Oddballs, Crazies and the Modern Family: The Crowds of Joyride 2014

Aug 19, 2014 at 22:43
by Josh Palmer  
While struggling to navigate through the tens of thousands of spectators at this year's Red Bull Joyride event at Crankworx, the growth and popularity of slopestyle events was quite apparent. It felt like all of Vancouver made the trip up the Sea to Sky to watch Joyride on Saturday and the sheer size of the crowds made things quite difficult for those of us who were trying to photograph the event. After failing to see over all of the SRAM hat adorned heads to successfully photograph the first round of Joyride, my photographer Robb Thompson and I began to pay more attention to the diverse faces that were stacked tens of thousands deep along the perimeter of the Joyride course. After about 10 minutes of awkwardly making eye contact with strangers the magnitude of the crowd really began to sink in and I began to wonder, has our sport finally made it?

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  A young member of the "Joyride generation" finding inspiration in the jumbo-tron

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Tippie doing what he does best

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Personal space wasn't really an option at Joyride this year

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  The crowd's reaction to Semenuk's fast-plant-360 off the cabin drop

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  These guys had to triple up their heckle tactics just to be heard

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Celebrities Macklemore, LMFAO and Grant from Mythbusters seemed pleasantly amused with this year's Joyride festivities

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  One of many Joyride families

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Going out on a limb here and thinking that's not soda in those Big Gulp cups

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Matching SRAM hats for the whole family!

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Like all the features, the boner log seemed to rise out of a sea of people

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Rim and spokes is the new cowbell at Joyride

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  These nice young ladies kept failing to get the attention of Nicholi "Vampire Squid" Rogatkin

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Trying to get a clear view from deep in the masses was near impossible

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Not sure if this guy was heckling or just stating his current situation

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Us too girl... us too...

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Judging on where their heads were turned these guys had a harder time seeing the course than I did

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Some of these kids were so stoked they actually pooped themselves

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  I asked this girl what happened to her arm and her boyfriend shouted "I did it to her!!" what a keeper...

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  Brandon Semenuk being a true champion and taking the time to snap photos with his young fans

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  This girl liked what she saw, Semenuk with a tuck no-hander up the whale tale in his winning run

The Crowds of Joyride 2014
  That's a wrap folks... But first let me take a #selfiewithtippie

In the 11 years since its inception we've seen the spectators at Crankworx grow from the hardcore bros and dumbstruck tourists, to full families who have been shaped by events like Joyride, planning their holidays around it and counting the days until Rampage. The oddballs, the intoxicated, and the crazies are still in the crowd, but so are young children, doctors, lawyers, and everyone else in between, even sometimes all showing up in the same minivan. The size and diversity of the crowd at this year's Joyride is a sign of the growth and success of the sport as a whole. Mainstream media coverage of diamond level FMB events like Joyride and Red Bull Rampage is bringing MTB into the living rooms and laptops of the masses.

The recent progression of slopestyle events has not only brought us winning runs consisting of mainly switch tricks, but it has also brought us a captive and passionate audience from all walk's of life. The level of riding in diamond FMB events like Joyride has never been higher and the crowds have never been larger or more diverse, and this is the sign of great things to come for the sport of MTB.

Words by Josh Palmer
Images by Robb Thompson


Author Info:
josht1 avatar

Member since Feb 22, 2005
2 articles

41 Comments
  • 207 21
 The three chicks holding their hands up for Nicholi were the three most groupie snob bitches I've ever seen. They thought Rheeder was Semenuk, the only name they knew. If you hookers are reading this, you were a waste of a front row spot, what an expensive way to try and get laid. Why didn't you just go to Vegas?

f*ck you sincerely,
The Pigeon & The Cardinal.
  • 137 8
 Sounds like someone got denied......
  • 44 6
 You mad bro?
  • 17 4
 BAHAHA double thumbs up!
  • 54 3
 pro-hoes man, they're in every sport
  • 55 2
 Ramp tramps
  • 12 5
 thats whistler man... let me tell you, that stuff don't happen over heeeere, The ladies here are all darlings. :-)
  • 26 0
 But the in the middle I would royaly rail the shit out of her!!!!! Sincerely the pigeon
  • 3 3
 Hahahahaha truth!!^^ @RLoganSx
  • 6 0
 Sorry @ibeaver love my swiss people but I always found the ladies on the American continent to be more receptive to our charms...
  • 4 0
 green ups for all. this is great
  • 2 5
 Haha looks like we really managed to piss you off eh? It's too bad you don't know me from Adam.
  • 2 0
 @shredswisstrails - thats the point, you can impress those ladies just by telling em you're a rich banker.... the swiss ladies don't give a rats ass ;-)
  • 43 1
 Biggie with the photo bomb!
  • 10 1
 He back tho for real
  • 2 1
 He seems almost as excited as the super stoked kid on the left, two pictures down.
  • 29 2
 That's me in the picture with Tippie hahaha!!
  • 4 2
 super pic babe
  • 32 7
 please don't refer to macklemore and LMFAO as celebrities... lol
  • 6 40
flag g1701gst (Aug 20, 2014 at 12:38) (Below Threshold)
 More like gods!
  • 6 2
 Dude in the fur coat.. seriously? I hope that was a joke, but in Whistler, I somehow doubt it...
  • 7 3
 dude in the fur coat... you're trying too hard.
  • 16 1
 Its great to see the increase in popularity but I think it would be sweet if the organizers kept the commercials in check. So much down time between riders was a bit of a buzz kill.
  • 13 0
 "Like all the features, the boner log seemed to rise out of a sea of people" they usually do.
  • 11 2
 big gulps huh. welp see ya later.
  • 9 1
 Should have let pastrana do the course on his Moto at the end. Course gets destroyed anyway.
  • 5 2
 I can't decide the funniest picture + caption from above but it is a toss up between:
"Not sure if this guy was heckling or just stating his current situation"
"Some of these kids were so stoked they actually pooped themselves"
"I asked this girl what happened to her arm and her boyfriend shouted "I did it to her!!" what a keeper..."
  • 2 1
 a friend went to crankworx whistler this year, and told me: "this place is the maximum folly", with this, my dream to know crankworx every year is more and more bigger, someday i will come here
  • 2 0
 Thumbs up to the woman holding the cardboard sign! What's going on with the Biggie T-shirt?
  • 1 0
 Bring on Rotorua 2015!!! Although I'd be very very surprised if we got crowds anywhere near as large as this, I'm sure we'll make up for it with noise and atmosphere \m/
  • 1 0
 Were they just giving away those SRAM hats or were that many people buying them? My gf and I noticed (on webcast)that almost everyone was wearing one.
  • 1 0
 Gave them away. Bunch of companies had hats this year. Kroll Show ftw
  • 2 0
 No chain saw pics. Man this is goona be a weak year for profile pics......
  • 1 0
 Kool pics Tippie but where's the pics of the bull heads and the running banana?
  • 1 0
 SRAM were giving away hats , so was Bell. Lots of smart schwag moves going on..
  • 1 0
 Joyride, the name is well chosen
  • 1 0
 Awesome post
  • 2 1
 cool filters bro.
  • 1 1
 Where are the rock pics?
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