To celebrate the 10th anniversary of our partnership with Monster Energy, we decided to jump back in time to revisit some of our best events from the past few years. For the second edition of our Blast From The Past Presented by Monster, let’s go back to 2019 with the infamous Empire Open and our 20th anniversary block party!
As you know, we can’t wait to be back in the field with our community during live events. As nostalgia totally took over our souls over the past few weeks, we thought that travelling back in time to revisit some of our most epic events would be a good way to get our fix. Thanks Monster for all these great memories!
This week, an event that happened right around this time in 2019, just a few months before the pandemic started, an event that’s probably one of history’s biggest skateboarding gathering in Canada. You guessed right, we’re talking about the Empire Open x 20th anniversary block party from 2019.
Keep reading to dive back into the Empire Open action and stay tuned for more Blast From the Past Presented by Monster coming up on our blog.
A bit of history
The Empire Open 2019, formerly called Am Getting Paid, was the first contest of its kind to ever touch Canadian ground. That’s right, the Empire Open was one of the first Canadian Street contest that was part as the Olympic qualification process. It was also one of the first contest to invite both Pros and Ams to compete together and that, in both Women and Men categories.
Formerly know as the Am Getting Paid contest where the formula was to invite only amateur skateboarders, the contest climbed to a whole other level in 2019 when the contest officially became a qualifying event for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“After almost 15 years of hosting an amateur only event, it was time to switch things up a little bit” said Empire’s founder and event producer Phil Grisé in an interview that was conducted a few weeks prior to the event. “Now that skateboarding is in the Olympics, it doesn’t matter what your status is and it only felt right to take what once was the biggest amateur contest in Canada to the next level by inviting pros too”, he added.
The Contest
If you were at Taz skatepark on August 29 to 31st 2019, you know the energy level was intense in there. The world’s best skaters along some of the best up and coming Canadian rippers battled with all they had for a piece of our 40k cash prize (20k for the Women division and 20k for Men) and a chance to climb up the rankings for the late Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The battle in the Men category was something else and tricks were landed faster than we could all see them. At the end of the day, Jake Ilardi from the USA took the gold with an insane line including rails, ledges, transitions and even vert with a crazy 540 in the middle of his run. In second place Jhancarlos Gonzales from Colombia came through with a complete park shut down and in third, the American Dominick Walker with a fire performance. We need to mention that Canada’s own and Empire rider Mikey Ray wasn’t too far behind with a well deserved 4th place and a Canadian Champion title.
The ladies contest was also extremely impressive and ended up with a podium full of superstars. Virginia Fortes Agua got her hands on the gold with a stylish and technical line including a wide variety of manoeuvers and a board slide on the biggest rail in the park. In second place, Annie Guglia who represented her hometown and earned the Canadian Champion title. Annie’s got her skating dialed and her line was perfect. Megan Guy took the third place with her stylish and powerful approach and great tricks selection.
The Vans Best Trick
As well as being the biggest Pro/Am contest in Canada, the Empire Open also highlighted the kickoff of Empire Skateshop’s 20th anniversary year. To celebrate two decades of dedication to the local skateboarding scene, we made sure to prepare everything to make this weekend a memorable one for everybody.
The skaters made sure to stay in town the day after the contest for a full day of skateboarding, music and fun outdoor right on the corners of Saint-Laurent and Milton streets. That day was one for the books. It started in the AM with free skateboarding lessons with the Vans and Empire crews, and was followed by the Vans Best Trick contest, where 20 dollar bills were flying everywhere as riders destroyed the obstacle, impressing pedestrians of all kinds.
The Empire 20th Anniversary Block Party
Last but not least, the Empire 20th anniversary party. The thing started right after the Vans Best Trick Contest and was the best way to end this epic weekend. With an abundance of fresh drinks and outdoor musical live performances, let us tell you that the corner of Saint-Laurent and Milton streets was lit that night.
And that wasn’t even the end! Around 10-11 PM, everybody followed us at Don B. Comber on Saint-Laurent for the Empire Open after party. If there’s one thing we can say about this banger of a closing party, it’s that people who were working the next day were bummed.