Get out the broom: It was a
team sweep for Rome Snowboards at the Ride Shakedown rail jam tonight, with
teammates Will Lavigne and Silvia Mittermuller taking first place. According to
the 10% rule, Lavigne will be spending $500 on Coors Light for his homies
tonight, since he scored $5,000 for the win. Mittermuller won a respectable
$3,000 for her efforts, meaning that her bar tab should be a little less. But
wait, there's more! Rumour has it that Will and Silvia aren't just teammates,
but are also dating. Which explains the shouts of "Kiss, kiss!" when they
shared the podium at the awards ceremony.
Silvia Mittermueller and Will Lavigne.
It's the first year that
female riders have been invited to compete in the Ride Shakedown, something
Mittermuller was clearly stoked about.
"I think it's great that they have women now
and I think, although the set-up is a little bit crazy, it's something that we
definitely can master," she enthused. "I mean, girls have been hitting all
three of these features in a good way. I'm super stoked we got into this
contest and I hope we'll be in here next year as well. And great respect to all
the girls that were riding, because I think the riders were really going for it
and it's really cool to see."
Not Will, but pretty crazy nonetheless.
The rail jam saw a literal
mob of riders in the semi-finals whittled down to just five for the finals:
Will Lavigne, Yale Cousino and Charles Reid, along with Mittermuller and
Magalie Dubois. After the open jam format of the semis, each rider had just two
runs to take the win. Riders had their choice of three rails on the
over-the-top Amp Energy staircase (complete with a functioning waterfall of Amp
running behind it): a c-rail, a granite-surface down ledge with "donkey dick"
at the end, and a burly up-flat-down rail (with a long down portion at the
end).
The stakes were high almost
immediately, as the stacked field of riders went to work on the rails. Lavigne
stood out throughout the jam, with switch 270s to switch front boards on the
ledge, and an insane frontside noseblunt (and I do mean "noseblunt": it was
legit), also on the ledge. Seb Toots stomped a backside lipslide on the c-rail,
and Alex Beaucage did a ridiculous frontside lipslide - while gabbing stalefish
no less, on the c-rail. Charles Reid focused on the a-frame rail, doing smooth
combos like a 50-50 to backside 180 to switch 50-50. He pulled out all the
stops during the finals, throwing a backside Rodeo off the a-frame to flat,
much to the shock of the crowd. For the ladies, the always impressive Magalie
Dubois showed serious board control on the c-rail, landing both a backside
boardslide and a tailslide.
The women stepped up to the same rails.
Rain plagued the contest for
most of the day, coming down heavily at times, and then tapering off for short
periods. The competition began with the Oakley amateur men's qualifiers, which
saw two heats of 40 riders competing for three spots in tomorrow's main event.
Riders dropped into the huge jump, cutting at a hard right angle to hit the
take-off. After landing (assuming they did), they'd face the Amp staircase and have
to hit one of the rails. Riders also had to call their tricks before dropping
in, and would be penalized if they didn't attempt the trick they called.
When the results came in,
four riders wound up advancing, since two riders tied for third place. The
lucky riders were:
- Tanner Davidson, Calgary, AB (24.7 points)
- Antoine Truchon, St. Adelle, PQ (21.5 points)
- Beau Bishop, Whistler, BC (21.4 points)
- Simon Reid, Tremblant, PQ (21.4 points)
From L to R: Antoine Truchon, Tanner Davidson, Beau Bishop and Simon Reid.The big show shakes down
(pun fully intended) tomorrow, as the four riders will compete with the invited
pros, which includes the likes of Seb Toots (last year's winner), Darrel
Mathes, Dustin Craven, Matt Belzille, Charles Reid and Romain DeMarchi, to name
just a few. The semi-finals start at 2 PM, with the Push.ca Half-Time show
(featuring skaters hitting the rails), going down at 6 PM. Finals run from 7 to
8 PM, and then brace your liver for the infamous Shakedown after-party. It the
noise from our neighbours partying next door to us in our hotel is any
indication, it'll be one for the books.
Check out our gallery of shots from day 1:
