five stars The Poor Boyz Productions crew spends two icy weeks in Edmonton’s urban playground teXt ChRis o’ConneLL
Photos DAn CARR
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East Coast winters mean L.J. only rocks one glove, even in frigid Edmonton.
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s North America’s most populous northern city, Edmonton has been a home base to intrepid explorers and resource exploiters since before its inception in 1795. From the diamond miners and fur traders of yesteryear to the controversial oil-sands project dominating its current economy, there are riches to be grubbed up in these here parts. And there’s never been a shortage of those seeking their share of the goods. Given its proximity to the pristine slopes of the northern Rocky Mountains (a mere 220 kilometres to the west) and its notorious winter climate, it’s reasonable to think Edmonton would also be a
mecca for snow-sliding enthusiasts. It is, in a way, with a continent-leading four lift-accessed ski hills within its boundaries. But pervasive cold and Olympic glory-hogging by its Alberta neighbour to the south, Calgary, have conspired to keep the city off the alpine radar, and rendered it peripheral to the growing urbanski landscape. We thought we should do something about that. This past winter, an all-star cast of skiers dragged themselves north to this gateway of the Arctic corridor in search of their own treasure cache. Beta from snowboard crews who’d gone before made it clear that there would be no shortage of wooden rails— sadly one of the few surfaces that frustrate skiers more than even their single-planked comrades. And so the search for concrete, metal, and airtime began. Four of the best young skiers in the urban game gathered just after New Year’s Day to work alongside SBC SKIER photographer Dan Carr on Poor Boyz Productions’ latest feature, Revolver, in what will go down as one of the longest and most productive urban missions of the year. The crew had two weeks between busy comp and training schedules in which to get ’er
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done; naturally, each rider wanted something different from the trip. East Coast phenom L.J. Strenio took a go-with-the-flow approach: “I didn’t really have any [specific] goals... I had a set of tricks and some different types of features I was hoping we’d hit, but I went in with an open mind, ready to hit whatever the guys were stoked on.” Brit-transplant Leigh Powis was more to the point: “My goal was to go upside down off as much stuff as I could.”
MAtt wALkeR * We had to remember to pace ourselves. The first day we did 24 hours of straight urban—7 a.m. to 7 a.m. It rendered us useless for the entire next day. Limiting ourselves to a feature a day made us more productive in the long run. * skier
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No video games here. L.J. gets upside down without a reset button in sight.
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Matt Walker, now just as comfortable in front of his musicmaking gear as in an X Games start gate, echoed sentiments heard from many riders looking to up their game and give their audience something new each year: “I’m over the ‘let’s see how many switch-ups I can do’ style of urban, so I wanted to push things in a different, more creative way. The fact that PBP’s new film is segment-based was a motivator, too. Your segment relies completely on how much work you do.” Of course, there’s nothing better on a trip to the unknown than local knowledge. Enter Edmontonraised Mike Henitiuk, a recent addition to the Poor Boyz roster and slayer of big mountains and downtown metal alike. Henitiuk’s roots came in handy on more than one occasion, from providing a place for seven smelly skiers and filmers to crash (grandma’s basement) to a hook-up for an Oilers game, where the exhausted skiers took some much needed time away from worries about concrete landings and sugary snow. Despite Edmonton’s surfeit of ski hills, the vast majority of action took place within a multi-block radius of downtown, along the North Saskatchewan River that bisects the city. It was, as advertised, winter in Edmonton. Famously frigid temperatures proved frustrating, testing the will of skiers, sucking moisture from the local snowpack,
and wreaking havoc with power generators and flashes. “We had to carry around 30 gallons of water to mix with the snow in order to build anything,” recalls Carr. “And it all had to stay inside the trucks with the heat on so it didn’t freeze. Same with the generators. If you put them outside for too long before starting them up, you’d have to put them back in the truck with the heater cranked for an hour.” Fortunately, Edmonton’s notoriously friendly citizenry came through with the kind of hospitality they’re known for, allowing the crew to do its thing on city streets without any of the usual hassles associated with urban missions. Well, mostly.
Leigh Powis checks out the city’s parks and rec before going down with a bum knee.
Leigh Powis * I got to Whistler on Dec. 1 after being in England trying to get my driver’s licence. I skied a week and ended up separating my shoulder—only Grade 2 to start, but it was fully separated by the end of the trip. I wasn’t able to ski at all before the Edmonton trip but was stoked to go film with these guys, so I just got a good tape job and went for it. *
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asy access and no shortage of features, however, is sometimes a double-edged sword. “Two weeks of urban is my limit,” explains Walker. “Regardless of how good you are, drops, stairs, concrete, and countless other hard objects mean that it’s not a matter of if, but when you’re going to take a hard spill. And those falls add up mentally and physically. A bad injury here could really mess up your comp year—it was only
two weeks before X Games.” He had a point. Given that plenty of things can go wrong even on a one-day urban shoot, two weeks was certainly pushing whatever luck was out there. Indeed the first major spill and biggest downer occurred on Day 9 when Powis tangled with a concrete ledge and blew his knee, an injury that ended his season. The trip’s biggest incident, however, involved a first for everyone—and maybe a first ever. When their tow-in bungee snapped due to temps hovering
around -20 C, the crew continued a wallride session using one of the trucks on hand. “Driving the truck across a school car park pulled the riders perpendicular, down the road and onto the wall ride,” recalls Carr of his vantage point in the driver’s seat. “After about 10 minutes I noticed a helicopter hovering about 700 metres above us. I dismissed it, but the lights in the sky kept reappearing and getting lower, circling the city centre towers. “Then, suddenly, there was a
blinding searchlight shining directly through the windshield. I parked and got out to walk over to the skiers. The searchlight followed, presumably to make sure I didn’t run. We weren’t really sure what to do, because as far as I know that’s the first time a police heli has been called to an urban shoot.” Given the costly resources at work, the police couldn’t have been more reserved when officers arrived in a blacked-out SUV moments later, an experience Walker won’t soon forget.
Mike Henitiuk * I grew up right outside Edmonton and lived there until I was 12. It has always been my plan to come back and hit the City of Champions. The first day we went directly to some zones I remembered and found exactly what we wanted—a mecca of wall rides, ledges, drops and taps. * Matt Walker’s pressing matters.
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Edmonton has a dinosaur named after it, the Edmontosaurus. Henitiuk goes digging for fossils.
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L.J. stRenio * Two weeks is a damn long time. You have to adjust your pace early in anticipation of how long you’re going to be skiing strictly urban features. It’s always a gamble because every feature can potentially destroy you. It’s also mentally rough because you do very little actual skiing: most of your time is spent digging and the rest is spent eating shit on cement stairs. *
“The officer was no doughy rent-a-cop, resembling a more put-together Gary Busey. He inquired as to why we needed a car. The response ‘for speed’ wasn’t what he wanted to hear. We pleaded for just one more try, but he said if that happened, the dudes in the chopper would see and he’d get in trouble. Luckily we’d already got a couple shots. The rest of the trip was filled with jokes about us getting five stars on Grand Theft Auto: Edmonton and beating the game.” After the run-in with the fuzz at the wallride and a 2 a.m. hospital
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trip with Powis and his blown knee, only a few checks remained on the crew’s to-do list. A session at the glass pyramids of the city’s Muttart Conservatory and the search for an honest-to-goodness metal rail—one of two shot over the entire trip—at the request of Strenio, were the finishing pieces on a marathon session that couldn’t even dampen the spirits of the one casualty. “You know what? Hanging out with any of these dudes on a trip like this is just the friggin’ best ever,” says Powis. “It was fun times even with a blown knee.”