THE VERY OFFICIAL WHIP-OFF CHAMPIONSHIPS
THE UNOFFICIAL HEART OF CRANKWORXLast Thursday I was asked to cover the Official Whip-Off Championships at Crankworx. The focus was to be the amount of women participating this year; a rumoured ten, many more than the two or three in previous years. But it wasn't the female riders who drew my hangover addled attention - it was Sven Martin, photographer and event organizer. The six women who were throwing down whips were killing it, and it just seemed natural for them to be there amongst the chaos of it all.
The real story in my eyes was the event itself. Amongst a sea of strongly orchestrated, live-streamed events full of commercial breaks centred around the heart of Whistler village, the Official Whip-Off Championships takes place mid-mountain, with no electricity, no big screen, and no one checking media credentials. It is removed from the Crankworx entertainment that is available to everyone from a drunken stagette party to a conference attending business man to ogle. Want to watch it? Well you better get off your comfy beer drinking, patio loving ass, and find your way up the mountain, into the heat of the sun, and shoulder to shoulder with other sweaty, cheering spectators. The Whip-Off – as official as it now is, still strikes to the heart of our mountain biking culture.
I have yet to attend this event without a raging hangover and by the looks of those around me, I suspect this is the case of the majority. As I sat, sweat soaked in the sun, hoping that I was detoxing my liver through pure determination; I listened to the chaos around me. “
Sven? Where’s Sven? Has anyone seen Sven?” Sven Martin created and continues to run the grassroots event. Not in possession of a body type that should easily allow him to slip away he manages to disappear on everyone who is looking for him in the blink of an eye, repeatedly. And someone is always looking for him. Watching a man of his size run manically around as he both managed and photographed the event reminded me of the quote by Truman Capote about photographer Henri Catier-Bressen, “
dancing along the pavement like a frantic dragonfly...doing his clickety-clicks with a joyous intensity and religious fervour that filled his whole being.” While Whistler Bike Park staff yelled at other photographers to “
get back” and “
stop leaning on the fencing,” Sven, bejewelled by his many cameras, mischievously grinned as rider after rider nearly skidded across the top of his head.
“
Does the guy in the green shirt have a wristband?”
“No”
“Well give him a wristband.”
“We are out of wristbands.”
“Cut a wristband off someone else and give it to him.”
“It won’t stay on.”
“Just tell the guys up top that anyone with a wristband and the guy in the green shirt are okay for more runs.”
And this was how the event ran, problem solving on the go. Sven, and a select team, were judge, jury and executioner, and as he ran between critiquing the whips and shooting them from as close to the action as you can get without being on the bike, he would yell out, "
that guy is in". There is no precise art to awarding the podium here, there is only Sven, a few other key voices and a handful of wristbands. And somehow they pull it off.
Despite the regretful pain in my head that I associate with the Whip Off each year, I hope it never changes - the horns that sound like a pack of dying elephants, the constant cowbells, the Lord of the Flies-esque children in trees, and the never-ending-no-commercial-holds-entertainment. I hope the action never provided direct to the patios via big screen and I sincerely hope they don't want it to be. It is the commitment to attend that makes it what it is, that gives us all a break from the dilution of Whistler Village population and allows us to embrace the grassroots feel that has built the industry that we love.
The Whip-Off, even through its changes, its invites, its tryouts, its strong anti-flip stance of this year, and its growing women’s field, is still the beating heart of mountain biking within the beast of Crankworx. Thanks Sven for preserving the chaos.
MENTIONS:
@officialcrankworx /
@parisgore / @dbaker
Hump whips.
Member since May 10, 2007
P.S. my website also offers advertising to cater for the costs of running it. as im a kid i need that money to pay for the costs of running the website so if u want to advertise or know someone who would please send me a message.
If she was, then we know which wheel size whippable.
She took the risk to do it with her AM/enduro bike instead a full DH bike.
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