With only 12” of snow on the ground that first year, the Dirksen Derby 1 course consisted of a single 30-second run down the dirt halfpipe with metal fencing poking out of the turns and haybales to ollie over before hitting a jump at the finish line. The manual stopwatch timing system started between two large trees at the top and finished when the rider landed the final jump on the course.

The event has come a long way since then. Our 100% hand-crafted Parallel Banked Slalom courses challenge the racers with alow speed but technical race that rewards consistency and penalizes even the smallest mistakes. Our world-class timing system (run by CJ Timing) combines riders runs down the Red Course (more difficult) and the Green Course (more friendly) for a final combined time at the end of the weekend. Fastest time wins.

The Snowboard, Sit-Ski & Splitboard event has Men, Women, and Open divisions for Mini-Shreds as young as 5 years old, to Yogis over 70 years old. The goal of the Derby is to give everyone the chance to race down the same course- from the top pros to the youngest groms. 

As of 2020, the Dirksen Derby has hosted 14 Snowboard, Sit-Ski, and Splitboard races, dropped in over 4200 racers, and donated $275,000 to charities and individuals including:
Protect Our Winters
Oregon Adaptive Sports
Democracy Engine
NAACP 
Central Oregon Avalanche Association
Snowdays Foundation
The Wilderness Society
S.T.A.Y.
The National Forest Foundation 
Tyler Eklund 
The Walker family and
The Ortega family.

The Dirksen Derby event is also a proud member of 1% for the Planet.