Jane Paths Wet N Wacky Race

Photo by Luis Bustamante

The kickoff of the first annual wet n' wacky wace held on Toronto's Jane's path went off with a splash. Hosted by T.O's own Anthony Salvador and Joey Marion, sponsors lined up for this great, first of its kind, race idea including Orangatang Wheels, Loaded Boards,Concrete Wave Magazine, Randal trucks, Bombora Boards, Rayne Longboards and many more. The concept was simple, show up to race and expect to leave wet. Every rider came to throw down and most certainly did. All while having gallons of h2o dumped all over them and their boards making traction a laughable matter. The jam format saw 3 categories (grom, buttboarding, and open dh) battle out 5 heats to get the racers to semi finals and then finals. All the categories semi final heats saw the riders battle it out trying to slick their way to the finals. Lucky riders Jason Bull, Kyle Lahey, and Tim Borovsky stayed consistent making open finals, again Kyle Lahey making it to buttboarding finals with young guns Zachary Nyers, and Gene Sillas Jr., and finally rounding out the grom category were again Zachary Nyers, Jason Bull and Jon Norman. All 3 finals saw riders swap positions quicker than a bad porno with spectators going all out trying to sabotage who took home top spot by means of "land mines" (water balloons along the pathway) water-swords, two 50 gallon buckets of water, about 15 water guns and more hidden treasures along the course. Managing to scramble back to his board first in the grom category Jason Bull kept his top spot rounding out the Grom categories top spots:


1st Jason Bull
2nd Jon Norman
3rd Zachary Nyers


In buttboarding finals, Lahey managed to get out to a sizable lead but blew the first corner sliding out, getting back to his board quickly he put the pressure on passing riders Zachery Nyers, and Gene Nillas Jr. Going into the 2nd hairpin. Zachary couldn't hold onto his board and slid out allowing Lahey to gain some ground on now first positioned Nillas Jr. Seeing his opportunity to pass as Gene developed wobbles, Lahey managed to squeak past into first place right into the last corner and holding position to make buttboarding podium results:


1st Kyle Lahey
2nd Gene Nillas Jr.
3rd Zachery Nyers


With the first two categories now done and having seen Lahey winning buttboarding, and Bull winning groms category the pressure was on for one of them to make it a double podium day. Off the start Lahey managed to gain a sizable lead with a strong one push, followed by Jason Bull and Tim Borovsky. Lahey drifted super early into the first corner anticipating the floods that were upon him managing to just stop shy of the end of the track due to the water. Tim and Jason battled it out trying to pull off a stealth pass on Lahey as he slid out in the 2nd corner trying to grip a slow yet wet hairpin, unfortunately they tangled up allowing Kyle to hop back on his board and retaining his lead, coming around the last two lefts Tim and Jason both managed to lock wheels and bail allowing Sir. Kyle Lahey to be deemed both open DH and buttboarding victor. A scramble for boards left the opens finals results as following:


1st Kyle Lahey
2nd Jason Bull
3rd Tim Borovsky


 With such a rad event to cool down in the blazing summer heats, you can bet this will be an Ontario annual skate race. So make sure you get you panties wet with us next year :)


Ziiiiiiip peeaaaccceee!






Words By Kyle lahey

The Onterrible Report: Maryhill FOS

Words By Jason Epp

Maryhill FOS 2012 

Bright and early on June 27^th a handful of skaters pile into the PDX Sk8 bus outside Rip City Skates in Portland, Oregon. Many riders weary from the travels passed with delayed flights, missed connections, and missing baggage to name some of the hardships associated with traveling coast to coast for the 3^rd leg of both the IGSA NorAm and World Cup series; the infamous Maryhill Festival of Speed.  The excitement was high as the Sk8 bus began to roll out of Portland, with a quick stop in Hood River for some groceries and an impromptu bowl session at the skate park we were now almost to Goldendale, Washington for one of the most iconic races in the IGSA circuit. As we approached the racecourse you could see the rows of wind turbines spread along the skyline with a winding strip of smooth black pavement snaking down the side of the golden valley. We were here.

As we arrived fashionably late it was time to register and complete tech inspection, the name of the game for the next two days was to see how many practice runs your legs could handle before first day of qualifying on Friday. This being a world cup event there were fiercely competitive riders here from all corners of the globe to represent their respective countries. As the first 2 days went on and the riders began dialing the course the packs started getting bigger faster and hairier with the tailwind increasing as each day went on. These tailwinds lead to a few injuries by the end of the 2^nd day including a dislocated shoulder by Toronto local and Skate Invader Alex Megit unfortunately putting him out for the remainder of the event. The winds speed at times made for this surreal silence where the only thing you heard was your wheels on the pavement, and air breaking was rendered useless. This also meant that a few of the right hand turns had a headwind going into them making other portions of the course much easier to navigate.

First qualifying run happened after one practice run on the Friday morning and order was determined by your previous year world ranking. As the days went on the wind increased which generally favored the top ranked riders who were the last to do their qualifying runs. At the end of the first day people had laid down some solid times including Douglas “Dalua” Silva setting a new track record with a time of 3:05.662. The next day the winds were stronger and many people were looking to improve upon their previous times, and that is exactly what happened for most. Just 24 hours after the previous track record was broken Zak Maytum put down a 3:05.523 securing him the new track record and the pole position for the 2012 MFOS. After second round quail it was time for the last chance race for rider ranking from 93-140 in qualifying to try and secure the last 4 spots for race day followed by the king of the hill race. After qualifying it was looking like rain was imminent and the tailwinds were blowing hard which made for some interesting heats with lots of crashed at Cowsers. The rain having finally come down the King of the hill race heat had decided to race sitting down to avoid any risk of injury for race day.

Race day was now upon us with the brackets set and the heats stacked.  This was definitely the most competitive race I have seen with 2^nd round brackets looking almost like potential final heats it kept the racing tight and exciting. Like any competitive race there was no shortage of issues on the race hill either, with Byron Essert losing his 2^nd place position in the Junior B finals, the Junior A finals requiring a re-run, and having Kevin Reimer and Billy Bones crashing at the start line in the open finals. Patrick Switzer took the gold for his second time followed very closely by Zak Maytum and Alex Tongue then Kevin Reimer, Douglas “Dalua” Silva who crashed during the finals and Billy “Bones” Meiners. Big congratulations to Ontario riders Luke Melo (22^nd) Braden Tibbles (31^st) Justin Readings (57^th) and Cam Brick (71^st) for killing it at one of the most competitive races around.

The Onterrible Report: I Heart DH

Words By Jason Epp

The evening of June 22^nd riders from all over North America converged in the

small ski town of Wyndham, NY to begin tech inspection for the first annual I love

DH Skateboard and street Luge race. There was a large contingent of riders from

Southern Ontario in attendance as well as a number of top ranking riders from

Quebec, B.C, Colorado, and California. Practice/qualifying runs took place the

following morning with the announcement that they were going to be testing a new

format that automatically timed every run towards qualifying.

The first look at the course was very promising considering the recent

announcement that we were no longer able to race the top portion of the course due

to liability reasons. The revised course consisted of a push into a steep dropping left

hairpin with terrible pavement, this then led into a straightaway that would dump

you into a technical left right chicane that was followed by a long straightaway

where you would reach top speed (where top downhill skateboarders were clocked

at speeds upwards of 75km/h) followed by 90° left that led to the finish line.

Practice runs were slow and the new timing system was questionable at best leaving

room for improvement for next year but first day eventually got rolling after each

riders attempt at a solo qualifying run. After the day of practice many riders grabbed

some beers and hung out at the slide jam being hosted close by until it got dark.

The next day consisted of a single practice run followed by a day of racing. The

day started with the Amateur class, and after long delays due to injuries they had

to postpone it until the end of the Pro and Street Luge classes. The organization of

the racing brackets also left much to be desired along with the fact that the timing

system had failed to qualify a handful of riders but as the first couple rounds went

through the racing began to get interesting with tight heats and big crashes through

the chicane leading into the straightaway. Patrick Switzer, Alex Tongue, and James

Kelly were dominating their heats along with Ben Dubreuil, and Charles Ouimet

from Quebec who both made to the finals. Unfortunately in the Semi-finals Hanover

born Patrick Switzer ended up falling and being eliminated from the finals but then

took 5^th overall in consolation. At the end of the day it was Alex Tongue who took

home the gold followed by James Kelly who narrowly passed Ben Dubreuil at the

finish line and Charles Ouimet to follow in 4^th. Though the organization could have something to aspire to in following years, the

venue has much potential, and I look forward to seeing everyone there in the years

to come.