GOT THE SHOT

RUSTY STRUCTURE - DOWNTOWN MONTREAL.

PHOTO.

JAYSSON GALLANT

22.

3

It’s January 17th, 2021. Jaysson Gallant [photographer], two of my friends William and David [filmmaker] and I met at the spot around 10 am. We didn’t waste any time and started shovelling right away. We were afraid of being kicked out by the police. This place is the first thing you see when you arrive in downtown Montreal, so everyone sees you. I go to school close to this spot, and every time I walked past it, I’d tell myself that I was going to hit it and that the photo would be insane.

I think we pulled something like 30 buckets of snow up there to make the in-run and kicker, and the snow was wet and super heavy. Around noon, no police or security had shown up, and I started to ride it. I was afraid because of the sketchy run-up, but after a couple of shaping tweaks, I was able to drop and pop straight up onto the rail. At this exact moment, the police came... fuck, man.

They were across the street, where Jaysson was shooting the photo, so he went to see them, and they were like, „ARE YOU GUYS REALLY SNOWBOARDING?!” One of the cops took his microphone and yelled,

DO IT!

I looked at my friend William who filmed the second angle on top of the structure. „WAIT, WHAT? DID HE JUST TELL ME TO DO IT? SO NO KICK OUT ?!”. I dropped in, and I crashed on the stairs like a fucking rookie! On the microphone, THEY YELLED, „C’MON MAN, YOU CAN DO IT, TRY AGAIN!”. They left after a couple more tries but wished me luck, and told us that there are a couple of other cops around that will pass by for sure. I think two other cops came to see us, but they were super chill. What a lucky day!

A lot of people walked down the street that day and stopped to take photos and ask what our names were and what we were doing on that thing. Some girls asked Jaysson what my IG was, and he was like, „YEAH, GO FOLLOW HIM. HE’S DTF!” *I have a girlfriend*

Around 4–5 pm it was getting into the blue hour, the lights were starting to pop in the background, and this was the kind of look that Jaysson wanted to shoot. I made the trick, and Jay had the shot he wanted. We were so stoked.

But the story doesn’t stop here. A few days passed, and I received a DM on my Instagram from the cop who was yelling on his microphone and pushing me to do the trick! He was really stoked when I told him that I had landed it. I thanked him, and we chatted about snowboarding.

The moral of the story, there are cool cops who let snowboarders do their thang. They’re rare, but they exist, and I still want to thank him and the other cops that day. Thanks for letting us ride this spot and take this awesome picture!