The Camp of Champions What's Next Premiere Goes Off

Posted: Aug 17, 2009

What a day and night to remember. We started building the scaffold at 5:30 AM to have it ready for noon. By the time it was finished it was 1:30, but it was nuts. Everyone was hyped for The Camp of Champions World Premiere of "What's Next?" on the big screens on top of the tower and entering to win the pimped out Banshee Wildcard at the bottom of the tower. The Longhorn patio was perfectly placed to watch the Giant Slalom go off in the Boneyard.

The schedule for the contest got changed a little due to Crankworx schedule changes but it was all good in the end as a rider from Sao Paulo Brazil who was in town for the summer riding the park won the Banshee Wildcard that Race Face and Straitline pimped out. In all the mayhem of giving away $15,000 in prizes to the 1500 plus crowd at the base of the Whistler Bike Park in between the final run and the awards presentation of the Giant Slalom... I forgot to get his name. Watching two guys go head to head at a game of Ro-Sham-Bo for a $5000 bike in front of 1500 people was crazy. What the civilized term "giving away" actually meant was 3 Whistler Beer Girls and myself heaving thousands of dollars in prizes into a mob of people. We never did get the big screens going due to a permit mix up but the day went off.

After the awards presentation for the GS, the party really started at the Longhorn. It was sold out at 9:15. The fire marshal came though 4 times and the police came through 4 times, making sure there weren't too many people in the bar and that everyone was 19 an over. Once the check was done and done again, it was GAME ON! It seemed like every rider in Whistler was at the party. The place was packed to capacity from opening bell to final call at 1:00AM. Harrison and Cat the The Longhorn managers said they haven't had a party go off that hard in years.

Hearing the howls of stoke the crowd let out definitely made Aaron Laroque happy to have is movie premiering. It takes a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, overloaded visa cards and the headaches of cat-herding a crew of riders and more to make a world class mountain bike movie. To have it come out like you dreamed is a big thing. The cheers made all the work worthwhile.

The party rocked it out till 1:00AM with Whistler Beer flowing like water. DJ Michael Toast who had been DJ'ing all day keeping the Longhorn Patio firing, stepped it up a notch or five with his live video beat mixing that he laid down with a DJ Broheem of his, who's name I also have forgotten,from Vancouver. The dance floor went off. My favorite line of the night was "Holy Sh*t! Girls at a mountain bike party!" Many a pro rider was calling the What's Next? World Premiere the party of the year at Crankworx.

A lot of work went into making the Camp of Champions What's Next World Premiere happen. It wouldn't have been possible with out the sponsorship of Banshee, Race Face, Straitline, GoPro Helmet Cams, Oakley, Transition, Geax, Alpinestars, and Dakine. A special thanks to everyone at the Longhorn who worked so hard all day to make such an unforgettable night.

Don't forget you can still enter to win Casey Groves Pimped out Transition by clicking on this link.


For more info on The Camp of Champions Mountain Bike Camp in The Whistler Bike Park click on our profile or go to CampofChampions.com for all the info you could ever need.