Tsawwassen Sun Fest Contest 2017
Written By: Hippie Mike
Crutches or not, the annual Tsawwassen Sun Fest Contest was scheduled to go down and as usual, it was an awesome day. The sun was out, it wasn’t too hot, and most importantly I was out of my bed.
Lots of little dudes in the Mini and Beginner categories who made this their first competition. One of the reasons I still try and run so many contests in the Lower Mainland is to get more young kids stoked on skateboarding and then watch these guys go out there and give it everything they’ve got. When you watch Advanced, or even Intermediate, there’s not so many surprises, just a lot of really awesome tricks. But when you’re watching kids 10 & under you have no idea what to expect next, Ethan Metelli proved it in his first run in Mini when he started blasting huge wally airs off all the bank to ledges, this kid is tiny and it was sick to see him fly. All the Mini’s skated great and Kaelen and Ethan were on a mission to win, but no one could stop Devon Hearts that day and he took home 1st place.
The Beginners were just as fun to watch, sitting in a wheelchair with my leg up on a cooler I had original Protest rider Cisco Gooding take over the microphone and I just sat and watched the show. Ryder Mulherin and his buddy James Bateman showed up from Salt Spring Island right when Beginner was about to start, and both of them were on fire using the whole park and landing pretty much everything they tried. Dave McGough, aka Turbo Dave, also ripped it up, blasting huge all over the park. Ryder took it, with Dave right on his tail.
Intermediates stepped it up a few notches and started throwing down on the rails, ledges and over the gaps. The order the top 5 were in when they went into the finals was not the same as when they finished. Ex-Protest rider Andy Anderson manned the microphone for Intermediates which gave them some extra stoke I think. Franklin Ruvalcaba took 1st place over his buddy Austin Doquiatan and Gabe Cruz was coming in hot in 3rd place. Any one of these 3 could have won but Franklins rail skills helped him stay on top.
The ladies got out there and showed there stuff all in one big jam session. Carrie Williams stuck to the flat banks with lots of shovit and 180 tricks, while Jayna Clarke was popping tricks off the ledges. Summer Lang mainly just cruised around but had a blast doing it. Carrie won, as usual.
The Advanced line up was looking pretty dangerous where every competitor had the potential of taking home first place but the real question was simply, Can anyone beat local boy Ryan LePore? The finals jam consisted of Ryan, Andy Anderson, Eve Feaver, Jesse Faber and Merrick Orr, all people who know how to win a comptetion. Merrick broke his board on the first trick and grabbed any board he could find to keep going, it didn’t seem to slow him down as he kickflipped over the biggest bank in the park, frontside feebled the big rail, and gapped from the quarterpipe to the nipple. Eve was going full speed ahead the full 10 minutes blasting huge everywhere and finishing off with an airwalk down the 3-block. Jesse Faber showed off his ledge skills, while Andy Anderson made up 15 tricks and blew everyone’s mind, but the question was could anyone beat Ryan Lepore?, and the answer was simply No. It was a great contest and always fun for everyone to watch.
Thanks to DJ Layback for providing the background tunes, Dennis and Strato for supplying the sound equipment, Cisco and Andy for helping out on the Mic, Platinum Pro-Claim Restoration & J’s Waterproofing for their financial donations, and thanks to everyone who came out and helped me have a fun day.
Same time next year, see you then….
Results from Finals Jams:
Mini: 1. Devon Hearts; 2. Ethan Metelli; 3. Kaelen Faux; 4. Nicloas Mahar; 5.Kieran Hearts; 6. Silas Fitton
Beginner: 1. Ryder Mulherin; 2. Dave McGough; 3. James Bateman; 4. Cooper Fitton; 5. Gus Jackson
Intermediate: 1. Franklin Ruvalcaba; 2. Austin Doquiatan; 3. Gabe Cruz; 4. Frakie Nivala; 5. Flash Gordon
Girls: 1. Carrie Williams; 2. Jayna Clarke; 3. Summer lang
Advanced: 1. Ryan Lepore $100; 2. Andy Anderson $60; 3. Merrick Orr $40; 4. Eve Feaver; 5. Jesse Faber
