When it comes to standout freestyle snowboarding features, quarter-hips are a rare phenomenon. Frankly, with a few exceptions, they only routinely appear in two places on earth: Riksgränsen, Sweden, and Donnor Summit, California, and they are both the fruits of the diehard faithful who love seeing these one-hit wonders being put through their paces.
While snowboarding’s historiologists are on the cusp of celebrating the 30th anniversary of Ingemar Backman’s monumental three-story send in the Norwegian side country of Riksgränsen in 1997, the 2026 Rally For Rocker provided the perfect precursor to the ensuing Scandinavian celebration.
The Rally For Rocker, Lake Tahoe’s annual “ender sender”, attracting locals, legends, and fresh-legged rookies alike, was conceived more than a decade ago to celebrate the legacy of Tahoe snow/skate scene advocate Steve “Rocker” Anderson and generate support for the Rocker Memorial Skatepark in nearby Truckee. ASI on Donner Summit has hosted the Rally from day 1, with the greater Tahoe scene showing up to help build what has traditionally been a timed off-piste snake run with rocky berms, off-cadence bumps, and an optional hip-style launch just past the finish. Given the limited snowpack from an inconsistent season, for 2026, Taylor Carlton, the man whose benevolent commitment to the Rally is what makes it what it is, decided to condense the setup into a single hip quarter. “Condense” is really a misnomer, because 4 days of steady shoveling and shaping by dozens of volunteers resulted in a two-story high takeoff to a thirty-yard wide landing! Set in the hillside just a few hundred yards below the spot where Terje Haakonsen, Peter Line, Jamie Lynn, Bryan Iguchi, Aaron Vincent, and Jim Rippey recalculated the geometries of freestyle snowboarding in the Spring of 1995, this year’s Rocker session on Saturday, April 28th, proved that for as much as snowboarding has changed over the years, some things are eternal. Like the stoke of seeing a shredder hell ride down a burly, rutted, banked runway that has been salted to shit, towards an unforgivingly abrupt, twenty-foot-tall-plus transition, with the goal of not just surviving the launch, but doing so with skill, style, and above all else, airtime!
Countless riders and onlookers made the half-hour trek up from the parking lot to partake in the event, cheer on the antics, yell “rider” as another challenger descends the runway, and keep from getting burned by the forecasted late Spring sun.
Given that this year’s Rocker session went off for a solid seven hours, any unabridged recap of the highlights is unrealistic, but a few notables are as follows:
- Irie Jefferson consistently digging into his deep bag of tricks and stomping aplenty
- Alo Furlong not only tempting the formidable runway fakie but also getting head high on switch methods
- Riley Elliot punching in all day to air out and ride away.
- Max Warbington going for quality over quantity with a handful of unforgettable airs
- Tim Humphries once again putting on a proper display with every air hitting the sweet spot of the landing, and blending tech and style on tricks like backside three nuclear nose grabs
- Matt Shaeffer going the distance on several exaggerated frontside alley-oop melons
- Danny Davis didn’t disappoint with some of the biggest airs and easily the most tweaked grabs
- John Foy subtly crushing bs rodeo melons
- Sky Gallardo surviving the runway with one foot strapped in and going at least five feet out on a fast plant-style frontside air
- Blake Hunter expanding his ATV rep with each rip of the hip
- Fancy Rutherford with the biggest, cleanest, most stomped backside airs of the women in the session
- After Noah Avalone, LJ Henriquez, and Connor Cavanaugh drove three hours from Mammoth, they put on a technical freestyle clinic with plenty of style
- Jeff Kramer showing that with experience comes composure and pop with proper backside indy’s
- Laney Schipani committing to and riding away from front 3’s consistently
- Tim Rechetniak wouldn’t take no for an answer and rode away from a few doubles for the undisputed best trick of the day
- Curtis Woodman frontside 7 cripplin’
- Shane Sandblom pretty much had a monopoly on backside 5’s, effortlessly landing countless orks.
- Finn Branzel showing no fear and that even the groms can giver’ with the big guys
- Nikkie Starick had more makes than most with plenty of amplitude and style
- Tim Rechetniak wouldn’t take no for an answer and rode away from a few doubles for the undisputed best trick of the day
- Sumner Orr was THE STANDOUT! From biggest airs to baddest mctwists, the Weston, Vt regular-footer pretty much shined above all others
Again, there were countless more standout moments, and the best way to understand is to make it your mission to attend the 12th Annual Rally For Rocker in 2027. Much appreciation due to Taylor Carlton and the rest of the volunteers who tirelessly shoveled, shaped, and put in the time behind the scenes to make this gathering go off! Additional thanks due to the brands providing the prizes and other support including Jones Snowboards, Vans, and Turtlebox.
