"Winnipeg is one of the
few trips that I look forward to every year. I've been going there for the past 4
years, and hopefully for the next 10. The skate camps are pretty tight, and
some of those kids have been getting so good! I've met so many good people
either at the park or just kickin' it and having a few beers. I love Winnipeg!"
—Sean Malto
"We all really look
forward to the Canada trips, and talk about them for the whole year to come.
Winnipeg is always the best trip of the summer!"
—Mikey Taylor
It seems strange to hear testimonials like this about an
isolated prairie city in middle-Canada, especially from well-traveled and high
profile American skaters. But the ‘Peg is an anomaly. At first you might
wonder, "Why the hell would I go there?"
But if you took the trip during the summer months, you'd find yourself
immediately scheming on ways to extend your stay.
Sean Malto, Tyler
Bledsoe, Mikey Taylor, and Davis Torgerson from Etnies, along with
Chris "Kentucky" Anderson (DVS and Alien Workshop flow) have been making annual
under-the-radar pilgrimages to Winnipeg (well it was Davis' first time) since
around 2006. In '09, the Plaza at the Forks Skatecamp took place in late August
and was sponsored by Etnies and Timebomb,
Investors Group, The Forks, and hosted by Sk8 Skates. The 5-day camp gave 50
young skaters the chance to skate a handful of quality parks with the
aforementioned Etnies bros. Sam McGuire – both a photographer
for Etnies and contributor to The
Skateboard Mag – has been to the camps since the beginning. This year he
chipped in some photos and did some explainin':
Why did you start
going to Winnipeg?
The first time was for the opening of the Forks plaza to shoot
a "Festivus" page for The
Skateboard Mag in 2006. I
just went up for the weekend and ended up staying 4 extra days because Kentucky
[Chris Anderson] and Mikey Taylor were there. Sometimes you go to a city and it
doesn't work out, but in Winnipeg it worked out right away.
How were the camps
first established?
We had met Genico Aiello (owner of Sk8 Skates) when
Chris Anderson did skatecamps with him in ‘06. The following year, Chris was
going again for the camps, so me and Malto came along for the first WAM
contest. Malto did 3 weeks of camps, skated WAM, and made some money [he got 4th
place and $1000]. He wasn't as well known as he is now. We were there for 21
days the second visit. Omar Salazar and Stefan Janoski came out for the camps
that year, too. In 2008, we went
to WAM again and did the skatecamps, but in '09 there was no contest so
we just went to do the summer camps.
What are the camps all
about?
I've been to a few around America, and the kids are usually
crazy – especially when you have pros and stuff. But the kids in Winnipeg are
super rad and really grateful. They don't just ask you for your board and
shoes. For the most part it was just about hanging out and skating with the
kids. There's a lot of event type things at the camps every day, like races and
big games of SKATE. Each year on the last day of they do "King Of The Camp"
which is "King Of The Road" style, with 2 or 3 pages of tricks you have to do, and you get one of the Etnies guys on your team to help. It's pretty much the
same kids every year, so it's cool to see them progress. There's this one kid, Kyle Nickoshie, who
everyone calls "Little Malto". He's getting really good.
Tyler Bledsoe, backside tailslide heelfip out.
What parks did you guys
hit?
We skated The
Forks, and everybody's pretty partial to the Michael
Komenda park. And how could you not like the park in
Kenora, Ontario? All you see is lake when you look around. You can
skate, then jump in the water. The camps are really fun. That'll keep us coming
back, for sure. Genico definitely has a cool thing going.
What happened at the
bridge in Kenora this year?
Mikey, Chris, Zach Knight and Dawson Friesen
all jumped off the big one [on Hwy 17]. They got in this chest puff-out moment
where they wanted to outdo each other. It was funny watching them all stand on
this bridge quivering in fear, all looking at each other like, "I'll jump if you jump." They lagged on
it for a half-hour then the cops came and said, "You guys better not be jumping." It was almost like the cop
telling them they couldn't do it is what made them want to do it more. So
Dawson jumped after the cop left, then Mikey and Chris jumped. It's huge, so it
was funny to watch because instead of actually jumping, everyone kind of
daintily fell off [laughs].
You guys are repeat
offenders in regards to where you stay and where you go out in Winnipeg. Where
are your spots?
I'm not sure if the Fairmont downtown [2 Lombard Place] gives
us discounts now...but if not, them putting up with us is worth its discount
weight. You can drink when you're 18 in Winnipeg, so the younger dudes on the
trip can go to the bars. Everybody likes going to Earls [191 Main St.], which
is close by. They have Icebergs (pint of beer with lemon slush floating on top)
there, which are pretty hard to get burnt out on [laughs]. We go to Bar Italia [café/pub/main hangout – 737 Corydon
Ave.] a lot. Every year we try and go to Wasabi [Japanese restaurant – 588
Broadway], and getting the chance to go to 529 [high-end a la carte steakhouse – 529 Wellington Cres.] is always amazing. I feel like we go to the same places
every year, but I mean it in a good way. It's comfortably exotic.
"I guess my favourite
restaurant would be Earls seeing as how we went there 75% of the time. There
was definitely a lot of tail to look at, and the Icebergs were clutch."
–Davis
Torgerson
All photos: Sam McGuire
---------------------------
Related:
The Canadian Side Of The Brain with Sean Malto
Run It Back with Colin Lambert (Winnipeg)
In The Park: Michael Komenda Memorial Park (Winnipeg)