After today's competition concluded, I gained an immediate appreciation for why many Canadian sports stadiums are covered. The weather can swing from sunny to savage without warning here in the Great White North, making it awfully hard to run a snowboard event on schedule. But since covering Grouse Mountain with a retractable dome is, well, impossible, all you can do is be patient and enjoy the complimentary cheese and crackers in the Monster Energy hospitality tent while you wait. 

Rare glimpse of the sun. Let's do this thing.

If you haven't already gathered, the weather - which included flurries and fog and the occasional burst of sun - was a factor again today during the semi-finals and eight-man finals. With a few delays due to poor visibility, various impromptu events broke out to pass the time, such as a dance contest on the deck of the jump, and a wall-ride session at the bottom of the course, led by none other than Andrew Geeves.

Geeves makes the most of some down time.

The qualifiers, which saw the top four riders advance out of two heats, featured some legit tricks to say the least. Beau Bishop unloaded a frontside 10, Jesmond Dubeau stomped a frontside 9, and Warren Williams did sweet switch backside 7's, as did the curiously named Atsushi Ishikawa (yes, he's from Japan). The gap to manny pad to rail set-up at the bottom of the course was scored along with the jump, but it was clear that the best tricks off the jump would separate the riders advancing into finals from those who retired to the patio at the Rusty Rail bar.

Matt Munn.

The first round saw E-man Anderson, Dave Fortin, Warren Williams and Jesmond Dubeau advance, while the lucky riders in round two were Matt Munn (who took first in the rail jam last night), Seb Toots, Atsushi Ishikawa and Chris Collare. Each rider would now have three runs, two of which would be judged, to aim for the podium and the hefty $10,000 first-place prize.

Dave Fortin.

The fog swooped in again before the finals could start; prompting a feeding frenzy in the Monster Energy hospitality tent while everyone killed time. "Havarti is the number one cheese," proclaimed announcer Daryl "Trini" Trinidad, "just ahead of gouda." I was inclined to agree: the havarti was damn good, as was the mix of chocolate, fresh fruit and crackers. You can often judge the caliber of an event on the quality of its free food for media and riders, and the Quiksilver Showdown Over The City gets an A-plus in this category from Push.ca.

Atsushi Ishikawa.

Once bellies were full, the sun made a welcome return to Grouse Mountain, and the finals kicked off. Williams and Ishikawa both unleashed their switch backside 7's again, with Ishikawa stomping a clean frontside boardslide to 270 out on the bottom rail. Dave Fortin landed a frontside 1080, which at this point is a signature trick for the burly rider, but got hooked up on the down-flat-down rail when he attempted a frontside boardslide through the kink. E-man Andersen did a couple of styled-out switch backside 3's, a trick that -- as pointed out by Trini on the mic -- is highly respected among riders, but it wouldn't match up with the bigger spins from the other competitors. He did, however, land a sick noseslide to backside tailslide combo on the down rail in one of his runs.

Jesmond Dubeau.

Jesmond Dubeau landed two clean frontside 9's, and looked solid for a potential win, until both Williams and Ishikawa upped their switch backside game to 9's as well. Williams didn't land his, but Ishikawa squeaked out a fairly clean landing, although his hands touched the snow.  Of course none of this mattered much when Seb Toots threw down his backside 1080 double-cork (also known as the "Tootsie Roll" in some circles), and followed it up with a clean frontside boardslide to 270 out on the down rail. At that point, it was clear who'd be taking home the big money.

Seb Toots.

Seb, through the kink.

20 minutes or so later, in front of the Grouse lodge, this proved to be true. Toots took first place and $10,000 for his efforts, with Jesmond Dubeau winning $4,000 for second place, and Ishikawa taking home $2,000 for third. And as a bonus, Dave Fortin won a trip to the Coors Light Peak Party in Banff and a cool $1,000 in light of his all-around good shredding and solid effort.

Dave Fortin: Announcer's Choice Winner.

Atsushi Ishikawa, third.

Jesmond Dubeau, second.

Sebastian Toutant, first.

And just like that, the 2009 Quiksilver Showdown Over The City was wrapped up. As the competitors and spectators re-grouped in the lodge for a few après Silver Bullets, the Push.ca crew downloaded on the tram so we could get our contest report and photos uploaded to share the news with the online universe. But don't worry about us: we'll have a few coldies later tonight at the official Coors Light after-party at Tonic in downtown Vancouver.

Don't forget to check out our coverage of day one's qualifiers and rail jam.

Photos: Matt Forsythe