The 8th stop of Volcom Stone’s 2011 North American Wild in the Parks tour visited Toronto Ontario Saturday August 6th!
If you haven’t been fortunate enough to visit Toronto yet it’s definitely worth your while. With well over 5 million people calling the area home, there are more than a few unique experiences available to entertain and delight your senses.
Kirk Roach tickling the bolts with a heelflip massage in zone 2
Toronto is often regarded as the most multicultural city in the world. This means you don’t have to necessarily travel to Shanghai for dinner if you’re in search of an authentic Chinese dish. Questionable factoids aside, the city is full of good times that don’t require you to dig too deep to find them.
Jayden Bono getting tricky with a f;/s 180 nosegrind on the handrail in zone 2
Our 2nd annual WITP at the Ashbridge’s Bay skatepark was kicked off in delightful fashion by the 14 & Under Division. Carter Grandin, Clythus Griffin and Dylan Campbell were in the first heat and wasted no time making their winning intentions clear! Impressive tricks were quickly nailed with laser-like precision in all three contest areas, keeping the judges more than busy!
Rylan Shaver was making some noise with tricks like this hardflip b/s 5-0 on the rainbow ledge in zone 3
Ottawa WITP regular Pat Laflamme packed his full bag of tricks for the Toronto event – blutslide 270 shuv out in zone 1
In no particular order we saw a switch front board in zone 3, 180 nosegrind in zone 2 and a hardflip to flat on the A-frame bump in zone 1! After the scores were tabulated in meticulous fashion, Jayden Bono’s solid skating landed him in 1st while Carter Grandin’s skills earned him 2nd and Alex Martin was a close 3rd! Great stuff all-around!
This frontside bluntslide was a smooth piece of work from A to Z.
The 15 & Over Division was next to skate and got things done in a hurry! With invites to this year’s $25,000 WITP Championships (Sat Oct 15, Austin, TX) on the line, no trick was too big! A large, fancy move-inspiring gallery had developed in front of the 8-set in zone 2 which only served to up the ante even more!
Mike Roman – 270 shuv to lipslide on the double-set in zone 3
The judges needed to keep pencil sharpeners close at hand as their life was made hectic by a hardflip 5-0 on the rainbow hubba in zone 3, b/s bigspin f/s board in zone 2 and a half-cab nose slide 270 out in zone 1! Our heads needed to be on a swivel as all of these tricks seemed to be going down at the same time!
Repeat Open/Pro-Am Division winner Jon Cosentino getting things done with a kicflip b/s feeble in zone 2
When the dust settled, all that needed to be done after all was said and skated was to determine the winners. All the he scores were incredibly close and needed to be double and triple-checked to be sure everything added up. Scott Borkowski’s style and consistency earned him 1st, Elijah Bresnahan ended up in 2nd and Buffalo’s Mike Roman snagged 3rd!
Volcom’s Christina Campbell wo-manning the grill while Audrey Gauvin (far right) and Alex Flaherty (far left) back her up
Josh Forgues, taking a f/s 50-50 up the handrail in zone 3
The Open/Pro-Am division was the last to skate and clearly had their “A” game on display. The style and consistency, which they called upon to hammer out their tricks, provided the perfect exclamation mark for the day!
Ben Paterson wasn’t taking prisoners. Kickflip f/s bluntslide in zone 2
In no time our ocular cavities were privy to witnessing a nollie b/s flip down the double sent in zone 3, a tre-flip boardslide in slide in zone 2 and a buttery smooth blunt slide 270 shuv-it in zone 3! It was time to announce the winners just as the last of the free Gatorade dried up. Jon Cosentino earned himself his second consecutive 1st place WITP finish while Ben Paterson once again was hot on his heels in 2nd. Tyler McMaster edged out Josh Forgues for 3rd place. Well-played fellas!
Thanks to James Dann at the City of Toronto as well as Steve Jarrett from SBC Media for all of their help making this year’s WITP happen. Thanks also to Homer Holmes, Jay Shoemaker and Paul Otvos for judging and Volcom’s Tarik Elmas, Erin Gilbart, Alex Flaherty, Matt Ross, and Natasha Lucky for their hard work and WITP support.
Special thanks to Christina Campbell and Audrey Gauvin from Volcom Quebec for making the pilgrimage Westward to support the event! Last but certainly not least, thanks to our WITP tour sponsors below for supporting the event!
