SETTING UP FOR MONSTER FINISH
Edmonton Red Bull Crashed Ice course will feature largest jump in event’s history
In 2015, the skaters called it “The Monster.” This year, they might name it “The Flying Monster” or “Canadian Big Air.”
As the Red Bull Crashed Ice athletes gather for the third race in the series in Marseille, France, this weekend, construction began on the track for the March 9-10 series championship finale in Edmonton.
The track, plunging from Jasper Avenue to Louise McKinney Park, will be longer than the track in 2015 and will most certainly be more fan-friendly. But the signature feature, unquestionably, will be the longest flight in Crashed Ice history.
“There will be a monster jump,” Patrice Drouin, event producer for Red Bull Crashed Ice, said. “There will be a lot of speed just before a huge jump, and we are trying to break the record of the longest jump, which was a record established in Munich in 2016, where the jump was 27 metres long.
“The athletes, we expect, will be almost 100 feet in the air, their skates not touching the ice for about 100 feet.”
Think about that. It’s roughly the distance from the centre ice faceoff dot to the goal crease.
“In order to make it happen, we need speed ahead of the jump. It needs to be very well designed to make that possible,” said Drouin of the course that will have a 40-metre vertical drop and 2,650 metres of ice surface.
It’s the second time Edmonton has played host to the event and — unlike the first, a ballistic success story — this one will be much more fan friendly, says Drouin. Plans call for a 3-D video representation of the course within a week or so to show Edmonton fans.
The 2015 crowd count was declared to be 70,000 by Edmonton police. And that total didn’t include many more watching on big screens on Jasper Avenue and Sir Winston Churchill Square.
The spectators add to the TV spectacle.
“In Edmonton in 2015, the event brought a very big crowd and people were very enthusiastic about the event, and they really embraced the concept and the experience. I believe it’s going to be a huge success again,” Drouin said of the competition
The athletes, we expect, will be almost 100 feet in the air, their skates not touching the ice for about 100 feet.
that this year will be a ticketed event ($5 from Ticketmaster for the purposes of crowd control).
“In Edmonton, first of all, we have with the river valley what we need to make a good course. We will also make some visual elements along the track that will be very interesting and that will recognize Edmonton.
“One attraction and major difference of the course this year is that we are much closer to the public. We believe the public will be more appreciative of the show because they will be much closer to the track all the way down.
“We will have a longer course than 2015. We have established a course of about 455 metres. The elevation or vertical drop will be five metres lower but we believe the speed will be higher because of the opportunities for the racers to skate and gain speed,” Drouin added.
“Edmonton in 2015 was extremely challenging because of the steepness. You had to break in some places to make the corners. This year, there won’t be those corners. The racers will have more opportunity to skate and accelerate.
“One thing I can guarantee, it will be a pretty spectacular race. We think the skaters will appreciate what we have done for the final of their series. And both in person and on television, it should be very spectacular and easy to understand. We’ll have a lot of camera positions with different angles.”
The location won’t be dramatically different than in 2015.
“If you are in front looking at the Shaw Conference Centre, it’ll start on the left of the building this time. There is an open area looking down, and you can see the North Saskatchewan River looking from there.
“The first time here we started on the other side of the Shaw Conference Centre and basically went down the roof of the building. We were mostly on scaffolding all the way down to the park at the bottom.
“In 2015, because of the top of the course being up high on the roofs of the Conference Centre, that portion of the course was pretty much inaccessible for the crowd,” Drouin said. “This year it is wide open on each side of the course. There is no area where there is no space on each side. So there will be way more space for spectators to be real close.
“It will also be much easier to us to achieve a situation, with the use of giant screens, to make it so where the skaters disappear from your view, you’ll be able to watch then on a nearby big screen.”
Watching the course come to life and become illuminated as it nears completion is event promotion on its own.
“We are actively working on the track as we speak. There will be some major construction made in the next days,” said Drouin. “People will begin to see the line of the track pretty much in the next few days.”
This time, expect 100,000-plus. It’ll be monstrous.