The entire concept of the
Push.ca Half-Time show at the Ride Shakedown snowboard contest is arguably
nuts: during a break in the snowboarding, lay down some sheets of plywood to
create a drop-in, runway and landing on a snowboard rail. Give a group of
skaters (who are also arguably nuts) 60 minutes to session it, doing their best
to keep themselves and their skateboards out of the snow when they fall, and
give $2,000 cash to the guy who lands the best trick. Needless to say, this is
not your typical skate contest.
Since heavy rainfall forced
last year's Push.ca Half-Time Show to be held on the tented mini-ramp, two
year's worth of anticipation built for this year's contest. Out of the three
features in the Shakedown's rail set-up, the kinked staircase rail was chosen
for the skaters, and trust me when I say it wasn't going to be an easy rail to
skate, let alone land a trick on. But the skaters had dollar bills to motivate
them, not to mention a positively ape-shit crowd to cheer them on. So after a
30-minute construction job to make the rail skate-friendly, the session began.
Nobody is gonna win 2g's without bangin' up a few heads.
With ULC Skateboard's Nic
Cote on the mic and thousands of people banging banners in the crowd, it didn't
take the skaters long to wrap their heads around the rail. While the Half-Time
Show has traditionally been won by the first skater to land a trick - any trick
- on the rail, things were a little different this year. Within the first 10 minutes
or so, Stephan Kulisek landed a clean 50-50. From there, it was on: it wasn't
about just landing a trick, it was about pushing the potential of the kinked
(down-flat-down with a steep drop off the end) rail to see what else could be
done.
Parent's 50-50 to ollie out.
Casey McDonald set to work
on a boardslide and made that his mission: he tried them repeatedly, hungry to
slide one through the kinks. Kulisek landed a second 50-50, then Thomas Parent
did too, but actually popped an ollie off the end. He then jumped off his board
when the plywood ran out and spun a 360 in the air, flipping the bird with both
hands with a huge grin on his face. A few minutes later, he did another 50-50,
but this time did a backside 180 out! The crowd (did I already mention they
were "ape shit"?) went positively ballistic.
Sam Guay's 50-50 to 5-0.
Although a dozen or so
skaters were entered, a few hard bails and crushed crotches trimmed the crew
down to just four guys: McDonald, Kulisek, Parent and 17 year-old Sam Guay.
Guay took several beatings on some harsh falls, but got up smiling every time,
and got ridiculously close to landing several 50-50 variations, including a
50-50 to backside smith grind and a 50-50 to 5-0 grind. Kulisek set his mind to
landing a feeble grind through the kink, and came within inches of the end of the
rail a few times. McDonald kept trying to boardslide through the kinks, but
never quite made it all the way to the end.
Parent's winning 50-50 to BS 180 out.
After the hour-long session
wrapped, Parent was deemed the winner: his 50-50 to backside 180 out was easily
the banger of the day. But given how hard Kulisek and Guay were skating too,
Parent actually split his prize money, giving each of them $500 out of his
$2,000 winnings. What a guy! But really, every skater who even dropped into the
rail deserved a prize if you ask me.
Thomas Parent with his new Shakedown jewelry.
Story: Matt Houghton
Photos: Mathieu Couture
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