Ever see that t-shirt that says, “Canada: America’s hat ”? To me, that slogan is the perfect way to describe the perception of American versus Canadian riders. The returned presence of international and American Pro’s to Grenade Games 5 last week, which had pretty much vanished since the Sims Invitational in 2000, was thought of as necessary to legitimize the snowboard portion of the TWSSF—and in truth it was. So when riders like Danny Kass, Romain De Marchi, Ikka Backstrom, Louie Vito, Lucas Magoon, Eero Niemala and Sammy Luebke came to town the most impressive part was how the Canadian shreds held it down.

A quick recap of the week:

SBC Wakeboard editor Adam Levitt made it to heads up play in the Poker Run finals against Eero Niemala, BC Ride rep Myrosha Daley won the Dual Slalom Moguls, TJ Schnider, Guillaume Morriset and Dustin Craven took 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Pipe respectively, Craig Beaulieu and Jesmond Dubeau took 1st and 2nd in the Grand Finale slopestyle and Robin Van Gyn won Best Babe. Not to mention that in the Grand Finale final 7 of the 10 riders where Canadian (I personally think Andrew Burns should have came in 3rd, but maybe another Canadian sweep would have been too much for our American friends to handle).

Granted, this event definitely wasn’t the Olympics and a lot of the competitors seemed like they showed up more for the party. And yes, some guys aren’t really contest riders no matter how mellow the comp—fair enough. But after such a strong Canadian showing it begs the question, Why do the American riders have so much hype? 

I suppose the first, and most obvious reason is the size of the market. By last count the States have something like 5.1 million shreds to our 979,000. When you’ve got those kinds of numbers it makes sense that rider who’s seen as more relevant to that market is going to get more exposure--although broken down per capita we almost double the States as 2.9% of the Canadian population shreds compared to only 1.68% in the US (Notice I said ‘seen as relevant’ because as far as I can tell there is no reason why a Canadian shouldn’t be just as inspirational to kids, read marketable, as a rider from anywhere else if they’re killing it). The population, and until recently the size of the economy, also explains why most of the big companies are located in the States making it easier for US riders to get on their radar. Only a lucky few, guys like Devun Walsh and Kale Stephens or more recently LNP, Louif Paradis and Jed Anderson, ever seem to receive real attention.

We all know that it can be hard for Canadians to get noticed outside of the 49th parallel but as evidenced by this competition, and others I’ve witnessed this winter, we’ve got the talent. Dudes like Charles Reid and Seb Toots have been straight killing it on the competition circuit. And I’m confident that the riding in this years crop of Canadian shred flicks from companies like Alterna’s Electro , Sandbox’s Shine On and Brothers Factory’s Time Is Now will rival any other videos.

So if we have to be thought of as a “hat” lets make sure it’s something that shows the snowboarding world how indispensable Canadian contribution is to the progression of the sport and how unique our riders are. Perhaps something like a big blue beer helmet with Maple leafs spray-painted all over it. Equipped, of course, with Lucky Lagers—none of that PBR shit. Yeah, that sounds about right.

I couldn't find a pic of a beer helmet with Lucky's, okay? Geez.