If you know your way around Mount Hood’s terrain parks, chances are you have seen Griffin Cummings, Ben Beavon and Tyler Carr in action.

Cummings is a top-flight freestyle skier who pioneered twin tip skiing on Mount Hood (more on that later) and worked for years at the Camp of Champions in Canada and Windells on Hood.

Beavon is an accomplished snowboard instructor and coach who has worked with young riders at Sandy and Riverdale High Schools and at Mt. Hood Summer Ski and Board Camp.

Carr is a Level-3-certified snowboard instructor who has been teaching and coaching snowboarding for seven years.

Cummings, Beavon and Carr will form the core of the coaching team for a new freestyle program launching this winter called Head to Hood, a collaboration between High Cascade Snowboarding Camp and Windells. High Cascade Founder and Head to Hood Director John Ingersoll says he is stoked to find such quality coaches available as he gears up to launch Head to Hood in January.

The program will run for 10 weeks from January through March at Timberline’s terrain parks, with one-day and two-day options and add-ons including transportation from the new evo store in Portland, participation in Mt. Hood Series freestyle events, overnight lodging and access to the big skateboard and trampoline parks at Windells.

Cummings, pictured below catching air at Timberline in a nice shot by Adrian Blair, grew up shredding Hood with snowboarders and helped revolutionize freestyle skiing with his early innovations bending up his ski tails and riding and landing switch. He has 14 years of experience coaching at the Camp of Champions at Whistler Blackcomb and nine at Windells year-round action camps on Mount Hood.

Beavon, pictured below in a nice “80s and 90s day” shot by Sean Lafferty, grew up in Bozeman, Montana, riding Bridger Bowl. A buddy who taught him to do his first flip convinced him to give instructing a try, and he wound up teaching at Bridger out of high school from 2002 to 2009. He came out to Mount Hood at the age of 25 for summer snowboarding after an injury forced him to miss part of a season and he wanted those lost days on snow back. He has coached at Mt. Hood Summer Ski & Board Camp, worked with the Timberline Freestyle program, and served as Head Coach at Riverdale and Sandy High Schools. He also does coaching clinics as vice president of the Oregon Interscholastic Snowboard Association.

Beavon says he loves seeing kids progress and learn new tricks, but his bigger cause is to help them find a healthy outlet in the outdoors to express themselves and have fun. “I feel like kids need a place to go to get away from everything,” he says. “I always had snowboarding as a healthy outlet for my energy, and if I can share the mountains, share that place and that fresh air and that experience, and give them a place where they can get away, that to me is for life.”

Beavon is a Level 200 Coach with the United States of America Snowboard Association and he is also a certified Level III instructor with the American Association of Snowboard Instructors.

The 26-year-old Carr grew up in Alaska and still spends his summers up there fishing. He spent his teen years riding Big Bear and Mammoth in California and got into instructing under unusual circumstances during college near Walla Walla at Bluewood Ski Area. He was riding the lift with some friends on a powder day when they decided they couldn’t wait to get into the snow, so they jumped. They ended up getting caught and busted and banned from the mountain. Ironically, when Carr was allowed back onto the mountain a resort employee recruited him, figuring if he was good enough to jump off the lift without getting hurt, he was probably good enough to teach snowboarding. Carr ended up serving as snowboard training director at Bluewood from 2009 to 2011 before moving to Hood to teach at Mt. Hood Meadows and Timberline.

“Moving to Hood was eye-opening for me,” he says. “I got so much better so quick, riding with coaches and friends here. Living in Govy, I have access to snowboarding almost 12 hours a day between Timberline and Skibowl. And having the awesome parks at Timberline is huge.”

As for his coaching philosophy, Carr says, “I try to imprint the basics and focus on the fundamentals. Just show me that you have board control, and you’re creative. That’s what makes an awesome snowboarder to me: wanting to learn your own tricks. My job is to help kids learn those tricks safer.”

Here’s a photo by Emily Tidwell (@lynk_nation) of Tyler taking a little time out in between runs at Timberline with Cerise Barber:

Last modified: December 4, 2014