Fourteen years ago the Attack of Danger Bay started what has since become an international movement in downhill longboarding competitions. This year the event was held on May 17 — it’s always on the Victoria Day long weekend.
Kevin ‘K-Rimes’ Reimer came in first, followed by Dylan Stevens, Matthew ‘Grizz’ Kroetsch, and Mack Wacey.
Heats of four riders are selected randomly with no qualifications necessary. The top two of each heat are moved on to the next round until there is only one left. For the last three years in a row, that’s been Reimer.
Hailing from the United States, Reimer is the current world champion of longboarding.
The Attack on Danger Bay was the first longboarding competition in the world. It began with five Pender Harbour locals: Bricin Lyons, Sandy Charlton, Mike Roosen, Rylan English and Scott ‘Scoot’ Smith who formed the infamous Green Team. They’re known for all dyeing their hair green in competitions.
Lyons now commentates the race from a tower overlooking Carnage Corner, the hardest turn on the course to make without wiping out into the hay bales. Smith placed 12 in the Men’s Open; he’s been longboarding for 11 years.
“It went well. I won in a bunch of my heats and had a good time in the nice sunny weather,” he said.
Smith discovered longboarding when he moved to Pender Harbour at 17 to finish his senior year in high school.
“All of the friends I met were longboarding, so that’s just what we did every day. Eventually you start competing and wanting to win, and it just went from there,” he said. “I fell in love with it right away. I’ve always been kind of a competitive person, and living in a small town, there’s not a lot of things to do. It’s a fairly inexpensive sport be in, all you really need is a skateboard and a helmet and some gloves and then you’re ready to go.”
In the early days, riders wore anything to protect themselves from the asphalt and dressed a little like Mel Gibson in The Road Warrior. These days there’s a huge industry around protective gear for longboarding. Pads for elbows, knees and hands plus helmets and leather body suits — not to mention the boards, trucks and wheels — could easily run over $1,000. Not that you need all of the professional gear right away.
Competitions run all over the world, but seem to have become especially popular in North and South America. The Attack of Danger Bay may have been the first, it’s still one of the biggest, and longboarding is here to stay.
