Perfect Miniramp Takes Over Longhorn Patio and Mayhem Ensues!

Perfect Miniramp Takes Over Longhorn Patio and Mayhem Ensues!


Last night there was a huge mini-ramp installed on the patio of the Longhorn at the base of Whistler Mountain for a great jam and party - check out the exclusive 33MAG photo gallery above!

words and photos by Brian Hockenstein

Organizer Charles Paquet is the kind of guy who gets shit done. A long-time organizer of the infamous Skate Nite at Garfinkels in Whistler ever Thursday, the event at the Longhorn last night was his biggest and baddest yet. With the full cooperation of the venue due to a new ownership structure at the Gibbon's Group (now owners of Garf's in addition to the Longhorn and other Whistler watering holes) and a sizable budget from Red Bull to build a damn-near perfect mini-ramp, last night's jam was the first of a monthly series of events on the Longhorn patio that will eventually even turn into a snowboard railjam.

With prizing for the skaters and the crowd coming in from Endeavor Snowboards, PopHDWR, Plenty Humanwear and The Sk8 Cave there was plenty of shwag to give away while sick DJs spun tunes. A jam format on the mini-ramp was the chosen way to whittle down the field of 20ish skaters to a final round of 5 who battled for the top prize of a shiny new Endeavor snowboard. Local rippers battled it out, trying to stick a line worthy of the top prize - with many skater's bodies paying the price.

After all was said and done it was Nick Carlson who took home the W, Lil Chris with second and long-time local Mike Klinkhammer taking home third place in his first contest back after a long injury-caused hiatus from skating hard. 

Catching up with Charles after the jam was done, the energy he was exuding could be felt from across the room. "As stoked as I am, all I can think about now is the next one and how I can make it even better" he confided in me as he handed out a bucket full of beers he was too pumped on adrenaline to drink himself. The mark of a true showman. Every town, big or small, needs people like Charles or else badass events like this would never take place. It's a lot easier to sit on the couch, talk shit and then do nothing about it but as Charles - and all others who step it up and get shit done - showed last night, with a bit of motivation and hard work you can really get some rad shit done. 

Whistler desperately needs homegrown, grass-roots events like this as a counter-point to the bloated and corporate festivals we have all grown so used to here and I for one am extremely glad we have people like Charles around to keep that flame going for all of us.

Looking forward to next month already!
 

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