Welcome to another edition of our Blasts from the past presented by Monster Energy. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of our partnership with Monster Energy, let’s jump back in time to revisit some of our best events from the past few years. For this week’s edition of our Blasts From The Past Presented by Monster, let’s rewind to 2013 with the infamous BackYard Party Snow!
The Winter edition of the Backyard party in 2013 was definitely one for the books. As the last stop of the SMF snowboards competition circuit, the BYP 2013 was also the grand finale of the whole series, gathering all the winners from the previous 5 SMF stops. Talent and high level snowboarding was on display on an insane setup in the hear of our dear city of Montreal.
Before getting into the details, let’s look back at the origins of this one of a kind contest.
KNOW YOUR HISTORY
The Backyard Party concept came from a skateboard event that was created by Eric Mercier and started by Vans Canada in 2007. The goal was to bring a residential backyard pool session atmosphere to an indoor skate park. Pretty simple, but still a big mission. Making an indoor park look like a backyard isn’t as easy as it seems, but Mercier and the crew proved that it was totally possible.
After a few successful years of the BYP skate, it was time to step up and bring this concept to snowboarding. Staying true to the "residential backyard vibe", the good people at Vans, Empire and Monster were able to turn urban locations into real a backyard looking setup.
After a successful event a year prior in 2012, it was a no brainer for the Empire, Vans and Monster crews to bring back the contest in 2013 and make it the final stop of the infamous SMF contest series for a second year in a row. For the snowboarders reading this, you know how sick the SMF competitions series were! 5 stops all over Quebec and the grand finale at the BYP featuring the winners of all SMF stops.
The qualified riders roster was a great one and included some of the best riders in the world like Jason Dubois, Max Parrot, Will Marquis, Julien Beaulieu and Phil Fournier. Judging by these names, we knew that the final at BYP 2013 would be as impressive as it gets.
After a stop in Québec, Brossard, Boucherville, Bromont, and Vaudreuil, Montreal was the last destination and where the BYP snow 2013 would take place.
THE COURSE
The course featured 6 different rails of very high caliber, most of them with multiple kinks. The course was also separated in 2 sections: the Big section and the Bigger section! On the big section side of the course, a regular stair set with 2 down rails placed close to each other, allowing riders to transfer from one rail to the other. Next to the 2 down rails on the same stairs set, a triple kinked rail with tight kinks and a mellow down angle.
The bigger section of the course had a higher starter and crazier obstacles like a huge kinked rail with steep downs and quick flat kink. Next to this humongous kinked rail, another kicker that allowed riders to hit a flat rail and transfer to the last section of the aforementioned kinked rail. Last but not least, on the far right side of the course, a huge wall that was meant to be ridden by the invited snowboarder. If the riders were next level at the BYP 2013, well, the course was totally on par with skills level: INSANE.
THE CONTEST
After a burning hot year of the SMF series, it was time for the grand finale, the Empire BYP Snow 2013. The event took place in Montreal’s Old Port and started at 2pm with a practice session. If you were there, you remember how huge the crowd was early in the day and only got bigger as the day went by.
The spectators were treated with one solid show as the riding level was extremely high. The event was accessible by invitation only, except for the top 5 of the Empire SMF tour, taking this contest into a whole other realm with some of the best riders in the world putting on one hell of a show.
A solid mix of our top Quebec and Canadian riders as well as a couple invited shredders from the United States were on site to battle for a piece of the $20 000 cash purse. With all those big names and that amount of money, it’s easy to say that the energy was intense among the riders and the spectacle was just as intense for the crowd!
The day started with a crazy warm up session, followed by the qualification rounds, a lunch break and the finals. Everyone killed it to the maximum of their abilities and the finals were heated, but it really came down to three guys who killed it more than everybody else. The American Jordan Morse got his hands on third place with clean moves, style and a major front board of the huge kinked rail for $2500. Jeremy Cloutier went home $5000 richer and snatched second place with some heavy tricks on the triple kinked rail and a flat bar trick to transfer of the down part of the big kinked rail.
At the end of the day, Sherbrooke local and ultimate all around ripper Anto Chamberland took the honors! Anto is always on point, but that day was definitely a good day for him and that showed in the finals. With next level moves like a double slide 270 out on the two down rails, a backside 180 switch 50-50 180 out on the massive kinked rail and a flat bar 50-50 transfer to frontside boardslide on the down rail. With these 3 tricks in the bag, he secured himself the top spot and a nice $10 000.
Like all Empire x Monster parties, the BYP 2013 after-party was memorable, but hard to remember at the same time. Let’s just say that our winners Anto Chamberland, Jeremy Cloutier and Jordan Morse made sure that everyone inside Tokyo Bar was drinking that night!