On Saturday night, snowboarders from around the country gathered at The Vineyard in St Kilda for the inaugural Hype Winter party. The event, destined to become a fixture in the snow community calendar, was a celebration of Australian snowboarding and a chance to share in the growing excitement for the oncoming season. As the night went on the crew regaled tales of winters past and their plans for the snow in 2012, while preparing a serious headache for the following day.

The snowboarding fraternity is a seasonal bunch of characters. Each year, their lives cross paths for the winter before heading their separate ways. As a result, the start of the winter is a very exciting time; everyone begins to link back up for the approaching snow season. It was this excitement that the Hype Winter party tapped into. It linked everyone up at once, and threw a whole bunch of Little Creatures beers in the mix too.

The premise for the party was simple, according to organizer Jimi Cordell from On Point Collective, “Mate, everyone gets to come together and catch up to get excited for winter which is just around the corner. Every year, the little crews do this stuff about this time anyway, so why not bring everyone together in the one place?” The number of backslaps and hoots throughout the evening seemed to support his logic.

The event also had a more significant role, according to the Nitro’s Brand Manager Mark Bristow. “For us, it is an opportunity to give back to the snowboarding community. Ultimately, snowboarders like to have fun and to have a good time, so we want to help them with that whenever we can.” There was no doubt that the assembled crowd were having a blast.

The Hype Winter party was a great opportunity to share the fun that is snowboarding and to prepare for the oncoming winter. In an industry that parties so frequently, it is odd that there isn’t already a party in the calendar to celebrate the start of winter. On Saturday night, that changed. So, keep an eye out for Hype Winter next year. If it was anything like last Saturday, you won’t want to miss it.