Featured photography by Danny Kern

Banked Slaloms rule. There are simply no two ways about it. But there is something undeniably special about the Drink Water Rat Race.

In 2011, Austin Smith and Bryan Fox first launched the Rat Race when they saw an opportunity to raise money for water.org through their brand and foundation, Drink Water.

Born on the sunny glacial fields of Mt. Hood, The Rat Race quickly blossomed into more than just any other banked slalom gathering. The crucial combination of soft summer snow, an innovative course, and a constant flow of riders to the glacier, all made the Rat Race home to some of the quickest turns, heftiest banks, and wildest slalom action available.

Now the 6th annual Rat Race is just around the corner, and the crew at Drink Water wants you to join them. While preliminary signups have come to a close, a limited number of race spots are still available through a donation based raffle with water.org.

Any person who donates through Drink Water by June 30th will be entered into a drawing for not only a highly coveted race spot, but a chance at winning a portion of the $10,000 worth of product provided by the sponsors of the Rat Race. The best part about it? Anyone can win the gear.

Drawings for the race spots will take place on July 1st, followed by product prize drawings through Drink Water’s Instagram starting on July 6th and running daily until the race on July 12th, so make sure to get your donations in soon. Drink Water has raised over $100,000 for water.org to date, and is enthusiastically looking to continue their fight to provide clean drinking water for all.

Continue below for the official event flyer and a message from Austin and Bryan.

wedrinkwater.com

See also: Provisions 032: Austin Smith’s essentials for firetruck living

More from Drink Water

“Drink Water is an idea.

It came about as we watched the snowboard industry, and other similar industries, be bought up by energy drink brands peddling their products to kids. Oddly enough, nobody was really opposing them. We figured, as professional snowboarders with an opinion on the matter, we should try and use whatever influence we have, to protest. And for us the best protest is to promote something we do actually support.

We started writing Drink Water on our snowboards and screen-printing sweatshirts in a garage in 2011. As we gave the sweatshirts away to our friends, we learned a lot of other people shared the same thought and Drink Water grew into an initiative, a brand, a movement, and something way bigger than us.

It’s not about selling water. We’re actually committed to never sell water. We prefer it from the tap. And if you’re going outside, which we tend to do, fill up a bottle and take it with you.

As we continue to say “drink water,” we recognize that nearly a billion people on Earth lack access to clean drinking water. That’s why, for every Drink Water product purchased, 10% of profits are donated to water.org, a non-profit working on this solvable global crisis.

Our goal is to spread this message; the simple idea that has become a movement of people questioning what’s being sold to them. Join us in saying something different, something simple, something as obvious as Drink Water.”

— Austin & Bryan