Volcom Skate Team's Canadian Conquest

From Vancouver to Montreal

we’ve logged miles from coast to coast in the great white north! Prior to starting the forth trip in the Wanderlodge last year, we got a head start in Vancouver with Axel Cruysberghs and Chris Pfanner exploring the juxtaposition between Vancouver’s vast greenery and gritty streets. Stanley Park offered them the best of both worlds with amazing views of the city in the tranquil surroundings of the park.

As the Wanderlodge made it’s first international road trip north, it was decided to kick it off in no better place then at Leeside, the infamous Vancouver DIY.
Local flow bro Mikey Ray nosegrinding some Leeside DIY crust!
Vancouver proved to be a rather fruitful stop on the #VolcomRoadRager tour,

while we were only there for handful of days we got to skate some amazing spots! Chris Pfanner put down some HEAVY tricks at this massive bump spot and the session at the barrier DIY was one for the books, even our driver Jarrod Pimental got a trick, on his birthday too! Looks like we’ll have to make our way back up there soon, everyone feels like we’ve only scratched the surface of Vancouver’s skate scene.

First day of the #VolcomRoadRager in Montreal, Alec majerus backside noseblunts this classic Montreal spot!

After witnessing all of the madness at Dime’s insane looking ‘Glory Challenge’ starting last #VolcomRoadRager trip in Montreal was a no brainer!

Most of the crew flew in from the west coast so we thought the jet lag would kick in the day before the contest and we would have a mellow day while everyone adjusted to the time. Turns out that wasn’t the case! Day one we hit the classic bank spot conveniently located next to the skatepark at Raymond Prefontaine park. While it was meant to be just a warm up spot, we ended up having quite a session at the skatepark and spot.

The next couple days we were at the Dime Glory Challenge where the scene was as insane and fun as it appeared to be in the videos. While Louie Lopez shut down the challenges in Le Taz Skatepark taking home the ‘Volcano Challange’ and MVP, Simon Bannerot and Henry Gartland went head to head in the longest ollie contest the next day. The setup at the street challenge was hectic to say the least, must have been a few hundred people watching skater launch off a kicker ramp set at the top of a long hill. Simon though it looked fun and was just hucking tricks, little did he know he entered himself in the longest ollie contest meaning he would try and hit the ramp with as much speed as possible and try and ollie furthest down the hill! Between him and Henry Gartland it was quite a contest to watch!

Simon bannerot going for the Dime Glory Street Challenge longest ollie with Henry Gartland right behind him.

After the Dime Glory Challenge

we spent a day trying to hit spots around Montreal. Of course we couldn’t leave Montreal without at least hitting the Big O, located at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, also another haven for some rad spots. We had an epic sesh at the Big O and cruised around to some spots around the stadium. We ran out of daylight before we could hit everything we wanted to!

CJ Collins kickflip to fakie on the roof of the Montreal Olympic Stadium right as the daylight disappeared.

Leaving Montreal we headed west to Ottawa

where we had a demo scheduled at the Charlie Bowens Skatepark with local retailer Top of the World. With some time to kill before the demo we decided to head out to this rock spot north of the city sprawl. Carved by years of water and weather it was a natural (but lumpy) quarter pipe made out of shear granite. It was not an easy spot to skate by any means, but some how Louie Lopez managed to get a pivot off of a little ledge AND a backside air there. Henry Gartland also put down a noseblunt on the otherside of it too!

Post rock session we grabbed some food at a local grocer and made our way to the demo

Centered in the heart of Ottawa, the Charlie Bowens Skatepark is really fun to skate. No one had more fun that day then Louie Lopez. From start to finish, Louie hit every obstacle in the park leaving the crowed in awe at his talent. It was almost as if it was a Louie Lopez demo rather than the Volcom Skate Team, but the other team riders couldn’t let Louie have all the fune, everyone came through with some solid clips.

It’s a four hour drive from Ottawa to Toronto

maybe 5 in the Wanderlodge, but everyone got some much needed rest after the super demo in Ottawa so we rolled into Toronto with some fresh legs. We had a demo at the Ashbridges Skatepark, but also a full day to hit the streets. One of the very few downsides to traveling in a 38 foot vintage bus, is trying to take it to spots and in the cities it’s just easier to park it and skate from there. That’s exactly what we did as we combed through downtown Toronto hitting all the spots we could find! Toronto was super fun to skate, not too busy and spots everywhere. Overall it was a productive and fun day in the streets and by the end it seemed like we would need to go back for some more action sometime in the future.

Kicking it on the Wanderlodge while it rolls towards Toronto

The demo at Ashbridges Skatepark looked like it was going to be a good time

but the weather was looking rather threatening with dark clouds on the horizon. Luckily, it just passed us and we could get on with the show. The team crushed the street section while Simon Bannerot and Omar Hassan fired it up in the bowl. Slowly but surly everyone caught on to what was going on and migrated towards the bowl in the back. Omar and Simon put on quite a show!

To be honest, no one really wanted to leave Canada

everyone was so nice and the spots were fun but the tour had to roll on, finishing off in Detroit and Chicago back in the states. While we were looking at the route to Detroit, our driver Jarrod Pimental, realized how close we were to Niagara Falls. Only about 30 minutes out of the way and a full day of driving ahead of us it was decided that we would make one last stop on out Canadian conquest. While a couple from the team have seen Niagara Falls stateside from New York, no one had seen it from the Canadian side. With the crowds of people and sounds massive amounts of water rushing down the falls, it was the perfect way to end our Canadian leg of the trip!

Chris Pfanner capturing the moment at Niagara Falls

Entire squad in awe of the great Niagara Falls!