by CHRIS BARRY

As any snowboard enthusiast worth their salt already knows, this weekend hastens the arrival of Empire Shakedown 2006, undoubtedly the most eagerly anticipated local snowboarding event since, hmm, let’s go out on a (broken?) limb here and say, um… I dunno, how’s about Empire Shakedown 2005? Held over the course of two action-packed days up on the picturesque slopes of mighty Mont St-Sauveur, this year’s event is shaping up to be a doozie, with organizers expecting some 30,000 people to come take in all the unique thrills, spills and chills that can only be experienced via the majesty of freestyle boarding. That’s a far cry from the stark couple thousand hardcore snowboarding fans who turned up for the first Shakedown extravaganza only five years ago, and pretty solid testimony that the event’s founders, Brendan O’Dowd and the Empire crew, have a firm grip on what flies and doesn’t in board culture.

Jams and judges

O’Dowd, a former pro boarder himself, says he realized long ago that Quebec—in fact, make that all of Canada—was lacking “a quality snowboarding event” that could hold its own on the international stage. Hence his unwavering determination to see his Shakedown events become among the most relevant here on the East Coast.

“Basically, when we started this, there were only a few small snowboarding events in Quebec, nothing major, and even the West Beach Classic in Whistler had faded out by then,” says the 26-year-old Laurentians resident. “It had been sold to another sponsor, the organizers had changed and they’d lost their credibility. I realized that for us to have a unique event we needed a different format of judging. So we put together this jam format, which is, essentially, riders have one hour to warm up, then have two hours to do two judged runs. They can do 100 runs in those two hours if they like, or they can just do the two judged ones. Either way, when they feel ready, they do it, so it’s relatively stress-free for them. We pretty well invented the format. It didn’t much exist before, and it’s worked out very well.”

This year, Empire Shakedown will be showcasing over 35 pro snowboarders alongside 50 of the more promising amateurs who’ve registered for the competition. “Out of those 50 amateurs, three will advance to the pro event on Saturday,” says O’Dowd. “It’s quite something for an amateur to find themselves competing against these people they look up to, these pros they see in the magazines. It definitely inspires them to keep pushing. And we’ve got some pretty serious high-profile snowboarders at Shakedown 2006—guys like Jeremy Jones, Eero Niemela, Yale Qouzineau, Brad Martin and Benji Ritchie, to name a few. Of course, the $10,000 grand prize is a pretty good motivator too.”

Way cool sponsors

And where might all that prize money be coming from, given that admission to Empire Shakedown 2006 is free and everything? Why, through corporate sponsors, of course, good corporate citizens like Coors Light, Solo Mobile and McDonald’s, way cool brands eager to spend whatever it takes to show us all they’re even hipper and “street” than we already knew them to be. For his part, O’Dowd recognizes the credibility risks posed by getting into bed with corporate sponsors—even über-hip ones like McDonald’s. “This is the first year we’ve been sponsored by really big brands like this and we’ve been very careful about it,” he says. “It’s crucial they be integrated into the event in a cool way, a different way, an innovative way, in order for them to get respect from the kids, but also so we don’t lose our credibility. It’s a very fine line to bring in a sponsor like McDonald’s in a hot way. We had to give a lot of thought on how to do it tastefully and with originality. Because if we’re seen as having sold out to McDonald’s, the last four years we’ve spent building ourselves up based on our credibility and respect and the fact that our event is cool, well, it can be washed away in one second.”

The excitement gets underway at 1:30 p.m., Friday, March 24, and winds down Saturday night with the reportedly “always wild” Coors Light after-party, this year featuring DJ Fiend, Skratch Bastid and others.