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Longboard Festival kicks into high gear

Downhill skateboard festival expands to include more events, including freestyle contests
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ALL a BOARD Andrew Chapman capitalized on a crash to pull ahead and win the downhill event at the 2012 Whistler Longboard Festival. photo by Andrew Mitchell

Whistler has always had a large, active and talented skateboard community but it's rare that skateboard culture gets much mainstream recognition.

This year's Whistler Longboard Festival, now in its third year, is looking to change that with a little help from the Resort Municipality of Whistler. While the main event is still the downhill longboarding competition at Whistler Sliding Centre — a sanctioned World Cup event this year — the entire five-day festival includes a huge variety of events that dovetail with the municipal entertainment program.

Lee Cation, who founded the festival in 2011, said it was always his intention to showcase more aspects of the skate community.

"'Skate Everything' is a motto that's been going around a lot in the last couple of years, which is to say we're not picky over how you skate, we just want you to skate," he said. "There are probably 10 different disciplines and ways to categorize how people skate, it's not for anybody to tell you how to do it, it's your own form of expression."

Cation said that he wanted to change the name to the Whistler Skateboard Festival last year but was talked out of it because the downhill longboard aspect — the fastest growing skateboard discipline these days — seemed fresh and new. But he always wanted to be more inclusive with his event.

There's an indoor ramp jam, a World Cup freeride competition, street luge, a movie premiere, a big air contest with an air bag, a ramp showcase, a skate bowl competition, a Skate X Shoot Biathlon and Enduro event and, the signature event, a World Cup Downhill race.

Cation is a representative on the newly formed International Downhill Federation, which was created to clean up the sanctioning and unite all of the tours under one roof. It includes representatives from around the world, and so far has over 1,000 registered racers — a number he expects to increase to 1,500 by the end of the season.

The Whistler World Cup event is actually the third event in a North American World Cup series that includes this weekend's Angie's Curves race in Pala, California and the Maryhill "Festival of Speed" in Washington State on June 26. Hosting three consecutive events makes it more compelling for international racers.

"We have 240 racers coming, and 17 countries represented," he said. "It sold out in an hour, literally. Originally we aimed for 200, but we had to accommodate more because it sold out so quickly... guys can fly from around the world to compete in three events instead of one or two, and the quality of the track is very high.

"It's obviously a unique place, and impossible to compare to anywhere else. The fact that it's a World Cup, the fact that it's our third year, and just the fact that the word is out — we put on a well-documented event last year and spend money on a cable cam to get good footage — made a huge difference. And hey, it's Whistler. Sometimes it's easy to forget because you're there, but people around the world know Whistler. I still feel that this single event has the largest potential of any World Cup event, because of the proximity to town, because of the culture of the town and because of the facilities — we're used to running events on the side of a mountain with no power, no water, no parking, and Whistler definitely has a few more perks."

While organizers are still looking for volunteers Cation is also appreciative of the growing local support. The Resort Municipality of Whistler provided some provincial Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) funding to the festival this year to grow the event, and with all of the activities organized for Canada Day and Indepedence Day long weekends there is added value for skaters and spectators. As well, more people are stepping forward to volunteer for the festival, something the event needs — it takes a lot of hay bales to make the 12 corners at Whistler Sliding Centre safe for competitors.

"There's still a call-out for volunteers, but we're excited about the size of the team that's contributing," he said.

New to the event this year, the World Cup race will be live streamed to the village locations and on the Internet. As well, spectators in areas close enough to see television will be able to watch the entire run instead of just one part of it as the racers fly by at speeds approaching 100km/h. To help spectators get to the event there will be a free shuttle available to Whistler Sliding Centre to watch the action.

World Cup Downhill — July 4 to 6

Thursday, July 4 is a training day, but the course — and beer garden with Whistler Brewing — will be available on Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for qualifying. The race takes place on Saturday, July 6, starting with the elimination rounds at 10 a.m. The semi-finals and finals run from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

There are a number of strong Canadians to watch for in the competition, including Elena Corrigall in the women's race, West Vancouver's Kevin Reimer, Andrew Chapman, Patrick Switzer and others. Top juniors include Charlie Daigneault and Quin Finocchio. The complete rider list should be available next week.

Enduro and Skate X Shoot Biathlon — July 7

This is the second year for these fun, family-friendly longboard events, taking place at Whistler Olympic Park. The day starts with a 20km Enduro race that's open to everyone, and takes place on rolling roads and paved trails at the Whistler Olympic Park. There's also a team relay component. Events get underway at 9 a.m.

Next up is the 10km Skate X Shoot Biathlon event, where riders make two laps of a 5km course and stop at the Olympic biathlon range twice to shoot targets. For each target missed the competitors have to race an extra 150-metre penalty lap. There will be two starts, one at 10:30 a.m. and a second round at 1:30 p.m. All are welcome.

Skate Bowl Jam — July 5

The festival Skate Bowl jam will take place at the Whistler Skate Park from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Sk8 Cave in Function Junction, which is also hosting an indoor ramp jam on July 4, is hosting the event and handling registrations.

Anyone can enter by dropping by the store, or by contacting the store by phone or email. They also have a Facebook page.

Big Air and Freestyle Jam — July 5 and 6

The big air contest and a freestyle showcase will be hosted on July 5 at Whistler Olympic Plaza, with 10 riders seeing how far they can fly onto an airbag. Kevin Harris, a Vancouver skateboard legend, and his team are providing the entertainment. On July 6 the fun moves to Mountain Square with a freestyle showcase.

For more information on other events, including the movie premiere, or registration for the Enduro/Skate X Shoot, visit www.whistlerlongboard.com.