OFR Rail Jam 2007
On November 17th, Ambition sponsored Orford Freerider's launching event for the 07/08 season. OFR is a company that offers freestyle training to snowboarders and skiers at Orford resort.
COSD, Quimp and I arrived pretty early at the event to set our stuff up. The riders village consisted of about 5 or 6 sponsor tents and luckily, we got our spot right beside Rossignol Snowboards.
Ambition's spot in the riders village
COSD, wich had just came back from a long summer trip to Vancouver couldn't stand the wait. He started snowskating right when we arrived and didn't stop for the whole day. He set up a small drop with some wood he found laying around. It didn't take much time before he started busting huge ollies, shove-it tailgrabs and varial kickflips. Quimp joined the fun and landed some huge shifties and a BS Heel.
COSD ollieing down the gap
An hour later, we were invited to a press conference for some local newspapers. OFR presented their plans for the season and then it was time for interviews. Finaly, riders started to show up as the jam was about to start. Snowskaters from all around the province came down to represent the company. (Rico Desjardins, Emil Baron, Roby Gobeil, Rob Provost, Josh Seguin just to name a few.)
So many snowboarders and skiers showed up that it was almost impossible to access the park. The wait was surely between 20 to 30 minutes on each hit. Snowskaters decided it wasn't worth waiting and no one hit the park during the day.
Launch Ramp
Top section of the park
Instead of riding the park, snowskaters just decided to ride some fun setups on the side. Everyone pretty much killed it and landed many sick tricks right in front of Sherbrooke's snowboarding community.
Emil Baron flipping
The Rail Jam was a good opportunity for the snowskaters to try out the new Ambition Snowskates. They were all very excited to put them to the test and results exceeded their expectations. We even had to stop some from intentionally snapping their own snowskates.
Snowskaters weren't the only ones that had the chance to step on the boards. We had a couple demo boards wich many people tried out. Snowboarders, skiers, kids and even ladies gave snowskating a try. Some were able to kickflip, others could barely slide without slipping off. One thing's for sure, they all enjoyed it a lot.
A few kids trying out Ambition Snowskates
OFR Rail Jam organizer loving the products
Many people also came to our tent asking questions about snowskating and the Ambition products. We were by far the most busy tent out of them all, as everyone was very intrigued by the products. We gave away a bunch of goodies such as stickers and referred them to our website.
When the competition ended, we packed our stuff and decided to go eat some fast food before the after-party. Snowskaters all left as they had to drive a long way home, or so we thought. When we came back for the after-party, about two hours later, we were surprised to see the AKWD crew still hitting up the park. Nice tricks went down, such as a 3flip on the kicker.
The after-party was great. Over 100 snowboarders/skiers enjoyed a drink after the hard day. Two movies were played, Show Me Yours from Illusion's team and Save from Pléhouse Productions. We also played our short version of Ambition Snowskates's 07/08 Promo In the Beginning. (Check it out on the Media page!) People went nuts, especially on Phil Smage's kickflip 50-50 on the 9 stair handrail. I got many positive comments from riders that were very impressed by the quality of the riding in the video.
All in all, we had an awesome day. Snowskating was rad, we met many great people and we spread the word on Ambition Snowskates.
Special thanks to Benoit Quimper who helped me out a lot, everyone who came to ride and the OFR team.
Check out a montage of the event edited by Charlo Simard