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Brought to you by ProAm Productions.

(www.proamproductions.com)

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You are going to wakeboard on a ski hill? What?? How?? This was the general response when the notification was posted of the Summer Meets Winter Wakeboard and Snowboard/Ski Rail Jam that took place Sunday March 22nd at Calabogie Peaks Resort near Ottawa, Ont. This unique event was organized by marketing director and competitive wakeboarder Erika Langman, and Calabogie Peaks terrain park manager Nick Solowjew. The event was the year end culmination of the Calabogie Peaks Drop In contest Series as well as the wrap up to the March Break Mardi Gras festival. Needless to say these two individuals had quite the crowd show up just to see how exactly they were going to pull this stunt off.  So here the story goes..

The whole idea behind the summer meets winter wakeboard and snowboard rail jam is to feed into the spring break fever that runs through every rider’s bones. For some reason, once the temperature rises above 0 and you can get a mad farmers tan from riding in your t-shirt, people want to do crazy things. Every resort usually puts on some kind of water related activity, in the case of Calabogie it is the annual puddle jump. This year we decided to take that puddle jump, (a 40 foot by 30 wide puddle dug out of the snow, lined with a skating rink tarp and filled by freezing cold snow-making water) and make 2 puddle jumps in a row. We left a 30 foot roller in between which was where the wakeboard rail would go. Saturday’s festivities included the family oriented Mardi Gras puddle jump, but as soon as the hill closed these crazy riders took over. Craig McCallion and his Half Cab crew from Slaysh Boardshop rocked their ninja rail skills and put up the  wakeboard rail in no time at all. With all the materials donated by Madwake.com they constructed a sick 42 foot up flat down wakeboard/wakeskate rail. Nick and his park team member Spencer Rose worked alongside the wakeboarder’s and set up a gnarly urban on round down bar, and 40 ft, 8 ft high rainbow box for the snow set up. Everything looked super fun and was ready to rock.

The next day the pools were re-filled with water, and Redbull brought their promo vehicle which had a DJ booth, sound system and Wakeboard Winch all built into one. Once the DJ had the tunes pumping, Erika got on the Mic to get the contest started. First up on the wake side was the Open Men’s wakeboard best trick contest. These riders were pulled off the snow, through the first pool on their board, over the rail and landed in the second pool. With some of Canada’s top riders including O’Neill and Gator team rider Yan Tibo, Alex Boucher and local Ottawa talent, we were in for quite a show. The boys had an hour to throw down their most tech tricks in the freezing cold water. In between their turns the riders could sit in the hot tub and keep warm before they strapped their board back on. Best trick went to Tibo’s boardslide to gap front three over the transition.

Right beside the wakeboarders the skiers and snowboarders were rocking their set up showing that there is definitely no lack of skill level on the snow side of things. These riders had an hour and a half to throw down everything they could possibly do to make the finals in their division. There were some super tech tricks like boardslide switch up to 270 out on the rainbow, and 270 on 270 out on the urban down bar. In the finals you had to call the trick that you were going to do, and if you didn’t do that trick then it didn’t count. Talk about putting on the pressure!

After the snowboarders and skiers finished their jam format, they took a break to watch the lady wakeboarders and Open Men’s wakeskate contest. The wakeskate contest had a pretty top notch rider list with names like pro rider Yann Lecompt, Yann Roy, Vince Whiteman, Scotty Boysen and more. These boys pushed the bar up a notch with shoves off the rail, on to the rail, and shove on, shove off. Overall Yann Lecompt took the title. Lady rippers Ally Boothroyd and Erika Langman representing for throwitdown.ca showed the crowd that the girls can rock the set up better than a lot of the boys, with steezy front boards, 270 outs and more.

After the contest everyone made their way up to Black Donald’s Pub for a pint and to watch the awards. Slaysh Boardshop, Calabogie Peaks, Madawaska Wakeboard school, Hurst Marina, Burton, Dragon and LF all had a ton of free swag to give away so almost everyone got to walk away with something cool. Overall the event was a blast and the perfect way to launch the transition from snowboarding to wakeboarding. See you out on the water soon enough!

more photos here

Results:

Wakeboard: 1st: Yann Thibault  2nd: Craig McCallion  3rd: Alex Boucher

Womens Wakeboard: Tie Ally Boothroyd and Erika Langman

Wakeskate: 1st: Yann Lecompt  2nd: Yann Roy  3rd: Vince Whiteman

Open Men Snowboard: 1st: Brandon Richardson   2nd: Lukas Weendenburg  3rd:Max Middlestat

Grom Snowboard: 1st: Zenon Krupta    2nd: Adam Livingston  3rd: Jay Fleury

Girls Ski: 1st: Maxime Bergeron

Open Men Ski: 1st: Josh Brose   2nd: Nick Shaley

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The Crew at Half Cab Productions headed up the Pats cottage for two days of riding. On day one they made a fun 30 foot long up rail to session. For the second day they added a 12 foot flat to it and landed some pretty tech tricks. Check out the video to see all the action from the weekend.

Rails are sweet. Your the new 09 Rail champ, how does it feel?

To tell you the truth it feels weird. I’m super stoked though cause it’s the first time I have ever taken first.

Canadian girls kick ass on rails. How cool was it to have a legit amount of competitors in the rail contest?

It was awesome; the girls are really pushing it. Especially on the rails, the Quebec girls are kicking butt! Have you ever seem Marie-Line Ouellet or Laurence Daoust ride the system 2? They are amazing!

You ride at Basecamp which has a pretty sweet slider lake. Can you tell us a bit about it and how it has had such a big impact on your rail riding?

Oh my gosh, I love my home! I’m so lucky to get to have a private slider lake in my backyard. We have tons of great rails, always glass calm water and sweet vibes. Plus my boyfriend only likes to ride in the slider lake so it forced me to ride in there a lot! He pushed me to try a lot of new stuff, which pushed my rail riding this year.

Do you have any big plans for next year in the rail park?

We hope to get more pros out to see how sick it is, a 75’ flat bar would be sick and sysitec would be epic.

What are some of your riding goals on rails for next season?

This year I worked on riding harder rails, so next year I want to improve on my style and switch 270`s stuff like that. Erika Langman has really great rail style; I’d like to ride more like that.

What are some things you do during the winter that help make you stronger for the up and coming season?

Last year I started riding a lot in the snowboard parks, the first year that my knee would allow me to, I fell in love! I also go to Florida so that is always good.

If you could build the perfect rail what would it be?

Honestly, I would build a complete replica of the mini relentless rail they used to have at the Projects. I loved that rail, when I lived there they re-built it for toe jam and I was devastated. Either that rail or I would just steal the rails in the Derome sysitec lake and put them in the Basecamp slider lake.

What’s your favourite trick on rails?

Hot Stinky GARBAGE!!!!!!!

Shout Outs?

Defiantly the gang at Billabong and VZ, Catherine and Meg, as well as Papa Duke and the basecamp bro`s, Addison for the endless pulls and mustache, Erika,  Ally for creating throwitdown.ca, my parents and DALBO!!

Featured riders (all riding out of Ottawa ON):  Johny Bonney, Justin Bonney, and Kent Baltare.

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