>> Crashed Ice combines the velocity of
downhill skiing, the fashion of hockey
and the frenzy of a group catapult

535 FEET OF SPEED: Quebec City course

by ERIK LEIJON

Crashed Ice, a new urban sport that pits skaters in a full-contact race down a treacherous ice slope, is quickly wedging its way through the competitive world of alternative sports. And true to its moniker, the extreme, race-oriented cousin to hockey and downhill skiing has broken the ice with casual sports fans in a mere eight years.

Devised in a laboratory by Austrian-based energy drink manufacturer Red Bull, Crashed Ice united 100 adrenaline junkie rec-league hockey players from across Canada for the third time on January 26 in Quebec City. A Montreal contingent of 10 was assembled after a qualifying tournament in December.

Taking its name from the fragmented ice material needed to construct the track, Crashed Ice has a similar appearance to our beloved winter pastime in so much that the participants wear their hockey gear and skate on ice. The 535-foot Quebec City course, made from 68,000 pounds of crashed ice, starts with a near-immediate 54-degree drop that’s 56 vertical metres tall and proceeds to wind through the streets with hairpin turns and ankle shattering jumps, all at speeds much faster than any hockey game.

“The difference is, in hockey, you’re skating with a puck,” says Ian Sévigny, a two-time participant who didn’t qualify this year. “You’re starting, stopping, looking around, handling the puck. Here, you’re focused entirely on what’s in front of you. You can’t stop skating for even a second. If you fall down even once, you’re finished.”

GOING HORIZONTAL:
At the Montreal qualifiers in December

Gives you wings

The qualifying event in Outremont last December did its best to capture the essence of the sport, which made its world debut in Sweden in 2000. Players had to go through a small obstacle course featuring small jumps, pylons and a section that involved getting up rapidly from a horizontal position on the ice. For Sévigny, preparing for a sport that has an undulating ice surface can be difficult even for those who maintain a continuous hockey-playing schedule.

“I practise quick starts and sharp turns after hockey games,” the 29-year-old says. “Getting a good start is essential to winning.” With four players flying down the track at the same time, space is at a major premium and racing at impossible speeds can lead to hair-raising collisions on the jumps and turns. Pushing and body checking is also allowed, and every year the racers get more competitive and are more willing to risk crashing by making contact. Sévigny has suffered a few ankle injuries in the past, but nothing serious.

“Hockey’s more dangerous because you only wear a visor,” he points out. “You could get a stick hit in the face or you could get hit from behind, but here it’s only four people, and we’re not here to hurt each other.” Full neck protectors and face shields are also mandatory to prevent skate blade-related injuries.

Simon Isabelle, who qualified this year for the second consecutive time, says training for the obstacle course itself is tough because racers don’t know what to expect. “It takes a lot of speed and a little bit of strategy,” he says. “I experienced it the first time, and I had to do it again.”

OBSTACLE OVERCOME: More from the Montreal qualifiers

Back by popular demand

Originally turned on to the fledgling sport after seeing highlights on television three years ago, Sévigny participated in the first Quebec City Crashed Ice, which was originally meant to be a one-time affair. Instead, its massive popularity—75,000 fans attended last year’s free show—has led to a live television deal with RDS and TSN.

“I’ll always remember the big final that first year when 25,000 people were cheering us on,” Sevigny recalls. “You have this sharp descent and everyone is banging on the side boards. It gives amateur athletes the chance to do something more professional and to feel like they’re stars. No one has ever cheered that loudly for me in my life.”

In three years, the race has already become a must-see event in the packed winter activity schedule in Vieux Québec, although Red Bull says they still re-evaluate the possibility of returning after each year. It is the most popular race on their schedule, which included a race in Helsinki last year, and upcoming events in Davos, Switzwerland and Prague, Czech Republic.

“There are so many approvals involved in putting this together,” says Sebastien Paradis, director of marketing with Red Bull, who says they have to contend with city permits and the weather. He also admits that they have at least explored the possibility of having a similar race in Montreal but have yet to find an appropriate location.

“The thing is, we would have to close the streets for three weeks prior. I don’t think people would like Red Bull very much if we closed Peel Street for that long a time.”

Red Bull is no stranger to marketing sports—the company and its founder Dietrich Mateschitz own two Formula One racing teams (Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso), a Major League Soccer franchise in New York, an Austrian hockey team and a NASCAR team, all of which are shamelessly emblazoned with the company’s logo.

FINNISH FLASH: 2008 winner Arttu Pihlainen

First Quebec, then the world

For the athletes, there don’t appear to be any dreams of financial windfall from the sport, even though the $5,000 grand prize was a motivator for all those involved. Paradis says they’re looking into turning the yearly skirmish into a world tour, not affiliated with the Olympics or the ESPN-backed extreme sport-centric Winter X Games, which are being held in Aspen, Colorado every year until 2010.

“I really hope they do (form a world tour),” says Sévigny. “I enormously hope so. It’s a great, new extreme sport. But hockey was around for over 100 years, and they play in indoor arenas. Here you have to worry about the huge size of the tracks and the temperature. Red Bull puts about $2-million into every track and they’re playing with the weather every time.”

Regardless of how much Crashed Ice grows as a sport in upcoming years, it has successfully attracted enough beer league hockey players looking for the stomach-churning sporting equivalent of the dreaded Jägerbomb cocktail and extreme sport fans seeking something that looks impressive in a condensed YouTube montage.

“I’m a guy who likes a challenge,” says Isabelle. “The more risky, the better it is for me. It’s a good adrenaline rush and I just like to dive right in with all my skill.”