For the year's fourth and last edition of our Blast From The Past Presented by Monster Energy, let’s travel back to 2015 for one of the most unique event we had the chance to host: The Empire City Troopers. The longest urban slope style course ever seen in Canada straight in the heart of downtown Montreal.
Let’s celebrate our 10 years’ partnership with Monster Energy and jump on memory lane for one of Empire’s history craziest event. It’s crazy to think that this event happened exactly 6 years ago. Even after all this time, the City Troopers 2015 will always remain one for the books.
A crazy urban concept
60 of the best snowboarders in North America competing for a pieces of the 15k cash purse in front of more than 18 000 people, the atmosphere was lit in Montreal’s Quartier Latin on December 5th 2015. If you were there, you remember that it was quite the experience as Saint-Denis Street was blocked between Sherbrooke and Ontario and the whole neighborhood was set up to look like a real alpine village.
The goal of the event was to fully transport the mountain spirit in the urban landscape of the city. Winter sports and mountain life are always going to be part of our culture, why not take it to the city streets?! The result was very impressive and took us somewhere else for real. The best part about all this is that the event was 100% free.
The festivities started as early as noon on December 5th 2015 with a free snowboard initiation session courtesy of Burton Riglets. A bunch of small kid boards were available on site for kids to try out.
The contest started right after with an open qualification session. A lot of talented young people tried their luck, but only 25 would be able to join the 35 invited pros in the semi-finals, starting at 7pm after a lunch break, autograph session as well as well needed warmup session. the finals happened around 10pm and it was pure insanity.
The Course
Other than the huge crowd and the elite snowboarding, the actual course was something to remember. Major shout out to our friends at Todays Parks for coming through with one of the best course we’ve seen and for installing it straight on Saint-Denis Street. The look of the street really made us feel like we were at the ski station. We have to mention that for the occasion, 7,000 ft3 of snow were used. That’s a whole lot of snow.
The course had 3 back to back obstacles starting with a huge up rail that launched riders high into the air and into a steep landing. Following this first hit, a classic rail going down stairs that had a massive wall ride on its right and a pole Jam to flat rail on its left. The third part of the course consisted of a huge triangle rail with jumps and flat bars on its sides.
To add a touch of Winter elements, there was a car stuck in a massive pile of snow at the end of the course, a clever reminder of the everyday Winter life of the common Quebecer. No need to mention that even if wasn’t its purpose, the car was shredded and used by the snowboarders as a 4th obstacle.
The Contest
Just like the whole event itself, the format of the contest was also one of a kind. The energy was through the roof as the event was early in the season and pretty much the first time all the riders got together to shred after the summer. Everybody was hyped and the energy coming from the huge crowd pushed the athletes to go beyond their limits for this unforgettable urban snowboarding jam.
Among our most memorable highlights, Frank Bourgeois run, including a massive Frontside wallride 270 out on the second obstacle. That was straight up crazy. We can’t forget to mention our boy Zach Aller, who crushed the course with the most fluid style we’ve seen all weekend.
Another huge highlight for us was to see our man Phil Jacque dominate the event like he was born to do it. The best part is that Phil is a 100% street snowboarder and usually doesn’t like contests, but he came to the City Troopers to have fun and it showed. A couple of solid runs later, he was on the podium's highest step.
That’s right! Phil Jacques snagged the Empire x Monster City Troopers first place with insane consistence and even more insane tricks that got him a well deserved $7500. In second position, Frank Bourgeois, who went home with a nice 4k and in third place, our good friend and style king Zach Aller. Quite a podium right there!
The Party
An Empire x Monster event is not a real Empire x Monster event without our legendary after parties. The City Troopers was one for the books and kept the alpine village vibe going at l’Abreuvoir bar until the wee hours of the morning. If you remember 2015, l’Abreuvoir bar was popping on a regular basis, but that night was even more special with the snowboarding community taking over the place. For some reason, the bar even felt a bit like a nice après-ski at the snowboard shack.
Good vibes, good music and the snowboarding community all came together for a moment that will always be engraved in our memories.
