New West Skate Jam 2017
Written By: Hippie Mike
About 9 years ago I received a phone call from the City of New Westminster saying that the old New West Skate Park “Mercer Skate Park” was going to be torn out for some upcoming construction in the area and they wanted me to be part of figuring out what to do next, but it never actually happened. In February of this year I received another phone call, this time telling me that there was a good sized budget to build a new skate park in New West and they wanted me to be part of the planning committee and also help get the right people involved. I said sure, then I suggested something else – I said why don’t we work together and organize a big jam at the old park and get all the old locals out there to enjoy one last banger of a contest. That way we can get actual people from New West, young and old, that will use the new park to get involved, it’s their city and their future. The people from the City loved the idea and on we went with planning.
I knew there would be mixed emotions from lots of the locals when they knew that the old park is definitely coming out at some point but hoped that they would be excited for the future and help with what’s to come. Either way I wanted to run a contest at a place that meant so much to so many people, including myself. And so it the date was set for April 29th.
Of course the weather did not want to cooperate that day so we had to make the call early morning to postpone until the next day, April 30th, but unfortunately lost some of the people that wanted to be there. But for those who were able to show up, the day was set to be awesome…
We started out with the Mini (10 yrs and Under) and Beginner contests and these kids were ripping. Half of them had never been to the park before so it was great to see them learning the lines and trying tricks on obstacles that they’ve never touched before. Protest crew member Kaelen Faux, aka Big Rip, totally ripped it up in the Mini category with ollies on the rollers, powerslides on the banks and even some grinds on the quarterpipes, making a 1st place finish inevitable. Kaelen is a Bowl Series regular so this park made sense to him, and it was awesome to see him shred. It reminded me of when New West used to be part of the Bowl Series events.
The Beginners stepped it up huge with 50-50’s and 5-0 grinds on the ledges, flip tricks over the rollers and banks, and of course some awesome old school styles. Olek Khrystoyev took 1st place over his good friend Sean Booth, which was awesome since both of them travelled all the way from Richmond for the jam and neither had ever even seen the park before. We had a Best Trick contest right after just for all the little dudes on the pyramid for a classic Eve Feaver fishtail Protest Deck and Olek won that too, he was stoked!
By this time the park, and all the ground around it, was starting to get more full with people. So many awesome friends and everyone smiling. Kyle Dion from New Line Skateparks was there giving out drinks and snacks and the Canadian legend Kevin Harris even showed up and gave a speech on the mic about how far skateboarding has come over the years and decades and what the future holds. Very inspirational.
The Intermediates came in hot with a couple true locals in there and some others that were rookies to a New West contest. Late entry by Long Hair Nathan got the crowd pumped at the end of the first runs as he held on to some serious dangerousness and lit it up again in the 5 minute jam, but Nico Dellisanti brought back the past and got the judges’ full attention taking first place with some wicked style and flip tricks all over the park. Way to go Nico!!
Warm up for Advanced was so good that I totally forgot to announce the winners and hand out prizes from Intermediate, and no one else remembered either, it was already obvious that Advanced was going to be an amazing show – Dave Helmer, Lil G, Eve Feaver, Leif Brooke, Noah Eastwood, Josh MacDonald, Stu Pattie, Mike Klinkhammer, Tucker Vezina, Andy Anderson, and more…. The judges were in for a treat. 4 3 minute jams with 4 people in each jam, Top 5 would make the finals and skate again. It started out with Justin Weiss, Michael Giver James, Riley Allen and Tucker, and all 4 of them were killing it right off the bat, unfortunately Riley and Tucker collided head on and Tucker could not go on, but everyone was stoked on how good he was skating and gave him serious props as he limped out of the bowl. 2nd heat was just as insane with Noah flying all over the park, Stu shredding on his longboard, Jon D doing wellie tricks everywhere and Josh going big, it was already looking like a tough job to be a judge. Heat 3, the DJ put the right song on with some Maiden – Aces High. Leif Brooke, Eve Feaver, Dave Helmer & Mike Klinkhammer started tearing up the park at full speed ahead, all going huge on the pyramid hips, popping tight tricks on the big quaterpipe, and showing off all the best lines in the park. All 4 of them were definitely in the running to make finals. Heat 4 consisted of Allen Handley, Addison Cleave, Lil G, and Andy Anderson, if you weren’t there you can only imagine what went down. All 4 of these guys skate totally different and all land the craziest tricks, but Andy stole the show as usual flying high all over the park, hitting all the ledges inside and out of the bowl, and getting funky with some freestyle. Tough day to be a judge but we had the best New West Locs on it.
Top 5 consisted of Josh, Noah, Eve, Leif and Andy, they had 5 minutes to impress the crowd and that is definitely what they did. Starting off with a usual speedline train over the big hip the energy level was set. Both Eve and Leif are over 40 years old and were showing these young bucks how to skate Mercer hard. Andy lit up the crowd some more and finished off the run by popping a fat ollie over the Chalmers Gap from the pyramid, but it wasn’t enough to beat out the OG’s – 43 year old Leif Brooke took home 1st place, with 44 year old Eve Feaver right on his tail. These guys shredded like they’ve never stopped shredding in their lives and it was truly inspirational for everyone there to watch. Way to represent guys!
Big thanks to everyone that showed up, everyone that skated, and everyone that just came to hang out and enjoy the day, that’s what the event was all about. Thanks to the judges Ross McLeister, Dennis Atanasov and Jaffrey for putting in work trying to decifer the winners of each category. We raised $120 and 30lbs of food for the New Westminster Food Bank, tons of people signed up with the City to be involved in the planning of a new park, everyone ripped it up all day, but most importantly we all got together and had a great time at a great place. Thank you all for that…
