Showdown and an Alterna Tease!
The Quiksilver Showdown Over the City invaded Grouse Mountain this past weekend and I was lucky enough to land a spot in the judges booth as the event tabulator. Fortunately for me this made for an amazing place to watch the madness but, unfortunately left little time to get the shot. So bear with me on the action photos for this one.
MC's getting it done.
Anyways, as you all know by now, the jump was huge, the riders were stoked and the weather was…well, crap. But that’s how contests seem to go. The fog would roll in just as fast as it rolled out leaving precious windows of opportunity for the riders to drop. Taking full advantage of the few moments of clarity on Friday during the qualifiers were Wiley Tesseo, Warren Williams, Jason Wexler, Jesse Millen, Gordon Emery, Nathan Ramler, Tim Barker and Max Ritchie, all of whom advanced to the semi-finals on Saturday.
Someone getting a better shot than I...
Along with the semi-finals came the invited riders and the same blanket of fog as the day before. Regardless of the weather, the riders threw down. Making their way through the semis and on to the finals were Jesmond Dubeau, Sebastien Toutant, Dave Fortin, Immanuel Anderson, Chris Collard, Matt Munn (who also won the rail jam on Friday night, and a cool $3000, despite the six stitches in his forehead thanks to an edge to the face earlier that day…that’s $500 per stitch if anyone’s counting!), Atsushi Ishikawa, and the only qualifier to make it all the way, Warren Williams.
The pros.
Impromptu dance 3-6-0 battle while waiting for the fog to clear...
Just when you thought the fog couldnt get any worse, for a change, it didn’t! The sun almost came out (in patches) for the finals and allowed the final 8 to put on a show. As you may already know, Sebastien Toutant took the win and $10,000 with a beautiful double cork 1080, Jesmond Dubeau scored $4000 in a well deserved second, and Atsushi Ishikawa, who came all the way from Japan, took home $2000 with third place.
Judge Duff giving the people what they want.
What you may not know is Chris Collard took fourth, Warren Williams fifth, Dave Fortin sixth, Immanuel Anderson seventh, and Matt Munn eighth (for a full list of results check the Showdown website). These guys definitely deserved the top spots. It’s hard to imagine hitting a jump of that size in less than perfect conditions.
Speaking of perfect conditions…anyone check the Alterna shoot that went down Sunday? Here’s a little tease for now. Check back in the next few days for copious amounts of uber banger shots courtesy of my good friend Graham Dalik and a few others.
Beautiful... Photo: Graham Dalik
Ok, here’s one more…
Best session ever. Photo: Graham Dalik
Mmmhmm it was gooooood,
-cj
p.s. I heard they let some skiers hit the jump…
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Another Showdown Update
Hey folks,
So I ended up sleeping in and just woke up. Whoops. Anyways, Quiksilver’s Showdown Over the City went off this weekend on Grouse Mountain despite the weather. The fog made it hard for the riders to throw down as big as we’d normally expect at these type of events, but they still put on one heck of a show. Depending on where you were standing, you could either catch the big air or the jib section, but rarely both. The weather did clear up for a short period near the end, just in time for Sebastian Toutant to throw down his winning double cork 10. All he had to do was stick the jib and he had it in the bag, regardless of what he tricked on the rails. Toots, who’s still hammering out high school science at the ripe age of 16, flew back home with 10K in his back pocket. No biggie, just some spending money for those summer trips to 7-11 with his buddies. Rounding off the podium were Jesmond Dubeau in second, taking home $4000, and the only Japanese rider in the line up, Atsushi Ishikawa, grabbed third and $1000. Claiming the Rider’s…I mean, Judge’s Choice purse of $1000 was Dave Fortin, who threw down a massive 10 in the fog when everyone was sticking to 9′s. Unfortunately, he couldn’t hold on to the landing on his last lap, but regardless, everyone could see Dave was having a blast riding all day.
As promised, here are more pictures!
Dave Fortin claiming his Rider's Choice prize. The cheque came later.
Left to Right: Jesmond Dubeau, Seb Toots and Atsushi Ishikawa.
After a quick run home to upload pictures and shower (it wasn’t all standing around snapping pictures, I had to get a few laps in too!) I was back out and headed to the Showdown Afterparty. Needless to say, it was the perfect way to end a super fun day. Even more pictures of that to come in yet another update.
Peeeeeeas!
Sam