The weekend started cloudy and ominous...in Montreal, some cloud cover and scattered drops across the city in the morning, only to see the sky open up and the sun come out for an afternoon session at Le TAZ skatepark. 19 skaters signed up and another 40-50 showed up to watch and cheer on their peers. DJ Mayday (2nd place in Red Bull 3style), was there to pump out beats from the Sugga in their outdoor skate plaza, and Hugues GCDC Beauchamp was there to MC to event.
Our all-star cast of judges was made up of Eric Mercier, Nic Côté, Raj, and Wes Loates. They watched the first 5 heats of action and narrowed it down to 8 semi-finalists who pursued their goal for the ultimate dream trip, a weekend in Vancouver! Eric Riedl had the highest score coming out the first round, dropping video game style moves consistently, but couldn't put them down in the semis and came 1 point shy of making it to the final four. For the last ten minutes of competition, Hugo Papillon, Etienne Dumais, Alex Hallé and Alex Fauteux ripped up the course while Dan Mathieu of Exposé captured the action in photos. Local artist Scan was on the sidelines waiting to customize the decks for the podium ceremony.
In the end, Alex Fauteux won the hearts of the judges with his smooth style and consistency in landing his tricks. 2nd place went to Papillon and Hallé came in 3rd. There were quite a few cameras around (check out coverage in Exposé and on push.ca). Overall it was a great competition, and the people there had an amazing time...and Le TAZ was stoked to have Manny Mania as the first event using their outdoor plaza.
Acros the country in Calgary, the Millennium skatepark in Calgary was meant to be the host of Red Bull Manny Mania. However, the section to be used for the event was newly fenced off and unskateable due to construction on the new C-Train light rail line running through the heart of the City. After an executive meeting in the middle of the bowl that may or may not have included a few laps of the park, it was decided to have a stand alone contest on the ramps built on the basketball courts next door. Sugga was parked, the obstacles were laid out, shimmed level and bolted together, the sun came out and the stage was set for the Calgary Qualifier of Red Bull Manny Mania.
In total 29 registered with a large, educated and excited audience lining the grassy hills around the courts cheering on their favourites. Four legends of the Calgary skate scene took to the VIP couch seating to judge the happenings. Anfernee Rockwell manned the 1's and 2's while Jaryd 'Hairstyle' Adair called the shots and directed traffic on the mic.
Through 7 heats the action was intense with 9 people moving on to the semi finals due to a tie for 8th place. Putting away the safety tricks and looking to lock in some bangers, the semis were filled with technical combos and fast aggressive skating.
The scores were incredibly close but the four finalists were ultimately selected to take to the course for the 10 minute battle to see who would be heading to Vancouver. Anthony MacDonald, Riley Boland, Eric Zimmer and Devin Morrison endured a 10 minute final that seemed to last for hours with consistent skating and a growing intensity right up to the final horn where Riley Boland threw down a nose manual up the wedge at top speed to nollie over the entire down wedge, closing the door on the finals with authority. Once the smoke cleared Riley Boland took home third place, Devin Morrison's manuals to grinds and boardslides put him in second, but the clear winner after destroying the course with combo after combo including a mind numbing inward heelflip to manual to shove and kickflip to nose manual to nollie flip out was 19 year old Eric Zimmer. "Man, this is amazing, I can't believe this...I have been trying to take a trip to Vancouver to skate for so long but haven't been able to make it happen," Eric explained excitedly through a giant smile, "how long do I get to go for?!"
Then it was back across the country to Québec City...
The whole podium for the Québec city regional qualifier was filled with skaters from Trois-Rivières and Montréal. Not able to qualify in Montréal the day before, Jeff Denommé made the trip and fought hard to win his spot at the national Finals in Vancouver. The two other steps on the podium were filled with Charles Drolet and Danick Bastien, both from Trois-Rivières. After a few location changes and many sleepless nights, Saint-Joseph street - one of the busiest streets downtown - became the final location, right in front of EXO. Jeff Denommé, fresh from a Cali trip and a fifth place at the ELEMENT Make It Count stop in LA, really came to Québec to win and kept on skating hard despite big falls and both elbows bleeding. Local hero Sam Deschênes was the crowd hopeful during the final heat, but he had to watch from the boardwalk after spraining his ankle.
A steady crowd of 100-150 people watched the event while over a thousand spectators passed by during the day to catch some of the action. The event was followed by a little get-together and a viewing of the movie TENS produced by Red Bull Shoot To Thrill winner Ben Stoddard. This took place at Le Cercle, THE cultural hub club in town, right at the end of our set-up.
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