there using the sketches or new ideas that just came to mind that compliment the natural terrain. There is no auto-cad rendering or anything like that. 

Any 2018 course details you can leak?

Nope. Not that they're secret...just that we won't know till we start. It will be similar in it's overall size to Mammoth and Sunshine Village though.

If Holy Bowly has three rules, what would they be?

We actually have four rules… one goes twice to drive home the importance though. 1. No walking up the tranny. 2. No walking up the tranny. 3. No tailblocks till Saturday. 4. If you don’t rake.. you don’t ride.

Who’s showing up this year? Any newcomers that you’re excited to watch? Most innovative stylers?

Heaviest rider list to date. Young rippers, Bowly vets, OGs, new faces...it's stacked. This will be Lando and Josh Dirksen's first Bowly so that should be good - Halldor is rumoured. Jake Kuzyk is one of my favourites every year. Roach, Alex Lopez, everybody brings something rad to the table. There are so many creative styles. Tucker Andrews… yeesh.

At what point does the course open to the public? Does the Holy Bowly give young riders an opportunity to board alongside their favourite pros?

After a six-day session, we turn it over to the public on Sunday, May 13. No other event of this size/scale gives the public a chance to get in the mix...always been stoked about that. I would have been that kid losing his mind on the public day.

Shoutouts to the main sponsors?

Lib Technologies, Monster Energy, Pisten Bully and Timberline Resort, with build support from Arena Snow Parks.