For what has been nothing but a super fun contest this week, the level of riding tonight was amazingly high. They call it the Grand Finale and it certainly lived up to its name. 40 of the best riders of the week came together on a unique slopestyle course that came straight out of the brain of Danny and the rest of the Grenadians, to put on a show for the massive crowd. Monster’s favourite DJ’s (Vinyl Ritchie, Mat the Alien and John H. from the Fort Knox 5) were joined by legendary DJ Ztrip to keep the crowd bouncing around.
The stars of the show though, were the snowboarders. The course started with a bomb drop off some scaffolding, and led down to the choice between a 60 foot channel gap or an even bigger butter box. Riders were hitting both and throwing down crazy combos from one to the other. Lukas Magoon was even trying to air straight into the wall of the butter box. Think of being shot out of a cannon and straight into a vertical wall of ice. He was trying to stick that move. What?
Dave Fortin was charging hard and attempted to air OVER the entire butter box. He tapped it on the way down and landed in an unconscious crumpled heap in the landing. There was a pause on the course as he was taken away and lots of folks were asking about his condition. He called this morning to let me know that he broken his thumb, but other than that, and being bruised and battered, he’s ok. He’s seriously one of the toughest riders I’ve ever seen.
Andrew Burns pumped up the crowd with his double back flip on the channel gap, and Eman Anderson’s switch back 9 attempt off the butter box set the bar high. Wyatt Caldwell answered with a perfect 7.
Lower down there was a choice between a rail setup over wooden stairs, Flat box and a down-flat-down kink rail, or a 20 foot tall tree to jib. Lots of people were trying to bonk spin the tree, but Danny Kass had it dialed in going both frontside and backside. It was a cool and unique addition to the course. Kael Hill was keeping it super progressive on the rail setup and Eman kept it stylie.
In the end though, it was Craig Beaulieu’s consistent riding and solid stomps that took him to the top of the heap. He walked away with 10 thousand and one dollars. The biggest cash prize of the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival. By a dollar. Here are the complete results:
1. Craig Beaulieu
2. Jesmond Dubeau
3. Wyatt Caldwell
Best Babe: Robyn Van Gyn
Most Radical Dude: Kevin Casillo
As soon as it was done the crowd crushed in to watch the riders get their cheques, and then it was off to the Monster Hotel to take a quick break before we moved to the Whistler Conference Center for “The End” the last bash of the TELUS World Ski and Snowboard Festival. All the DJ’s from the event main stage were on stage together. Ztrip, Vinyl Ritchie, Mat the Alien, John H from Fort Knox 5, and smalltown dj’s. 6 DJ’s and 12 tables playing to 1800 people.
The lineup to get in stretched well into the village as this sold-out event was highly anticipated. The conference center has a crazy liquor license that makes you buy tickets to get drinks, which made the bars a nightmare of congestion, but folks still managed to have a good time and the DJ’s kept switching it up and surprising everyone with their skill and interaction.
This morning we woke up to the final duty of Grenade Games 5…Ceasers. With that taken care of and a round of “goodbyes”, we closed the books on the Grenade Games 5. In the words of Danny Kass; “Best Grenade Games ever.”
Photos by Russell Dalby:
