[by Jesse Fox]

It was once called the Westbeach Classic, then Sims Invitational, then the Ripzone Big Air and now The Grenade Games holds the title to the TWSSF's premiere night riding event. I'm not sure if the band Propellerheads said it first but, "It's all just a little bit of history repeating," describes this night through it's many names over the past decade and a half. Don't get me wrong, just because the snowball fights, fire juggling, product tosses, big back flips, streaking, and public intoxication have all happened before, it isn't any less entertaining. No, that stuff just doesn't get old (I do). At any rate, the Slope event at Grenade Games 6 was a grand send off to a week of Whistler snowboarding madness. Here are the highlights of those who walked away winners.

Kael Hill - His kit is a story in itself. Yesterday he showed up in faded Calvin Klein denim, a suit jacket and riding a rental board designed for a five year old. Tonight he rocked grey track pants and a homemade RUN-DMC tank top. The tank top didn't last long. He was shirtless most of the time until he dropped the baggy sweats and did a mellow streaking run covering his junk with one hand. And as if this wasn't attracting enough attention already, he shredded the Grenade RV jib set up better then anyone else. Kael was given $500 and the ‘Space Cadet' award.

TJ Schneider - TJ's take on snowboarding has always been different.  Tonight's attempts at the ‘Ollie Impossible' were no exception. I'm going to have a hard time trying to explain where he was taking off from and where he thought he was going to land. The video footage will have to do this justice and you'll see why he walked away being awarded ‘Most Radical Dude'.

Zac Stone - When his name was called up to receive third place prize money, the chip on his shoulder didn't keep him off the podium this time (see Telus Triple Challenge). After all, third is no joke for a 17-year-old when his name sits on a start list with pros Iikka Backstorm, Danny Kass, and Eero Niemela. Zac's riding impressed us the whole night.

Andrew Burns - You gotta love it when someone as stoked on snowboarding as Burns takes home second place loot. With a smile on his face, he says "No, you don't understand! This is a life changing amount of money for me right now!" When the tough economic times hit home, Andrew Burns earned himself a personal stimulus package.

Dave Fortin - You know Dave lives for this stuff, right? The Whistler crowds shuddered last year he was taken out by ski patrol after coming up short trying to jump a gap that was never designed to be possible. Recovering from that leap of faith he returned this year as ‘the people's champ'. What do the people want? 1080's and huge back flips. Dave gave the crowd what they came out to see. I tried to get a quote from him but he was surrounded by French fan frenzy.  The only thing in English I heard him yell was "I'm going to the bar and spending a grand on my friends! You'd better be there!"  Like I said, Dave Fortin, the people's champ.

The rest of the night carried on as per usual. Monster drinks, party time, then falling into a pizza induced coma at 3am. I'm sure there's much needed rest and recovery to be done before anyone thinks of ‘next year', but we can only hope the Grenade Games legacy returns to Whistler in 2011. Another year and we just may be ready to do it all again.

As usual, Monster has photos and video (just a teaser so far).

All photos: Brian Caissie

Jon Versteeg, backside 9 tail.

Adam Chuntz, backside 720 melon.

Andrew Burns, cab 9 mute.

FS 720.

Have you heard of the Grenade Games, sponsored by Monster Energy?

BS 180 melon off the log jam.

Andrew Geeves, method.

Jesmond Dubeau, rodeo 7.

A packed house for the finale.