MARTYN VACHON | ON THE SPOT
ON THE SPOT | KAMLOOPS, BC.
"We went to Kamloops knowing full well we would hit something scary. It’s one of those towns you can show how big or crazy you’re willing to go. I never planned on hitting this spot, but heard someone say, "Boardy to Boardy could go..." and I ran with it. Knowing two of the biggest names in snowboarding hit it before, Mark Sollors (50-50 to 50-50) and Layne Treeter (50-50 to Boardslide), it enticed me even more. Like when you’re a kid going to a ravaged spot and if you do something that hasn’t been done it gives you that sense of accomplishment.
We had to do some spot mods to make it work. The fence top bar was looking fairly low and weak, so we reinforced it and then snipped any chainlinks that were poking out. I thought sliding the fence would be difficult, either getting caught up on the galvanized steel or catching on the fence post while jumping over to the rail. But the fence acted as a spring-loaded jib, it somehow worked really well. Once I started landing on the rail, the kink at the end was so aggressive it bent my edge in under my binding. I got chucked forward the first time I got through it.
Once landed, I always have something small to celebrate with, and this time it was a nice cold can of Lucky Lager. I like this photo because it’s what I imagined it to look like, which can be incredibly hard to accomplish."
