Shakedown At The Border

Last weekend the Ride Shakedown took place at Mont Saint Sauveur in Quebec, Canada. Previously known as the Empire Shakedown, Ride recently took over title sponsorship of the long running event from Montreal’s biggest snowboard shop, with plans to possibly expand the event to the US in the future. But for now, the contest is still in Canada, which means it’s extra hard for me attend. But after hearing the rumors of the good times to be had for years, this time I took a shot at my own personal “shakedown” which happens every time I cross the Northern Border, without fail.

If you’ve never been to Canada before, then you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. For some reason, Canadians don’t like Americans. At all. In fact, I would go so far as to say they hate us. I don’t know if they hate our gun policies or what, but whatever the case, Canada is one of the hardest countries in the world to visit. At least for me, anyway. Sure, there’s been the occasional wave through at the border when I drive to Whistler (inside tip: bring a hot chick), but nine out of ten times it’s one rubber glove short of a full cavity search.

My long history of border issues range from previous arrests, work-related denials and general shady-looking character flaws. Because of all this, I’m known to the inner circle as “Red Flag”, and everyone knows you don’t try to cross the border with me lest you be deemed an accomplice. Basically when my passport is scanned at immigration, the equivalent of a red siren sounds in the computer and I’m immediately ushered inside for round two. Then comes the barrage of questioning dating back to my troubles with the law as a teenager and I’m asked to produce various documents proving my innocence, proof of income, hotel where I’m staying while in the country, return plane ticket home, blood type, etc. It’s like taking a walk down repressed memory lane, and it’s a giant pain in the ass.

After the inquisition, it’s off to customs, where they proceed to take another hour of my life away inspecting every crack and crevice of my bags and asking ridiculously stupid questions the entire time. This time they even booted up my flash drives (just in case I was smuggling classified documents?) and went through the contacts in my cell phone. It’s an incredibly humiliating invasion of privacy, and honestly, I think I’m done with it. Canada is cool, but Europe is better and they don’t give a shit who comes in or out of that place. Anyway, luckily I finally made it in and was ready for what the weekend had in store.

The first night was spent in Montreal at the Hotel De La Montagne, soaking up the French Canadian culture and enjoying the downtown area’s interesting nightlife. The party people were out in force and shit was cracking, as I took in the view from the hotel room’s balcony overlooking the lively Crescent Street.

Tastefully decorated with immaculately clean and spacious rooms, the Montagne is quintessential Montreal: a perfect blend of old school European decor with modern Western conveniences.

The gorgeous fountain in the lobby. While I scouted around and found a bar that would play the Nuggets versus Jazz game that I was missing at home, Mikey Leblanc and Darrell Mathes attended Darrell’s sister’s ballet performance in town. Afterwards we all linked up, had multiple shots of Jack Daniels with the owner of Twins Pub where I had been watching the game, and proceeded to send it, Canadian style. Just a warm up for the weekend ahead.

The next day Shaun Hughes and I hightailed outta Montreal and met up with Jeff Baker, who had to fly into Burlington and then drive up to the event, which was being held at Mont Saint Sauveur, a small resort that’s a short 45 minute drive from the city. We checked in to the hotel, had some quick high fives with all the homies and went over to the event to check out the Coors Light Rail Jam on Friday Night.

Quebec local Will Lavigne took the Rail Jam for the boys, while Oakley’s Silvia Mittermuller (above) held it down for the ladies, which were included in the event for the first time. Photo: Dan Mathieu.

Both Kids had a nice little payday from the Rail Jam, and Will definitely kept his 10% rule in effect at the bar later that night. Well done young man. Photo: Dan Mathieu.

Speaking of the bar, the hotel had a great circle-esque bar ala Hard Rock in Vegas where everyone would congregate for the evening, hang out and enjoy some of Canadian’s finest beer, wine and whiskey. It was such a bro down that I officially dubbed it “Circle Bar North”. While empty in the afternoon, it quickly went from this,

to this, once the evening arrived.

Myriam, Mikey, Jessie and Darrell enjoying the atmosphere. You may remember Myriam from the Red Bull Snowscrapers event in New York. Well, Montreal is her home now and so there was no reason not to get her in the mix once again.

The next day was the main event and we showed up to the venue a little early to check out the scene and watch the qualifiers go down.

There was all kind of action in the village as well as on the hill.

Rider meeting.

Bootertime.

Mobile Oakley lab.

Gettin’ railed.

Nikita contest for some free gear.

Mags DuBois, holdin’ it down.

Baker gettin’ artsy with it.

Push.ca mini ramp setup.

Amp waterfall behind the rail zone.

Nixon display.

51-30s. You know you want one.

Seb Toots, up and down.

Ifound zone.

Charles Reid, a heavy favorite.

Eesa’s Stephen Cleary and COC’s Fabia Gruber talking biz.

A light rain falling turned the snow into this, but the dedicated competitors were not fazed.

Nightfall came (along with the rain again) and it was time to hit the Ride tents for some good ol’ spectating. IFound’s Guillaume Brochu and Sophie from the Ice Hotel Kits enjoying some American Coors Light.

The Troublemakers took the stage before the finals and rocked out the crowd.

Our lovely ladies looking good.

Thousands of kids showed up to watch their favorite shredders do their thing. In the end, it was 2006’s winner Sébastien Toutant who put together the best combos and took the $10,000 first place prize. At only 16 years old, it looks like “Seb Toots” has a long career ahead of him. Ride’s Hana Beaman was the top lady, and she earned $9,000 for her efforts. Not a bad payday. Colorado local Megan Whiteside got second and MFR ended up third. It was great to have the girls involved.

The giant checks were handed out, the bottles were popped and it was time to party once again.

Circle Bar North turned wild once the mob arrived at night two. MFR had to disipline some of the youngins.

We couldn’t even leave the Circle Bar to make it to the actual party, because… well, why bother? The party was right here.

Shit got straight wrecked at the hotel, leading the manager to explain to me the next morning that they would never host the Shakedown again. Come on bro… Put together all the booked room late in the season, subtract the damages, add the bar tab and they still have to be coming out on top!

On Sunday, it was back to Montreal to shoot some more stuff around the city for the next couple days.

Our location: The W Hotel , which is wedged in Square Victoria park in the historic Banque du Canada building on the border of Old Montreal.

Surrounded by many tall office buildings and other hotels, inside the W is all posh. The living room lobby starts it off.

The Blue room.

Plateau Lounge.

Pretty fancy.

Otto Restaurant.

Even the hallways were nice.

The view out the rooms reminded me of The Matrix for some reason.

Very cool.

That evening, Jeff and I attended a taping of Myriam’s French Canadian television show, Loft Story. It was pretty funny because Jeff and I had no idea what anyone was saying, but very entertaining nonetheless.

I guess it’s kind of like Big Brother, except it’s a bunch of sexy Frenchies living together and making out with each other and then they kick someone off every week.

Myriam got the boot early but she still has fans; here she is signing some autographs.

Then we hit up Shaun’s homies’ bar, The Bluedog.

It’s owned by the Team Canada DJ guys, they are super dope.

www.ehteamdjs.com .

The next day we headed up to the W’s penthouse to shoot some pics for Kits and put Shaun to work.

Just ballin’ out, no big deal.

The girls did great and we got some cool shots in and around the hotel.

That night it was time for the final celebration and Myriam took me out to a spot called Radio Lounge.

It was packed with crazy French girls ready to party.

Myriam’s homie got a bottle and it was on.

Whut, whut.

Dance party!

These girls were nuts.

See what I mean.

Hammertime.

Alright, that’s enough of that. All in all, it was a great trip, even with the shakedown at the border. But, I think I’ll be staying out of Canada for a while. Special thanks to Ride, Oakley, The W Hotel and everyone else that made the event and trip possible, and look out for the full photo shoot in the magazine come fall. Bonjour!

Oh, and by the way… Air Canada is light years ahead of other airlines for some reason. USB port for iPhone power, 110 AC power for laptop, free movies (I watched Slumdog Millionaire), TV, XM Radio and more. Why can’t anyone else figure this out?