Quebec and the St. Sau Gravity Fest
I got to Ithaca at half past midnight on Friday morning and was asleep by three A.M. We left for Montreal around 9pm the next day and arrived at 3:30am. We were told that we had to go skating right then no matter what because it was going to rain all day. I wasn’t going to argue with that. We skated some legendary runs that I’d only heard of and seen on the graphics of each Kebbek board. At 8am, the sun had been up for a few hours and we decided to get some breakfast and go to bed. From then on the rest of the weekend was kind of off from lack of sleep. After waking up after few hours of sleep we took a while to come out of our groggy state and wait out the rain before heading north to skate some more epic Quebec hills. The plan was to go to Tremblant and skate the alpine luge track, which I remember well from seeing JimZ ripping it in old downhill videos. We only got one run on it because of rain and tourists. We sessioned another hill for a little bit on the other side of the resort to wait it out but the weather wasn’t on our side. When we got back into Montreal we enjoyed some poutine and a beer in a cool little hipster bar before retiring to our floor space for a little more sleep.
Sunday was the St. Sauveur Gravity Fest, which was about an hour north of Montreal and is part of the Street Missile Northeastern Downhill Series. It’s by far the gnarliest and most technical course in the series, although a very short run. All Street Missile events attempt to be beginner friendly and as inclusive as possible but to make it down the track with any speed much skill was definitely required. We had checked out the course a little the night before when it was raining and it looked like a lot of fun. It’s a very steep run with a grade of 11 or 12%, a right hairpin and a left 90 that most people had a hand down for and were scrubbing through. It’s set on the grounds of a public works facility and there are huge mounds of gravel and stone lining a portion of the course. It is an odd industrial type setting for a downhill race. Our wonderful guide also explained that there would be a launch ramp or two on the course for the slope style competition, which was a very exciting prospect to me.
When we rolled up in the morning after a quick warm up session on a gnarly technical run, we were among the first to arrive. It was a hot, muggy, partly cloudy day, and the asphalt was nice and slippery. It took a while for people to start showing up but a lot of fun was had shredding the steep hill, the launch ramp and then sessioning two different ledges at the bottom of the course. It was really cool to see people riding a mix of disciplines and having fun. I wish I had a little more disregard for my body so I could have continued to skate these abnormal longboard obstacles but I knew if I continued to ride them I’d just get myself really hurt before the race or bend an axle or something stupid like that. Just know it is very satisfying to ollie your race day board over a little ledge down a gap or launch a few feet in the air off a ramp landing on your $300 precision downhill trucks.
Street Missile events are run in a really relaxed manner and every discipline competes in a jam format. It’s hard to imagine something so objective as downhill skateboard racing being in a jam format but essentially everyone has to take a certain number of runs where you pick your own heats. The only “rule” is that you can’t race the same people twice although it’s hard to do when you have only a handful of racers. After more practice runs than I could handle (I only had so much sleep in the past few days so it was far less than you would think), we finally started with the slope style competition. I ended up not competing because I had broken two Comet FSM’s skating an abandoned pool before even leaving for montreal and by the time the slope style started I had already put on my leathers and changed wheels on my race board. I also didn’t have the money to register for a second event either.
The slope style was really cool to watch even though I was on the sidelines. I saw some tricks thrown down that I had only seen in pictures and videos. Yann Lhermite threw down some cool shove it slides and one foot blunt slides with his front foot under the board! Ben, who took second, was on a Kebbek switchback and was not only shredding big standers but also ripping the launch ramp doing 180s! Later he was trying fingerflips, all of which is so rad to see on a downhill board. Marc Seguin took first by throwing some fast steezy hard wheel slides. I was really impressed with the ripping taking place and sad that I hadn’t just competed anyway.
After slope style was the luge racing. There weren’t many people competing and it didn’t seem like a very fun luge course because of how short it was and how much breaking had to be done on such a short course. I’ve never been able to really get into luge but it’s always fun to watch these guys getting close and drifting corners.
The downhill race was a blast. It was really hard to figure out exactly what was going on as Fast Freddy was yelling things through the bull horn because of my lack of knowledge of the French language (especially the bastardized Quebecian they speak!) but after a quick translation I found out that there was going to be 5 heats of three people. It was a lot of fun getting to ride with some people I hadn’t seen in at least a year if not longer and getting to ride with people whom I’ve known through the internet but never met in person. It’s wonderful how inclusive the community is and being able to just hang out with people who hardly speak your language because you share that common activity is incredible.
Niko ended up winning the race with Ben, the young ripper who took second in the slide comp, taking second and Yann Lhermite in third. I took fourth and Keith Rebhorn took eighth respectively representing the beast coast well. There were a lot of tight heats where there was side by side toeside predrift action and it was the most incredible feeling, having the confidence that the person next to you has not only the skills but the balls to hold their line while sliding sideways into a hairpin at 40mph.
Montreal and Quebec are great places with a solid community of ripping skaters and I encourage everyone to make a pilgrimage there whether it’s for a race or just to see what French Canada is all about. Western Canada gets all the coverage but there is a lot happening in and around Montreal and there is a lot of history in terms of downhill skating there.
I’d like to thank Fast Freddy Desjardin for putting the event on and for holding his race series, building the stoke in Quebec. I’d also like to thank all the sponsors of the event: KebbeK Skateboards and Performance Boardshop and the city of St. Sauveur. Thanks to Luc Bertrand for allowing me to use these photos. And a final thanks to A.J. for giving us a floor to sleep on and being an all around rad guy.
Full Results:
Downhill skateboard:
1 NIKO DESMARAIS
2 BENJAMIN DUBREUIL
3 YANN LHERMITE
4 ANTONY FLIS
5 FLAVIEN VIDAL
6 CYRIL SHROEDER
7 DIMITRI
8 KEITH
9 FRED Z
10 AJ POWELL
11 OLIVIER CHARETTE
12 EMILE
13 YAN TRIPONEZ
14 GAB TOUPIN
15 DENIS CHARTRAND 2
16 MATT KIENZLE
17 FRANK THE TANK
18 JF BOILY
19 JEAN-GAB LYRETTE
Slopestyle:
1 MARC SEGUIN
2 BENJAMIN DUBREUIL
3 EMILE
4 YANN LHERMITE
5 FELIX
6 AJ POWELL
7 MATT KIENZLE
8 KEITH
9 FRED Z
Streetluge:
1 BOB BOUCHARD
2 JEAN GABRIEL LYRETTE
3 BOB LAVOIE
4 BOB TOUCHETTE
5 MARCO
6 OLIVIER FILIATRAULT
7 KELLY KOSH
8 DIMITRI
For more pictures of the event check out: http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a10/lucbertand/St-Sauveur%20Gravity%20Fest%202009/ and http://s91.photobucket.com/albums/k304/acc450/St-sauveur%20gravity%20fest/
Videos:
St Sauveur Gravity Fest from Dmitri Komarov on Vimeo.
