Whistler Opening Weekend! - Cooper and Groves Crew

Posted: May 25, 2009

I used to have a hard time sleeping the night before something special. I think many Christmases ago were the most comparable instances where excitement prevented me from sleep. It always takes something great to experience this, and this feeling came back into my life last Friday. Yes, it wasn’t Christmas.

It was something greater; the opening of Whistler Bike Park!

Riding in Whistler has only been going strong for about a month now. We have a whole new dirt jump park thanks to Thom, Ryan, and the rest of the dedicated local crew. Construction started at the beginning of the month and the result is quite solid. Even before then, the trail crew had been clearing snow off the mountain trails and preparing for the big day.

It had been raining for about a week, things were not looking too happy for the weekend we’ve been waiting for since the park closed last October. The jumps were chained off, and the hill looked pretty sloppy. I think there were enough bikers around hoping for a good long weekend, so the weather cleared up last minute and long story short, it was hot, sunny, and awesome!

People started arriving on Thursday evening. I really get stoked when everyone comes up because the sessions are always that much better.


Thursday was pretty cool; we put the finishing touches on the jumps and got an early sleep for the big day Friday was going to be. Friday came and it was honestly the longest day of school of my life. I got off early at 2:30pm and was attacked, or should I see greeted, by my buddy Casey Groves. Casey came up with Noah Brousseau, Stirling Grassick, Matt Gretzinger, Aeron Learmonth, and Benton Leong. Since the hill and Airdome didn’t open until Saturday, Friday was the huge dirt jump opening sesh. Along with the Okanagan crew, another good friend of mine, Sam Dueck came up with a few pals. You wouldn’t believe how fast these guys caught onto the new jumps and threw down.


Some highlights include Casey tricking every jump in the set, and Sam hucking flips mid-set!


I went to bed extremely tired that night. It’s been a long time since I’ve fallen asleep from almost too much riding.


It’s actually a nice feeling. The next morning came a little too fast. I got to the base of the hill at around 10:30am, and people were already lined up for second and third runs! Camp of Champions teamed up with brands such as Straitline, Banshee, and Transition. They had draw prizes, a raffle and free stuff at the opening weekend celebratory patio at the Longhorn. Someone won a Banshee Wildcard complete bike, and one of my friends, Matt Dennison, won 5 days at Camp of Champs this summer!


Video of our weekend antics:

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Words by Cooper Saver
Edited by Casey Groves

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