The 2019 Hood Jam presented Wind Voyager Authentic Apparel kicked off with an opening party on Sunday night at Orchard Lanes (the local bowling alley). The Junior Jam and Hood Jam open qualifier results were announced and the top spots won themselves a wildcard spot into the main event. Jack Rider took out the Junior Jam but since he was already qualified after competing in the Triple-S, the spot then went to second place, Argentinian newcomer Lucas Muzio. Tom Seager took out the open qualifier and secured his spot in his first Hood Jam alongside John Perry (USA), Marian Cuevas (ARG) and Tim Walsh (HI) who at 14 years old is the youngest rider ever to compete in the Hood Jam. 
Day one of the Hood Jam 2019 presented by Wind Voyager Authentic Apparel started with some classic Hood River conditions, the wind picked up early promising to be a great day of competition. This year’s park consists of the session kicker and slingshot kicker and two rail hacks; The Duotone up rail to corrugated pipe and the Cabrinha funbox to duotone down rail. The judges gave a quick rundown of what they wanted to see, like every Kite Park League event they are looking for “fast, flowing, controlled, technical, and t-upped hits”. “Execution worthy of a video part” is what head judge Alexander James Lewis- Hughes summed it up as.
In men’s heat 1, first was Jack Rieder (Junior Jam winner) who really stood out, with solid hits on all the features. Christophe Tack took a close second in this heat thanks to his 8 points on the Cabrinha to Duotone with a backside 450 gap frontboard to fakie out. Ramiro Gallart landed a clean heelside backside 540 with a melan grab scoring the highest score on the right foot Slingshot kicker taking third in the first heat of the day.
In men’s heat 2, Sam Light started off really well with a back lip, backside 180 to backside boardslide pretzel 270 out scoring a 6.7. Ewan Jaspan scored a 7.5 with a massive melon front 270 grab to frontboard back 90 out and is currently sitting in first still with the session kicker to finish.
In women’s heat 1 Karolina Winkowska wrote kiteboarding history landing the first Heelside Backside 540 in competition scoring 7.5 points and is currently sitting in first place, here’s what she had to say;
‘I am definitely stoked after the 1st day of the Hood Jam! I am always extremely stressed before I hit the water for the first time in the comp. Now that we are already running, I am very grateful to still be part of the game and show some new tricks I’ve been working on for a while. The first day is not as important as the finals day but it always feels good to land solid tricks in the comp!’
Katie Potter is following closely behind with one more rail (the Duotone to Corrugated) still to go, the remainder of the heat will move to a dingle round.
Colleen Carroll scored the highest score in women’s heat 2 with a clean Tootsie Roll off the Session kicker and is currently sitting in first with Annelous Lammerts closely behind her.
Stay tuned to see which riders will take the last spots in the final!