words by Dave Pires

photos by Josh “Joose” Anderson

On the fourth day of the Poor Boyz Jib Jam the consistently sketchy weather plaguing the shoot finally broke. This morning the sky was bluebird, creating perfect conditions for the first full-day practice session on the Kicker Kicker.

The antics started later than usual because of yesterday’s tiring competition and a fresh reshaping of both jumps. Once everything was set to go the story of the week continued as a random bank of clouds rolled over the ridge out of nowhere, blocking out the sun.

Today was a practice session for tomorrow’s contest on the Kicker Kicker, and the crew was much thicker than yesterday, with Kyler Cooley, John Strenio, Christian Sirianni, Derek Spong, Coby Trudell, and Schweitzer local Matt Gillis arriving, replacing the departed John Spriggs and Matt Walker.

After three long days of rails the riders were ready to start jumping, and once the sun returned the European contingent of Xavier Bertoni, Paco Garcia, and Oscar Scherlin (complete with his eight Red Bull per day habit) were itching to go. With Quebecois filmer Eric Simard on camera, the start area was a sea of French when Bertoni and Garcia started things off with some huge shifties and 3’s. Following close behind were yesterday’s mainstays Matt Margetts, Ben Moxham, and Dane Tudor. Tudor was also ready to get down to business, and after a few days of grumbling about the rails he showed why, looking smooth and content every hit.

The robotic Scherlin destroyed the twin jumps, skiing like he selects a trick from a drop-down menu before every hit, and eliciting comparisons to Jon Olsson en francais. Once everyone figured out their speed on the jumps things really got underway, and the newcomers made their presence felt; Strenio busting out a switch Misty 9, and Cooley, channeling his inner Faller, warming up with some Screamin’ Semen Genie grab 3’s.

As the sun continued to shine through, countless photographers and filmers crawled all over the hill like ants, raising their feelers every time a fresh rider dropped in. Eventually the wind picked up and the first jump fell out of favour with most of the athletes, many opting to skip it and go huge on their second hit.

Maybe it was the burgers and pretzels, but after lunch everything slowed down, and for some mysterious reason most of the ants disappeared. Sensing a lack of motivation from the athletes, Poor Boyz’s Production Manager Cody Carter decided to exercise his motivational speaking skills.

“I have three dollars in my pocket for anyone who does two front flips, one off each jump… That’s a tall boy, 16 ounces of pure goodness.”

“I bet Simon [Dumont] would have done two double fronts by now.”

“I’m gonna put my money back in my pocket.”

“I’m just about done with these amateurs; I’m gonna go down to the bottom, take my shirt off, and get a tan.”

Today was a practice day and most of the riders didn’t kill themselves, but Cooley, Hathaway, and Moxhan went huge well into the evening, much to the delight of the ants. As the sun dipped in the sky and the three remaining riders cracked off their final hits, everyone slowly filtered down from the mountain, ready for the big day tomorrow.