Danger Bay 5 last weekend in Pender Harbour was a complete and utter success.With over 130 racers this year it not only broke records, but also created a great show for spectators as well as the competitive downhill racers that joined in on the fun. The turnout had racers making trips from as far as New Mexico, Hawaii, and Montreal, or as close as Pender Harbour and most every racer had a great time riding down the hills on the Sunshine Coast.The slide competition was an amazing event with riders flying down the hill at near insane speeds on hard wheels and short to long skateboards and sliding them sideways in technical maneuvers that made riders looks more like spinning tops than people. A few riders, namely Chris Dahl of Rayne Longboards and Noah Sakamoto of Comet Skateboards, dominated the slide competition; they took second and first, respectively. Dahl was letting loose big spins and complicated body twists while Sakamoto was letting loose fast and crazy stand up slides in which he slid for huge distances while not using his hand to balance. Red of Vancouver who was sliding near the 200-foot mark dominated the long slide for the second year in a row. Everyone had a fantastic time watching the sliding and the competition was fierce.Following the May Day parade the longboarders headed off to Stephan's Way, more affectionately known as "Jake's Rash", a 2.9 km hill near Halfmoon Bay that has tons of turns and smooth, black asphalt that makes for a longboarder's paradise.At the Rash Bricin Lyons, the organizer of Danger Bay, put all of the racer's names in a hat and chose five that he would race to the bottom of the hill. If they were to beat Lyons they would be given $100 to spend on the weekend. Rick Kludy of California was the only one who was able to best Lyons on his favorite hill. Luckily for him Lyons had bet him double and awarded him $200. After the excitement at Stephan's Way the group headed back to the campsite to rest up for the morning's race.The morning dawned early and sunny on Sunday and the racers showed up on the hill one by one until there were over 130 racers getting ready to race. The practice runs started at 8 a.m. and the day went off without a hitch. There were a few injuries here and there, but that is to be expected when there are that many people racing down a fast, technical hill that Danger Bay is. The sun was beating down almost all day until it really mattered, in the quarterfinals. The riders who had been dominating all day were soon reduced to slow riding in attempts to make it clean through wet and slippery conditions in "Carnage Corner." With most every rider falling or going slow the results were vastly changed. After a whole 10 hours of racing it came down to the finals, which consisted of Jesse Tynan of North Vancouver, Tom Edstrand of Vancouver (the number one racer in the world), Nate of Squamish, and Brian Elderkin of Chilliwack. The road was soaked, the crowd was stoked, and the competitors were hungry for a win.In the first corner Edstrand went down but was quickly up in the attempts to win but it was too late, Nate was entering the corner right alongside Elderkin with Tynan in close pursuit.Nate went wide and was getting close to the haybales as Elderkin attempted to save him by pulling him away but to no avail. Tynan took it slow in hopes of staying on his board and managed to pull through while Edstrand was just getting to Carnage Corner as the first three were leaving. Elderkin came through for the win with Tynan close behind while Nate took and third and Edstrand, for the fifth time in a row, wasn't able to win Danger Bay.
