No Pucks Given Race

by adminJune 5, 2015

Written By: Mike Schein
Photos By: Broken Shoestring and Drew Robert Render

No Pucks Given 2015 was a blast! Along with the Capri Freeriders (CFR), I got to the hill before anyone else at around 8:45am and it was completely soaked. So much froth! After about 5 minutes, Ricki and some others pitched, and we started designing the course. Now you may ask – “There is already a road, so what are you doing trying to design a new one?” Well, since air braking would be enough to grip the corners under normal conditions, we had to tighten things up to make things a little gnarlier for the no pucks race. We used hay bales to cut off apexes, block proper race lines, and generally force people to standy into the corners. It was flipping mooi!

Around 10am, we started doing practice runs. They were basically the freshest thing! People were frothing so hard, and there were lots of bails, scrapes, close calls, and general gnar. Even though the road was wet, it was surprisingly grippy. The wet tar had people highsiding and doing things that generally only happen in the dry.

After many more practice runs, we finally got started into our first category – No Pucks. It ran relatively well once we had smoothed out some small kinks in the works. It was a great race in the end. The heats were made up of 4 homies, with the top 2 progressing and the other two dropping out. There was a nice 4-man final made up of Yannick Lussier, Felix Hirner, Jonah Filen, and Matthew Cerf. Felix and Jonah took a tumble in the top section of the course, leaving Yannick and Cerf to battle it to the bottom. Yannick took the win with Cerf less than a meter behind.

After the No Pucks final, there was lunch for the riders, and then after a 5 minute break, everyone was doing more practice runs! So much froth. There was a shuttle lifting us up and down, and we had countless runs. Then the Puck Down and Ladies categories were run. There were 4 ladies at the race, and their final was won by Kiri Twentyman-Jones. The ladies were shredding, and it was so fresh to watch!

The Puck Down race then began, with double the amount of people racing in this category than in the No Pucks one. By this time, the road had dried up, and people were hauling through corners with haybales sitting in their apexs and two or three homies right next to them – so much gnar!

The heats were 4-man heats with the top 2 going through, until we hit the semis. The two semi-finals were made up of 5 homies, with the top 3 going through to the final. We had a gnarly 6-man final made up of Bojan Basic, Jonah Filen (the blok mun got into both finals), Kahlil Dexter-jadwat, Felix Hirner (the blok mun got into both finals too), Shareef Parker, and myself. Off the push, Bojan lossed the rest of us, and it was basically a fight for 2nd place. The racing was so tight, with multiple changes of position. The final placing for the Puck Down category was Bojan in first, Jonah in second, and myself third.

A little side note here – one of the biggest factors on the course was a huge pump ramp at the very end of the run. It was made out of sheet metal, and covered in rain, and so was basically the gnarliest thing you’ve ever seen! So many people thought they were through to the finish line, just meters before the pump ramp. But then tehy would get destroyed by the pump ramp and be overtaken just before the line. It was amazing!

So then after the puck down category, we had the most amazing mob run that I have ever experienced. There were 30-40 people just gooi-ing down the course at the same time! And so far as I am aware, no one bailed! I did a little film run of that run, Here is what I got:

After the massive mob run, we had prize giving. People always froth for prize giving, because there is free stuff to be had, and that’s just mooi. Me on the other hand, I always get told that I have lots of sponsors, and therefore don’t deserve any more gear. Sick dude. Hahah it was a fresh prize giving though, and it was the most amazing event. So many fun runs with all the homies, lots of bails, but with minimal gnarly consequences as a result. A huge thank you goes out to Ricki Allarkyse for hosting the event, along with all the sponsors for providing everyone with some amazing prizes and stoke. Much love to all of you.

Mike Schein.

Video edit of No Pucks Given 2015 By Sameega Salaasa: