You'd think getting sprayed by a 1-ton truck while walking down the sidewalk during an 8am Vancouver downpour would be a bummer. It wasn't. There were greater things on the immediate horizon, such as meeting up with 35 skaters at the Vancouver plaza for a 9:30am boarding call on the Coors Light coach, better known as a nightclub on wheels. Destination? Color magazine's first and hopefully annual Pro/Am Skate And Deploy contest (also brought to you by Push.ca) at the Telus Conference Centre in Whistler to kick-start the 2009 Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival. After the previous long weekend boasted a classic arena contest in Vancouver, the 17th of April would once again bring the DIY ruckus in a very Canadian fashion—in the dim, dusty and frigid confines of an underground parking garage in the mountains.

The nightclub on wheels. Except it's 9:30am.

The ride up to Whistler was an adventure in itself. During the 200 Silver Bullet swerve up the infamous Sea-To-Sky highway at the dawn's early light, Sheldon Meleshinski ensured surround sound live Sabbath to spark the troops, while the seats nearest the airplane-style bathroom proved to be the most derelict real-estate due to the high frequency of morning crunks. Dylan Doubt, Color's photo editor, passed along all the necessary waiver paper work to contestants as a legal hand wash for the organizers of such a savage wood-wheel event, and each form systematically landed back in his vicinity as a signed paper airplane. Once the bus tunes more accurately shifted to Canned Heat's "On The Road Again", Whistler's Function Junction was upon us, and the parkade awaited barbaric skate abuse—a battle cry far from the facility's usual purpose. Sandro Grison, Color mag's editor, had made the trip up the day before, and was ready to hand out $2000 to the top 3 as well as a grip of 20s for standout moves.

Back of the bus on the ride up...

I'll go ahead and skip the text heavy play-by-play by letting the photos and the Skate And Deploy brethren tell the story of this far-from-average Friday. Observe the mayhem, read the heat-of-the-moment accounts, and check the contest notes and results below:

All photos by Brian Caissie

"We started with the drinks at 9:30 in the morning, and drove two hours in a party bus to skate an underground in Whistler, and snowboarders are watchin' us."
-Dustin Montie's nutshell summary of Skate And Deploy.

"This is about as Canadian as it gets, man. It's raining cats and dogs outside, but we're in an underground skatin' a car with dirty, sketchy, haggard ramps, you know? Everything you could ask for in a great Canadian contest."
-Paul Machnau

"I'm not exactly sure what's going on here...There's a lot of good skateboarders and a lot of bros. I'm not too sure about that car there—a lot of people have been eatin' sh#t when they land on the hood..."
-Lee Saunders

"Well, I've got people grindin' over my head while I'm lookin' out the window—I felt that last crooked grind!"
-Sheldon Meleshinski reporting from inside the skateable contest car—a rusted out, early ‘80s Volvo wagon.

"There's no f@#kin' wax, so I guess using Old Spice deodorant to make it slide is the only way to go."
-Dan "Alien" Nelson on the tribulations of waxing the skateable Volvo with underarm charm.

"The launch over the can has been a pretty hot item, and the car's been shredded to the maximum—grinding the car, tricks off the car, manuals across the car, and Alien immediately tried to ollie onto the hood and break the windshield [laughs].
-John Hanlon reporting from inside the Volvo.

"When I went through that front windshield, that felt pretty good."
-Dan "Alien" Nelson.

"Well, there's two kinds of contests. There's the contest where people are nervous and pretending to have fun, then there's a contest like this where half the people here are freezing and wearing snowboarding jackets, and the other half are having fun. So at least half the people are havin' fun, you know what I mean?"
-Cyrus Thiedeke, master of ceremonies for Skate and Deploy.

"It is what it is..."
-Joey Williams

"I think they did it as good as it could've been done, pretty much. Sick, janky obstacles that weren't perfect so it wasn't like every trick in the world was going down—it was challenging to skate, and there were tons of homies. The parking garage was sick, and the highlight of the day was probably Chris Connelly launching the car, or when everyone f@#ked the car up [laughs]. That was insane! People just turned into cavemen. I definitely threw my two cents in there and took a window out."
-John Hanlon's thoughts during après-contest chicken strips at the Amsterdam Café in Whistler village.

"Without all the friends involved in this, what do you really have? A bunch of Coors Light and a rusty Volvo. I think we're all winners..."
-Trevn Sharp, DC/Quiksilver Canada TM, commenting on the winner's circle.

*Click here to see the full Skate And Deploy roster.

Contest Notes

Some Standout Rusty Volvo Moves

-Cory Wilson: launch to roof-top manual to hood-drop with a quick-footed backside 180 out / launch to roof-top ride to kickflip over hood.
-Brett Stobbart: launch to roof-top ride to frontside flip over hood.
-Nate Lacoste: launch to frontside tailslide on the roof.
-Chris Connelly: launch to high speed roof-top manny to hood clearance pop-out, and valiant attempts at a near ceiling-decapitation melon launch over the car to hood landing.
-Bradley Sheppard: kicker wedge to Volvo roof kickflip noseslide on the post-apocalyptic, trashed version of the skate car.

Push.ca Wallride Jam Highlights
-Jorden Murray: big, floaty backside wallrides.

-Dustin Montie: alley-oop ollie wallride from ramp-to-ramp.

-Adam Hopkins: wallride to ape hang on the parkade roof's plumbing.

-Joe Buffalo: smooth wall jams and just plain being Joe Buffalo.

Results
-Paul Machnau - $1000
-John Hanlon - $500 (minus $100 for an open beverage fine outside of the post-contest "Skate Of The Art" show in Whistler's Telus Conference Centre, which featured Color's "A Rolling Perspective" traveling photo show.)
-Bradley Sheppard - $300

A short video shot at Skate and Deploy:

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Related:
Skate and Deploy (Lenny's blog)