Some of the world’s highest-flying snowboarders are in Central Oregon this week for what is billed as the largest professional snowboarding event in the world.

Superpark 17 began Monday and continues through Friday at Mt. Bachelor ski area. The event includes some 200 invited athletes, 50 videographers and 20 photographers, as well some of the most dynamic, creative terrain features in the country.

The idea behind Superpark is to film and photograph some of the world’s best snowboarders performing state-of-the-art tricks off these features. It is not a contest. The annual event, being staged at Bachelor for the third consecutive year, is organized by Snowboarder magazine editor Pat Bridges.

“My ultimate goal is for the Superpark to be a snowboarding summit of sorts,” Bridges was quoted saying in an espn.com interview. “It is the one opportunity a year riders from around the world get to congregate without having to wear a bib or adhere to someone else’s schedule. You get the chance to ride what you want, when you want, with whomever you want. … There really isn’t anything else like it.”

To accommodate Superpark, most of the runs in the Rainbow and Sunrise chairlift areas at Bachelor have been closed and will remain so for the season. Cow’s Face and all of the Summit lift terrain down to the East Catchline — the best areas to ski or ride spring corn snow — will remain open, according to mtbachelor.com.

While Superpark is closed to spectators, the event will be webcast live on snowboardermag.com today through Thursday from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. each day.

Several Bend snowboarders are taking part in Superpark this week, including Austin Smith, Skylar Thornton, Jeff Blaylock, Alex Lopez, Forrest DeVore, Jake Price and Curtis Ciszek, among others.

Ryan Linnert, who grew up in Bend and has been living in the Lake Tahoe area the last few years, is participating in his first Superpark this week. Superpark is a place where under-the-radar pros such as Linnert, 25, can make a name for themselves in the industry.

“I don’t know exactly what’s about to go down, but I’ve watched all the videos, I’ve heard from friends,” Linnert says of Superpark. “It’s just some of the best park features. It’s not really a contest, so you can just ride and feel it out. You can see tricks that you probably haven’t seen in a while. And new tricks go down.”

Linnert, who graduated from Bend High in 2006, rides for the Australian company Fyve Snowboards. He says he is currently focused on slopestyle contests — in which competitors ride down a series of jumps and rails for a judged scored based on their tricks. But Superpark offers the chance to attempt jumps without being judged.

Terrain park builders from Seven Springs, Pa.; Copper Mountain, Colo.; Boreal Mountain Resort, Calif.; and Loon Mountain, N.H., are all at Mt. Bachelor, with the goal of erecting the most progressive, dynamic park of the year.

Linnert knows that many of the features will be massive and challenging.

“Some of them can look scary, it depends on how it’s built,” Linnert says. “Sometimes a jump will look huge, and then somebody will ‘guinea pig’ it, is what we call it — someone will hit it first. Once you get the speed down and you touch down landing, it’s the best feeling in the world pretty much. You get the jitters and butterflies out, and then you can start hitting it all day. If you’re killing a jump, people are going to want to know who you are.”

Other world-class riders taking part in Superpark this week include Mark McMorris, Dylan Thompson, Dustin Craven, Ethan Deiss, Marie France-Roy and Sebastien Toutant.

“The unique aspect of Superpark is that it is not a formatted or manufactured contest,” says Eric Rosenwald, the action sports brand director for Woodward Tahoe, which is hosting the webcast. “This is the highest level of snowboarding in its most pure form.”